Retail stores are feeling the heat as many shoppers plan to do most of their holiday shopping online. Alyssa Julya Smith ventured out to Kohl's in Los Angeles on Black Friday to check out what's going on in retail outlets. She found that, at least in the morning, not a lot of shoppers turned out for the doorbusters and in-store deals.
In fact, 59 percent of U.S. shoppers say they plan to shop online this year instead of fighting crowds at the stores. U.S. shoppers spent more than $1.52 billion online by 5 pm ET on Thanksgiving evening, which is up nearly 17 percent from a year ago.
A lot of the slowdown in Black Friday shopping has to do with the "Amazon effect," which also has a lot of brick-and-mortar stores fighting to keep up. Big stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Kohls made their big deals available online, and well before Thanksgiving day, so many people are opting to shop from the comfort of their own home.
Darden, the parent company of chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, beat Wall Street estimates in its latest earnings report.
A former Facebook executive pled guilty to stealing more than $4 million from the company while she was employed there.
Rising safety concerns over water bead products marketed to kids have prompted major retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart to pull some toys off their shelves.
The Congressional Budget Office said Friday it expects inflation to nearly hit the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate in 2024, as overall growth is expected to slow and unemployment is expected to rise into 2025, according to updated economic projections for the next two years.
Intel is out with a new product to challenge other big players in the space like Nvidia and AMD.
Stocks fell after the opening bell Friday but will end on another positive week.
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Americans picked up their spending from October to November as the unofficial holiday season kicked off, underscoring that shoppers still have power to keep buying.
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate dropped below 7% to its lowest level since early August, another boost for prospective homebuyers who have largely been held back by sharply higher borrowing costs and heightened competition for relatively few homes for sale.
Mortgage rates have dropped below 7% for the first time since the middle of August.
