CNN Business/Consumer

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN (CNN) — Despite your best intentions, it can be difficult to get everyone in your circle a perfect – or at least personal – gift. So you turn to Plan B: gift cards. Easy to get. Easy to use. Usually welcome. But, given how prevalent financial scams are these days –

By Chris Isidore, Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — A group of House Republicans handed President Donald Trump a rare rebuke on Thursday, voting to restore collective bargaining rights he had stripped from about 1 million federal workers earlier this year. But the legislation still faces significant hurdles before it can become law and aid the

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — The next signs of the nation’s political divide might be jingling in your pocket next year. The administration plans to issue a $1 coin with President Donald Trump’s likeness on it next year, despite a century-old precedent of not honoring sitting, or even living former, presidents on coins. Instead

By Samantha Waldenberg, Hadas Gold, Clare Duffy, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that blocks states from enforcing their own regulations around artificial intelligence and instead aims to create a “single national framework” for AI. “This is an executive order that orders aspects of your administration to take decisive

By Hadas Gold, CNN (CNN) — Disney is taking a $1 billion equity stake in OpenAI, while also striking a deal that would allow its famous characters be used on Sora, the AI company’s video generation platform. Disney’s investment in OpenAI is the first such major licensing agreement for Sora. Under the agreement, users of

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN (CNN) — There is certainly some irony in one of the questions most commonly posed to Alexa this year: “What does AI mean?” Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant has become a regular feature in 21st century homes, used for tasks such as playing music, setting recipe timers and forecasting the weather.

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Time has announced that the “architects of AI” are its Person of the Year. Certainly, AI is wrapping up an extraordinary year, and many AI business executives have become household names. But Time’s big annual event came on a lousy day for the industry. Oracle (ORCL) shares

By Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump inserted himself directly into the battle for control of Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday, saying, “It’s imperative that CNN be sold,” while deriding the network’s news coverage. Trump’s comments during a White House roundtable indicated that he favors Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery,

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN (CNN) — Thanks to its latest decision on Wednesday – its final one for 2025 – the Federal Reserve has now reduced its key overnight lending rate by 1.75 percentage points since it began its rate-cutting cycle in September 2024. Since the fed funds rate affects a ton of consumer lending

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Online grocery delivery service Instacart used AI to charge different prices for the same item, up to 20% more for different shoppers, a new report says. An investigation from Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative revealed Tuesday that Instacart displayed different prices on the same household staples sold

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — Paramount and Netflix are in a vicious tug-of-war over Warner Bros. Discovery. On one side of the rope: the suitor WBD’s board signed off on, Netflix, which announced a $72 billion deal last week. On the other side, the suitor the board turned down, Paramount, which is resorting to

CNN By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — A new problem is threatening to worsen the affordability squeeze this winter: Natural gas prices have raced back up just as extreme cold forces Americans to crank up the heat. President Donald Trump has said he’s focused on lowering energy prices. And the most visible energy

By Alicia Wallace, CNN (CNN) — In a K-shaped economy where the “have-nots” are increasingly falling behind the “haves,” the labor market is trending toward a similar fate. Job opportunities didn’t shrink as feared in October as holiday staffing needs lifted openings to a five-month high, new shutdown-delayed data showed Tuesday. However, the latest official

By John Towfighi, CNN New York (CNN) — Just a few weeks ago, the stock market stumbled over fears that artificial intelligence stocks might be in a bubble. Now stocks are back within reach of a record high. Thank the Federal Reserve. The market has rebounded from a dip in early November as investors have

CNN, POOL, SENATE TV, SEE PREFONTS By John Towfighi, CNN New York (CNN) — Just a few weeks ago, the stock market stumbled over fears that artificial intelligence stocks might be in a bubble. Now stocks are back within reach of a record high. Thank the Federal Reserve. The market has rebounded from a dip

By David Goldman, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Monday said Mexico was treating America’s farmers unfairly, and he threatened the country with his favorite economic weapon: Higher tariffs. Trump said in a Truth Social post that Mexico is violating its water treaty with the United States, hurting Texas farmers’ ability to nourish their

By Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN New York (CNN) — Jimmy Kimmel has renewed his contract with Disney-owned ABC to continue hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for another year. A source familiar with the deal told CNN that Kimmel has signed a one-year extension to take his late-night show through May 2027. CNN has reached out to ABC

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — ICEBlock app creator Joshua Aaron is suing the Trump administration, accusing it of abusing government power and infringing on his free speech by pushing Apple to remove ICEBlock from its app store. Aaron argues that ICEBlock — which was designed to allow users to alert others nearby

CNN By David Goldman, CNN (CNN) — Paramount has gone straight to Warner Bros. Discovery’s shareholders with an all-cash offer in an extraordinary endeavor to gain control of Hollywood’s most sought-after prize – a bid that Netflix beat on Friday. Paramount was widely expected to be the frontrunner for Warner Bros. But WBD opted instead

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN New York (CNN) — Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, moving directly to appeal to shareholders with an all-cash offer that it says represents better value than the $72 billion deal Netflix and WBD announced Friday. A hostile takeover occurs when a company makes

By David Goldman, CNN (CNN) — Paramount has gone straight to Warner Bros. Discovery’s shareholders with an all-cash offer for the company that it says is more valuable than Netflix’s deal announced Friday. Paramount was widely expected to be the frontrunner for Warner Bros. But WBD opted instead for Netflix, which it said offered a

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — A number of changes were announced Monday in the leadership ranks of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as the 95-year-old gets ready to end his tenure. In a letter, Buffett said that Todd Combs – head of Geico, the insurance company owned by Berkshire Hathaway – is leaving

By Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — Nora Benavidez of the nonprofit advocacy group Free Press set out to catalog the Trump administration’s First Amendment infringements. She soon had a list of almost 200. That list is part of a new report, previewed by CNN and out Monday, about President Trump and his administration’s “war on

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — Sequels are the gift that keeps on giving for Hollywood this holiday season. Universal Pictures’ “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” zoomed past Disney’s “Zootopia 2” to take the top spot at the weekend box office. The video game adaptation grossed an estimated $63 million domestically. “Freddy’s 2” blew past

LIONSGATE MOVIES, GKIDS, UNIVERSAL PICTURES, WALT DISNEY PICTURES, CNN By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — Sequels are the gift that keeps on giving for Hollywood this holiday season. Universal Pictures’ “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” zoomed past Disney’s “Zootopia 2” to take the top spot at the weekend box office. The video game adaptation grossed

By Brian Stelter, CNN This is a David and Goliath story – with a twist. Almost exactly 15 years ago today the owner of Warner Bros. and HBO pushed back on Hollywood and Wall Street hype about a streaming upstart named Netflix. The 2010 quote from Jeff Bewkes in The New York Times is now

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — First the penny. Next, paper checks? When the US Mint stopped making pennies last month for the first time in 238 years, it drew a lot of attention. But there have been quiet moves to stop using paper checks as well. The government stopped sending out most paper checks

By Alicia Wallace, CNN (CNN) — The last piece of official inflation data to land before the Federal Reserve’s policymaking meeting next week was a shutdown-delayed report that showed the pace of price hikes remained stubborn in September and consumer spending waned from the month before. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — the inflation

CNN By Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — Netflix has triumphed in the bidding war for Warner Bros. and HBO, announcing a deal that could combine two of the three biggest streamers with one of the largest traditional movie and television studios. If the deal goes through, it will fundamentally reshape Hollywood at a precarious time