Money

By Bryan Mena, CNN Washington (CNN) — The standard, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.49% this week, up slightly from the prior week’s level, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. But that’s still well below this year’s peak and the two-decade high last fall — and that appears to be enough to entice homeowners to refinance. Mortgage applications

By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) — Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok on Tuesday began allowing users to create AI-generated images from text prompts and post them to X. Almost immediately, people began using the tool to flood the social media site with fake images of political figures such as former President Donald Trump

CNN By Bryan Mena, CNN Washington (CNN) — The backbone of America’s economy remains solid, despite a slowing job market, elevated interest rates and still-high inflation. Sales at US retailers unexpectedly surged in July, the Commerce Department said Thursday, rising by a solid 1% from the prior month, up from June’s downwardly revised 0.2% decline.

By Bryan Mena, CNN Washington (CNN) — The backbone of America’s economy remains solid, despite a slowing job market, elevated interest rates and still-high inflation. Sales at US retailers unexpectedly surged in July, the Commerce Department said Thursday, rising by a solid 1% from the prior month, up from June’s downwardly revised 0.2% decline. That

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN New York (CNN) — Americans are cutting back on Disney parks, Big Macs and Starbucks coffee. But they keep shopping at Walmart. Walmart’s US sales at stores open for at least one year increased 4.2% last quarter and its operating income surged 8.5% during the quarter. Walmart’s US digital sales are

By Matt Egan and Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN (CNN) — Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is stepping down months after protests over the Israel-Hamas war gripped the campus, Shafik announced in a letter sent Wednesday to the Columbia community. Shafik — an Egyptian-born economist and former high-ranking official at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN New York (CNN) — If you’re a Shake Shack customer in Los Angeles, your next burger could come on a little robot with wheels. The fast casual burger chain and Serve Robotics announced a partnership Wednesday to deliver meals through autonomous delivery robots via the Uber Eats app. The robot, which

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN New York (CNN) — Shopping around for a car? You’re in luck. Shopping around for a new auto insurance policy? Better buckle up. New, used and even rental car prices continue to slide while car insurance rates remain vastly elevated. That diverging trend seems counterintuitive: If the price tag for a

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — LL Flooring, formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, has filed for bankruptcy and will close 94 of its stores across the United States. But the retailer is not liquidating itself immediately, as the company recently announced that it had entered Chapter 11, which allows for a re-organization rather

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — Americans aren’t getting their Big Mac fix at McDonald’s anymore. They’re going to Chili’s instead. Brinker International, Chili’s parent company, reported a nearly 15% in jump in same-store sales and increase of almost 6% in traffic for the most recent quarter thanks in part to a promotion

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New York (CNN) — A man suing Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for the wrongful death of his wife is facing a new legal hurdle: Disney is trying to get it thrown out of court and sent to arbitration — because he signed up for Disney+ years earlier. Court documents show

By Hanna Ziady, CNN London (CNN) — Mars has agreed to buy Kellanova in a deal that values the maker of Cheez-It and Pringles at almost $29 billion. Kellanova said in a regulatory filing that its shareholders would receive $83.50 per share in cash, a 33% premium to the stock’s closing price on August 2,

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Until last year, Janet Albrecht could afford to eat roast beef sandwiches or tuna salad for lunch. But the widowed 78-year-old now has to skimp on her meals because her Social Security benefits haven’t kept up with the rising costs for food, housing and health care in recent years.

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN New York (CNN) — In 2018, Chipotle was reeling from food safety fears after an E. coli outbreak, restaurants were considered messy, and new menu items like queso weren’t landing with customers. The company turned to Brian Niccol to solve its mountain of problems. Niccol had previously led a turnaround effort

By Jon Passantino and Liam Reilly, CNN (CNN) — In the hours after President Joe Biden’s historic decision to step aside from the 2024 presidential race last month, journalists across three major US newsrooms began receiving emails from an anonymous person claiming to have tantalizing new information about the election. The individual, who identified themself