Topic: Consumers

Investors have little choice now but to cling to low-yielding U.S. government debt as European leaders ponder a messy Greek exit from the euro zone, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC.

Tiffany & Co. lowered its fiscal-year sales and profit forecasts on Thursday, citing slowing economic growth in many countries and weakness in its home U.S. market, while rival Signet Jewelers also issued a disappointing forecast.

New York Fed President Bill Dudley, a leading dove on the Federal Open Market Committee, sounding a somewhat hawkish tone in an exclusive CNBC interview, suggested he does not at the moment see a need for additional easing from the central bank.

There has been no global recession but negative sentiment and maximum uncertainty are clouding the reality of the situation, Frank Appel, Deutsche Post’s CEO told CNBC on “Worldwide Exchange.”

Costco Wholesale posted a higher quarterly profit on an 8 percent increase in net sales.

This Memorial Day weekend, motorists will find gasoline plentiful and at the lowest price it’s been for two years. Good news. And it may get better. The Christian Science Monitor reports.

Continued weakness in China’s economic data, as well as growing risks of a Greek exit from the euro zone, will drive Beijing to launch aggressive stimulus measures in order to prevent a further deterioration of growth in the world’s second largest economy, economists and strategists told CNBC.

Uniqlo, the Japanese basics brand, is starting aggressive growth plans at shopping malls that are expected to include 20 to 30 new stores a year over the next eight years.

Fixed-income investors are once again looking sage-like, as the latest eruption in the EU crisis ravages equities.  Two of these funds are up more than 7 percent.

Stocks clawed back from steep losses to finish narrowly mixed Wednesday following several reports on the euro zone that helped soothe fears over the region's debt crisis.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week, fueled by demand for refinancings as mortgage rates hit fresh record lows, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Strong demand for Germany’s two-year bonds, which offer nothing in return, shows that opening Pandora’s Box in Europe has sapped investor confidence, Jim O'Neill, chairman at Goldman Sachs Asset Management told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange.”

US stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday as investor caution replaced hope of a resolution to the euro zone debt crisis ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.

As the high-end Chinese consumer becomes more discerning in a slowing luxury goods market, analysts say Hong Kong-listed Italian fashion house Prada can face up to the challenge given its attractive product mix and store expansion plans, forecasting huge gains for the company’s stock over the next 12 months.

When Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy in September 2008, investors rushed to buy gold. When the eurozone crisis erupted in 2010, they bought more.' But this year the buying has fizzled out, reports the Financial Times.