Money

By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — The sell-off in the oil market accelerated Wednesday, with US crude prices sinking below $70 a barrel for the first time since July. The latest wave of selling bodes well for consumers, suggesting gas prices could fall even closer towards $3 a gallon nationally. Gas prices bottomed out at

By Oliver Darcy, CNN (CNN) — Hundreds of staffers at The Washington Post are set to strike for 24 hours on Thursday, protesting recently announced cuts to the newspaper’s workforce and applying pressure on management to reach an agreement on a new union contract. “Taking this historic action is not a decision we came to

By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — Many Americans tell pollsters they are not happy with the state of the US economy. And yet Americans simultaneously say they plan to ramp up their holiday spending. Americans now estimate they will spend an average of $975 on Christmas or other holiday gifts this year, up

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN New York (CNN) — For anyone working a minimum wage job in this new year, they will be paid more in 22 states and in at least 40 cities and counties across the country than they were in 2023. The higher hourly rates are due either to scheduled increases or lawmakers

CNN By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Taylor Swift is ending her year with another accolade: The pop superstar was named Time magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year,” beating out Barbie and King Charles III. “While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift, 33, achieved a kind of nuclear

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Jack Daniel would probably pour himself a stiff one after seeing his parent company’s earnings. Brown-Forman, the maker of several spirits, said sales of its Jack Daniel’s whiskey fell 1% in the first half of its current fiscal year — a sharp contrast when compared to the

By Brian Fung and Catherine Thorbecke, CNN (CNN) — Google on Wednesday launched its most ambitious effort yet to compete in the rapidly growing field of generative artificial intelligence, launching an AI model known as Gemini that’s designed to compete with the likes of OpenAI’s GPT models and supercharge everything from Google’s consumer apps to

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN New York (CNN) — McDonald’s has a burger strategy to spark growth in the next few years. That strategy can be boiled down to one word: More. “In the US, in a number of markets, around the world, having a larger burger is an opportunity,” CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNN in

By Chris Isidore, CNN New York (CNN) — Elon Musk is seeking to raise $1 billion for his artificial intelligence company xAI. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said that it has already raised $135 million of that $1 billion target, and it has a “binding and enforceable agreement” for the purchase of

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN (CNN) — Americans purchased one million fully electric vehicles in 2023, the first time that many EVs have ever been sold in this country in a single year. More than 960,000 purely electric vehicles had been sold through October, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. With expected sales

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Taylor Swift is ending her year with another accolade: The pop superstar was named Time magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year,” beating out Barbie and King Charles III. “While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift, 33, achieved a kind of nuclear fusion: shooting

By Anna Cooban, CNN London (CNN) — Germany’s benchmark stock index opened at an all-time high Wednesday as investors’ growing confidence that interest rates will soon be cut outweighs worries that the country may be suffering a recession. The previous day, the DAX closed at a record high of 16,533 points — only for that peak to be beaten Wednesday when

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — If it seemed like everyone was buying tickets to see Taylor Swift or Lionel Messi this year, that probably wasn’t far off. StubHub released its 2023 “Year in Live Experiences” report that revealed some of the top-selling events sold on the ticketing website. Swift’s tour and Messi’s

By Matt Egan and Donald Judd, CNN New York (CNN) — The presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania faced intense scrutiny on Wednesday from business leaders, donors and politicians following their testimony at a House hearing on antisemitism on campus and calls for genocide in Israel. The criticism focused on the university leaders’ answers

By Oliver Darcy, CNN (CNN) — The bundle is staging a comeback. After spending billions of dollars to launch their own direct-to-consumer streaming platforms, the world’s biggest entertainment companies are slowly getting back together, giving consumers a break on soaring prices by pushing them to their more lucrative ad-supported tiers with the hope that the

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Tamarind might sound — and taste — unfamiliar to many, but one influential company known for its spices and seasonings predicts it’s going to have a breakthrough year. McCormick & Company, the top-selling maker of seasonings and spices, has named tamarind as its 2024 “Flavor of the

By Sergio Padilla, CNN New York (CNN) — Delivery drivers work hard during the holiday season. Especially in an age where virtually any item can be dropped off at your doorstep via apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Amazon. But if you find yourself staying in for dinner, and opt for a meal from Pizza

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN New York (CNN) — Add Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser to the growing list of bank CEOs who are warning about tough times ahead. While Fraser doesn’t “see a drastic downturn on the horizon,” the head of the third-largest bank in the United States does see a recession coming, she said in

By Hanna Ziady, CNN London (CNN) — Tui, one of the world’s largest tour operators, is weighing whether to leave the London Stock Exchange in what would be another blow to the city’s standing as a global financial center. The German company, which is dual-listed in London and Frankfurt, said in a statement Wednesday that

By Ramishah Maruf and Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN New York (CNN) — Members of SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood actors union, have ratified a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major studios and streamers, the union said on Tuesday. SAG-AFTRA members voted to ratify the contract with about 78% in favor.