CNN Business/Consumer

By David Goldman, CNN (CNN) — A soaking wet George Bailey and Clarence, warming up by the fire in the toll house on the bridge, discuss why Clarence jumped into the freezing water. It was to help George, Clarence tells him. “Only one way you can help me,” George says sarcastically. “You don’t happen to

CNN By Toni Odejimi, Rafael Romo, CNN (CNN) — A lucky Powerball ticket holder in Arkansas has won an estimated $1.8 billion jackpot, the second largest in US lottery history, after matching all six numbers in Monday’s drawing. The winning ticket, sold at a Murphy USA gas station in Cabot, Arkansas, matched 4, 25, 31,

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — For years, a huge Amazon contract has been one of the few bright spots in the US Postal Service’s finances. But now the USPS plans to offer those last-mile services to additional customers to stem billions in ongoing losses – a move that risks losing its biggest customer. The

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — An initial reading of third-quarter gross domestic product showed the US economy expanded at an inflation-adjusted annualized rate of 4.3%, a far faster pace than the 3.8% recorded in the second quarter, according to Commerce Department data released Tuesday. That’s the fastest growth rate in two years. An acceleration

By Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — Earlier this month, after President Donald Trump blasted “60 Minutes” for interviewing Marjorie Taylor Greene, correspondents noticed a change behind the scenes. “Bari Weiss got personally involved,” specifically with stories about politics, a source at the program told CNN. It was her prerogative as the new editor-in-chief of CBS

WALT DISNEY PICTURES, PARAMOUNT PICTURES, LIONSGATE, ANGEL STUDIOS, 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS, CNN By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — Moviegoers escaped into director James Cameron’s sci-fi universe this weekend, driving the third installment of the “Avatar” franchise to an estimated $88 million domestically. The opening was shy of analysts’ expectations that it could earn more than

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN (CNN) — Moviegoers escaped into director James Cameron’s sci-fi universe this weekend, driving the third installment of the “Avatar” franchise to an estimated $88 million domestically. The opening was shy of analysts’ expectations that it could earn more than $100 million in its first weekend. The first “Avatar” movie debuted in

By Michelle Watson, Karina Tsui, CNN (CNN) — The Powerball jackpot is up to an estimated $1.6 billion after there were no big winners in Saturday night’s drawing. The winning numbers Saturday were 4, 5, 28, 52 and 69, with red Powerball 20. The jackpot for the next drawing – on Monday night – is

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — TikTok has signed the deal backed by President Donald Trump to spin off its US assets to create a new entity with a group of mostly American investors, CEO Shou Chew told employees in a memo Thursday. Although the transaction is not yet complete, the move brings

By Matt Egan, Chris Isidore, Laura Paddison, Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — Truth Social parent company Trump Media & Technology Group announced a deal on Thursday to merge with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies. The surprise merger drove shares of Trump Media 28% higher before the market open. The companies said the all-stock transaction is

By Alicia Wallace, CNN (CNN) — Inflation unexpectedly – and sharply – slowed in November, a seemingly welcome change for Americans weighed down by the persistently high cost of living. However, economists were quick to caution Thursday that the Consumer Price Index slowing to 2.7% from 3% was likely the result of shutdown-related distortions of

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — It’s been a rough year for job seekers. The last thing they wanted was a Spotify Wrapped-style reminder of that. They got one anyway, when LinkedIn launched an inaugural Year in Review. The summaries informed users how many days they visited the platform, how many new connections they made

By Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Wednesday that the regulatory review of Warner’s deal with Netflix has begun, even as Paramount mounts a hostile takeover bid. Two senators are now coming forward and pressing Attorney General Pam Bondi to recuse herself from the review of the deal. Democratic

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — Federal prosecutors have charged top executives at the subprime auto lender Tricolor with conspiring to defraud lenders and investors of the now-bankrupt company. Tricolor, which went out of business in September, specialized in offering loans and selling used cars to buyers without Social Security numbers or credit histories, often

By Liam Reilly, CNN (CNN) — Warner Bros. Discovery has officially rejected Paramount’s hostile takeover bid, advising its shareholders to do the same. But the battle is far from over. Let’s break down what just happened and what to expect next. So, what just happened? Early Wednesday morning, Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, published

By Lauren Kent, Olesya Dmitracova, CNN (CNN) — The European Union is on the precipice of a momentous decision on whether to use frozen Russian assets to finance more support for Ukraine, an unprecedented plan that has set up a clash between the many member states that support it and Belgium, where the lion’s share

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — California is threatening to ban sales of Tesla cars in the state for 30 days after a regulator said the term “Autopilot” for its driver assist feature constitutes false advertising. The California Department of Motor Vehicles could have halted Tesla sales in the state immediately, under terms of a

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN (CNN) — The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law in July, created several new tax provisions and made changes to others that are in effect for this year. So it’s worth having the rundown of some of the key ones before preparing your 2025 tax return. Some

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN London (CNN) — Plans to ban the sale of new combustion engine cars in the European Union by 2035 have been thrown into turmoil after pressure from car manufacturers. On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed applying the ban, approved in 2023, to only 90% of vehicles, down from 100%. This means

By David Goldman, CNN (CNN) — America’s cost-of-living problem is simple math: Inflation spiked several years ago and paychecks haven’t had enough time to catch up. The latest jobs report revealed Tuesday that the problem got even worse last month – and a separate inflation report Thursday could show that the crunch is really on.

By Chris Isidore, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump has a tiny solution to a big problem: have US factories manufacture very small cars, like the ones found in Asia and Europe, to drive down giant price tags. “Manufacturers have long wanted to do this, just like they are so successfully built in other countries,”

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — The US government is launching an early career hiring and talent development program to bring more technology and artificial intelligence employees to the public sector, as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to modernize government systems and stay ahead in the global tech race. The launch of

CNN By Matt Egan, CNN New York (CNN) — Donald Trump’s return to the White House set off a gold rush on Wall Street and in the crypto world. Companies and crypto projects linked to Trump and his family exploded in value as traders bet they would benefit from the president’s return to power. A

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