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Airbnb users will soon be able to see the total cost of booking a stay before they check out, a reversal of the platform's longstanding policy that had peeved many users. Starting in December, guests will have the option to view the total price of a booking, including all fees, before taxes. Users will also be able to view a full price breakdown that shows Airbnb’s service fee, discounts, and taxes. The change means total price, instead of nightly price, will be prioritized in its search ranking algorithm. Guests are still charged an Airbnb service fee, a cleaning fee, an extra-guest fee if applicable, plus any taxes and deposits.

That has given some consumers an opening to spend liberally this holiday shopping season. "Despite the pandemic, holiday sales have grown at a historic pace for the 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons," the economists wrote. "This year, with pandemic fears now largely in the rearview mirror, consumers are looking forward to a more typical holiday shopping season." But simple math dictates that consumers are eventually going to run out of ways to spend, they write. Holiday plansBut consumers should hold up well this holiday season, experts say.

Some advertisers are pulling back from buying promotional placements on Twitter as they determine what the site will look like under new owner Elon Musk. Musk confirmed the impact of the pullback in a tweet Friday, saying “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue," and blaming what he called "activist groups" who he said were "pressuring advertisers." As of this writing, there was not yet evidence that the companies or advertising groups had acted in response to that campaign. "If it becomes an essential street fight around hate speech, advertisers are going to run for the hills," Ives said. You’re trying to bring advertisers back on while loosening content moderation.

Twitter will lay off staff Friday, the social media giant said in an email obtained by NBC News. In the email, sent Thursday evening, Twitter said it would notify staff by email starting Friday morning about their employment. One Twitter employee said Thursday's email was the first communication staff had received from Twitter since the acquisition Oct. 27. "It's total chaos, house melting down, everyone looking towards this email," the employee told NBC News. "At the end of this nightmare, I better get a cash prize," one Twitter employee told NBC News.

Lyft confirmed its plans Thursday to lay off 13% of its workforce, equivalent to about 700 employees, as the broader downturn in once high-flying tech companies persists. An emerging trendStill, Lyft's announcement adds to the broader trend of hiring freezes and job cuts across the tech industry. Amazon announced Thursday it will pause hiring within its corporate workforce, citing the increasingly "uncertain" economy and the company's spate of new hires in recent years. The payments company Stripe announced Thursday it was cutting 14% of its workforce, equivalent to approximately 1,100 workers. The tech sector had come through a significant portion of the pandemic seeing roaring growth.

☆ Twitter to begin layoffs Friday, days after Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Rob Wile | Ben Collins | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter will be laying off staff Friday, the social media giant said in an email obtained by NBC News. In the email, sent Thursday evening, Twitter said it would be notifying staff by email starting Friday morning about their employment. The cuts come after numerous reports that Musk had planned to slash the company's 7,500-person payroll after he finalized his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter late last week. Meanwhile, Musk has sought to reassure advertisers, saying in a post to Twitter that the platform would not become a "free-for-all hellscape." That was among nearly two dozen tweets Musk posted to the site last weekend, though few offered additional clarity on what the site will look like under his leadership.

As it battles inflation that remains at four-decade highs, the Federal Reserve is expected to hike its key interest rate another 0.75% Wednesday. This interest rate, known as the federal funds rate, affects the cost of borrowing and the pace of investment throughout the economy. As a result, some experts believe the Fed must keep raising interest rates, even if it drives unemployment higher. The U.S. unemployment rate currently stands at 3.5%. "This forces the Fed to continue its aggressive approach on interest rates."

Hyundai has issued a new recall for approximately 44,000 model year 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport vehicles due to a risk of fire. In a release on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website, Hyundai urged owners of the vehicles to park outside and away from homes and other structures until the vehicles have been repaired. The latest recall is in addition to the approximately 357,000 2016-2018 Hyundai Santa Fe vehicles recalled earlier this year for the same safety defect. To date, there have been four fires in the U.S. associated with the defect, the automaker said. Owners can take their vehicles to a Hyundai dealer for a repair free of charge, the company said.

One day after Delta Air Lines pilots authorized a potential strike, United Airlines pilots rejected a tentative contract agreement, setting the stage for possible work stoppages as the busy holiday travel season approaches. Delta pilots voted Monday for a strike if necessary in order to secure a new contract with the nation's second-largest carrier. In a statement, Delta said Monday's strike authorization vote would not affect customers and that under federal labor law, a strike cannot occur until certain conditions are met. According to a statement, pilots will immediately begin a series of informational picketing events as they work to rally support. Pilot scheduling issues are one of the reasons air travel in 2022 has been beset by delays and cancellations, he said.

About 11,000 customers were affected after the vendor, a collections recovery group, accidentally shared the info, a U.S. Bank spokesperson told NBC News. Customers with closed U.S. Bank credit card accounts were affected, the letter states. An employee immediately noticed the error, and the bank ultimately received a certificate of destruction of the information, the spokesperson said. Still, the bank is offering affected customers two years of free access to an online credit monitoring service. The bank also recommends affected customers remain vigilant and place fraud alerts on their credit files.

Now that Elon Musk has closed on his acquisition of the social media platform Twitter, what happens to Twitter's stock? The transaction to make Twitter a private company was completed late Thursday, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document. By Friday morning, Twitter's stock had already stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where it had been listed since 2013. Screens display Twitter's share price at the New York Stock Exchange, in New York, on Nov. 7, 2013. That was the price Musk agreed to pay for the company, and the price Twitter shareholders approved by a 98% margin in September.

Elon Musk is now leading Twitter, according to CNBC. Twitter ultimately sued Musk for breaching the original agreement, and Musk countersued, alleging fraud. What happens after Musk gets the keysThe deal promises to reshape a major forum for speech online just before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Musk, from the start of his takeover bid, sketched out a vision for Twitter that includes looser rules for what people can say. The next month, Musk said he would reverse Donald Trump's permanent ban from the platform.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has seen his net worth slashed by more than $100 billion this year, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, as Meta, Facebook's parent company, faces investor pessimism about its future growth trajectory. By comparison, heading into Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was worth $211 billion, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was worth $139 billion, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was worth $110 billion, per Bloomberg data. Meta shares were down as much as 22% in Thursday trading, making the company worth approximately $271 billion. Meta reported earnings Wednesday evening that fell short of analysts' expectations, with multiple Wall Street analysts issuing downgrades. His net worth reached a height of $142 billion in September 2021, Bloomberg reported.

The average U.S. 30-year mortgage rate surpassed 7% for the first time in two decades, mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday. Meanwhile, the national median mortgage payment was $1,941 in September, up from $1,839 in August and an increase from $1,844 in July, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Homebuyer affordability took an enormous hit in September, with the 75-basis-point jump in mortgage rates leading to the typical homebuyer’s monthly payment rising $102 from August,” Edward Seiler, associate vice president of housing economics at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in a statement. “With mortgage rates continuing to rise, the purchasing power of borrowers is shrinking. "With 7% mortgage rates, only 15% of Black households can currently afford to buy the typical home compared to 30% of White households," Nadia Evangelou, National Association of Realtors senior economist and director of forecasting, said in a statement.

“Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise,” he said. But Musk said in his post that he is not buying Twitter to "make more money." Yet, given Twitter's reliance on ads, Musk addressed how be believes ads should work on the platform. “It is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs," Musk said. That prompted Twitter to sue Musk, teeing up a court trial that was set to start earlier this month before Musk suddenly re-submitted his original offer to avert the contest.

But that higher inflation has already been baked into many tax and wage figures that will change in 2023. Income tax bracketsThe IRS tax brackets corresponding to your marginal tax rates are also shifting upward — by 7% — thanks to inflation. But many banks, especially those that are online-only, are also paying out more money through higher interest rates for high-yield savings and certificate of deposit accounts. California is the largest state that will see a cost of living adjustment next year, with the minimum wage rising to $15.50 for all establishments. California's increase is limited by a statute that declares the minimum wage cannot increase by more than 3.5% each year.

Adidas shutting down its partnership with Kanye West is just the latest shoe to drop surrounding the artist's recent run of controversial public behavior. To Adidas, the reputational cost of maintaining ties with Ye ultimately outweighed those considerations, said Neil Saunders, managing director at the GlobalData Retail research group and consultancy. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect." Instead, it was likely the growing threat of an international boycott that pushed Adidas to sever ties, said Kenneth Anand, Goldstein's co-author of "Sneaker Law." "So they had to act very fast to sever ties given what had transpired," Anand said of Adidas.

Gap Inc. is immediately pulling its Kanye West-designed Yeezy clothing line products from its shelves and has shut down its YeezyGap.com website in response to the rapper's antisemitic remarks, the company announced Tuesday. The move speeds up the end of a deal between the retailer and West, which was first announced in September. "Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values,” Gap said in a statement Tuesday. Last month he sought to end the Gap partnership, first announced in June 2020, over what his lawyer called "substantial noncompliance" with the rapper's vision. Gap subsequently confirmed it was winding down the partnership, which included a clothing line with Balenciaga.

Individual employees will be able to contribute up to $22,500 to their 401(k) retirement plans for the 2023 tax year, up from $20,500 in 2022, the Internal Revenue Service announced Friday. Under the IRS's defined contribution plan provision, employees will also see a total annual limit of $66,000 in 2023, up from $61,000 this year. This provision governs limits to the retirement plan contributions made through an employer-sponsored program, which can include matching-dollar amounts that some companies make toward employee retirement savings. The IRS also increased the limit on annual contributions to an Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) from $6,000 to $6,500. “More than one-third of workers feel they are 'significantly behind' on their retirement savings,” Greg McBride, Bankrate chief financial analyst said in a Bankrate.com release.

As millions of Americans prepare to submit applications for student loan forgiveness through the Biden administration's new program, the residents of seven states could get a tax bill if they accept the loan cancellation. California is the largest state currently in line to tax student loan forgiveness. However, California legislators have promised to change the state's tax code to exempt student debt forgiveness from being taxed. In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Revenue confirmed its residents will owe up to $323 for $10,000 in student loan forgiveness and $646 for $20,000 in student loan forgiveness. “Legislative leaders need to find a solution that treats student loan forgiveness the same way they handled the PPP loan forgiveness that many of them received,” Cooper said.

Everything is on the table: from pitching adjustable rate mortgages to offering free pilates lessons and more. For example, in a 2-1 buydown scenario, the buyer's interest rate will be 2% below the contract rate during the first year. The adjustable rate mortgage makes a comebackThe use of adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) has also soared to a 14-year high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. With these types of loans, the interest rate shifts periodically depending on where benchmark mortgage rates stand. He said he expects to see mortgage rates fall in as soon as six months.

Tax brackets move alongside the inflation rate, meaning the amount of tax you pay on your income gradually shifts in normal times. Here's how that translates in dollar amountsThe standard deduction for married couples filing jointly for the 2023 tax year rises to $27,700, up $1,800 from the prior year. Meanwhile, the 12% tax bracket in 2023 will go to married couples filing jointly with incomes over $22,000 and individuals who earned more than $11,000. The 22% tax bracket will apply to married couples filing jointly with incomes over $89,450 and individuals with incomes over $44,725. And the alternative minimum tax exemption amount for next year will be $81,200 ($126,500 for married couples filing jointly), an increase from $75,900 for individuals and $118,100 for married couples filing jointly for the 2022 tax year.

Netflix added 2.4 million new subscribers in its most recent quarter, topping expectations that it would add 1 million. According to a Wedbush survey of Netflix users, he said, people most likely to opt into the ad-supported tier are those who would have otherwise quit the platform. Netflix has also foreshadowed a crackdown on password sharing, with plans to launch a paid family offering next year. Netflix estimates 100 million households worldwide are using shared passwords — 30 million of them in North America. On Monday, it introduced a “Profile Transfer” feature designed to let users who may be sharing a subscription opt into new a Netflix membership.

Nestlé USA announced last week it was voluntarily recalling its ready-to-bake refrigerated Nestlé Toll House Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with Fudge Filling products due to the potential presence of white plastic pieces. The affected products were produced between June and September and distributed in the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico. No other Nestlé Toll House products are affected by the recall. This voluntary recall is isolated to NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® STUFFED Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with Fudge Filling products that were produced between June and September 2022. Nestlé USA"While no illnesses or injuries have been reported, we immediately took action out of an abundance of caution after a small number of consumers contacted Nestlé USA about this issue," the company said in the recall statement.

Adam Rosendorff appeared in court after it came to light that he had visited Holmes' residence in August and allegedly expressed a feeling that he had "done something wrong" during Holmes' trial. Holmes, 38, was convicted in January on four counts of fraud, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Under grilling by Holmes attorney Lance Wade, Rosendorff said flatly: “The government was trying to get to the truth of what happened — what Elizabeth Holmes did.”“I don’t want to help Ms. Holmes,” Rosendorff added. She needs to pay her debt to society.”Sunny Balwani, Holmes' former business and romantic partner, had also sought a new trial based on the circumstances surrounding Rosendorff's summer visit. But in a two-page order issued last week, Davila rejected the request, saying Rosendorff's testimony pertained only to Holmes.

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