Money

CNN By Tori Morales, CNN (CNN) — Next to those stockings hung by the chimney with care, it appears more likely than ever that the trimmed tree will be, well, faux. The holiday tradition of setting up a Christmas tree has endured centuries. But this year, 77% of Americans displaying a Christmas tree say they’ll opt

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN (CNN) — Most cars in America have, at most, three colors of lights on the outside. There’s white for headlights and reverse lights, red for brake lights and rear lights and, in some cars, amber for turn signals. Mercedes-Benz has just received approval to add a fourth color: turquoise blue lights

By Oliver Darcy, CNN New York (CNN) — It’s been a hell of a year. 2023 is quickly drawing to a close, and we have but one more issue of the newsletter until heading off into the new year. But before we fully put 2023 in the rearview mirror, we wanted to take the opportunity

By Anna Bahney, CNN Washington, DC (CNN) — The annual pace of new home construction surged last month amid a historic shortage of housing inventory and falling mortgage rates. Housing starts jumped by 14.8% in November compared to the previous month, rising for the third month in a row, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN New York (CNN) — It will soon become a lot harder to find the latest Apple Watch models in the United States. Apple said Monday it will stop selling some versions of its bestselling smartwatch starting later this week to get ahead of what could be one of the most

By Samantha Delouya, CNN (CNN) — US Steel was once the pride and joy of the United States and the most valuable company in the entire world. The 122-year-old company has agreed to be bought by Japanese firm Nippon Steel in a $14.1 billion dea. But this isn’t the first instance of an international company

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — Facebook-parent Meta’s automated tools to police potentially harmful content unnecessarily removed two videos related to the Israel-Hamas war, the Meta Oversight Board said in a statement Tuesday. The moderation technology may have prevented users from viewing content related to human suffering on both sides of the conflict,

By Elisabeth Buchwald and David Goldman, CNN New York (CNN) — For the past couple years, all the smart money was on a US recession taking place sometime before the next presidential election. To be clear: That absolutely could still happen. In the world of economics, nothing is certain. But it’s looking extremely unlikely that

By Brian Fung, CNN Washington, D.C. (CNN) — When you fire up an artificial intelligence chatbot like Google’s Bard or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, you’re really interacting with the product of three or four key ingredients. One is the engineering talent it took to design the chatbot’s AI model. Another is the vast amount of training data

By Melissa Alonso, Diksha Madhok and Brian Fung, CNN (CNN) — Google has agreed to pay $700 million and allow more competition in its Play app store, according to the terms of an antitrust settlement with US states and consumers filed in federal court on Monday. Roughly 102 million US consumers will be eligible to receive

By Juliana Liu, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio has secured $2.2 billion in investment from CYVN Holdings of Abu Dhabi, giving the Tesla challenger a longer financial runway as it seeks to make inroads in an increasingly competitive market. The deal, which follows a previous $1 billion investment from

By Jennifer Korn, CNN (CNN) — Autonomous vehicle startup May Mobility announced its first fully driverless ride service Monday, offering human-free transit to those living in an Arizona retirement community. Retirees in Sun City, Arizona, are the first to test the Toyota-backed company’s autonomous cars without a human safety operator in the driver’s seat, the

By Chris Isidore, CNN New York (CNN) — The days may be numbered for an independent, American-owned, US Steel, a one-time backbone of the nation’s economy. US Steel was once the most valuable company in the world. Monday, it agreed to be purchased for $14.1 billion, or $55 a share, by Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest

By Rene Marsh, Casey Tolan and Audrey Ash, CNN (CNN) — The largest credit union in the US is facing new scrutiny over racial disparities in its mortgage lending following a CNN investigative report, with a class-action lawsuit filed Monday alleging the lender discriminated against Black and Latino applicants, and a senior congressional Democrat demanding answers

By Oliver Darcy, CNN New York (CNN) — Puck is stepping into the sports arena. The buzzy digital subscription publication that offers readers an inside look into the media, technology, and politics sectors — and the ego-obsessed titans who lead them — told CNN on Monday it had hired veteran journalist John Ourand to lead a

By Eva Rothenberg, CNN New York (CNN) — Nikola founder Trevor Milton was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for lying to investors about the company’s hydrogen and electric truck technology. The sentence is significantly lower than the 11-year sentence federal prosecutors were seeking. Milton was facing up to 60 years behind bars if

By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — The rail industry is demanding the Biden administration immediately allow trains to cross the southern border with Mexico that officials shut in response to a surge in crossings by migrants. The Association of American Railroads, an industry trade group, issued a statement on Monday warning the suspension of

By Allison Morrow, CNN New York (CNN) — The crypto industry, ready to turn the page on 2023 and all the Sam Bankman-Fried-related drama that came with it, has been funneling tens of millions of dollars into a political war chest to help prop up pro-crypto candidates. On Monday, a network of political action committees

CNN By Pete Muntean and Chris Isidore, CNN Washington (CNN) — The federal government is fining Southwest Airlines $140 million for last year’s historic, 10-day-long holiday meltdown that stranded more than 2 million travelers. The Department of Transportation’s announcement of its largest-ever civil penalty comes about one year after cascading issues at Southwest led to

The European Union has opened a formal investigation into X over its content moderation practices, a probe that could eventually lead to steep fines or other penalties under a new EU law.