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U.S. consumer prices surged 9.1% in June, the largest annual increase in more than four decades amid stubbornly high costs for gasoline, food and rent, cementing the case for another 75-basis-point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month, Reuters reported. The larger-than-expected increase in the year-on-year consumer price index reported by the Labor Department on Wednesday also reflected higher prices for healthcare, motor vehicles, apparel as well as household furniture. The CPI increased by the most in nearly 17 years on a monthly basis. The inflation data followed on the heels of stronger-than-expected job growth in June and suggested that the Fed's aggressive monetary policy stance had made little progress so far in cooling domestic demand and bringing inflation down to its 2% target. Though a global problem, high inflation is a political risk for U.S. President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party heading into congressional elections in November. "Despite the Fed's best intentions, the economy looks to be moving into a higher inflation regime," said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS in New York. "The Fed is even further behind the curve after today's sizzling report." The consumer price index increased 1.3% last month, the biggest monthly gain since September 2005, after advancing 1.0% in May. A 7.5% surge in energy prices accounted for nearly half of the increase in the CPI. Gasoline prices jumped 11.2% after rebounding by 4.1% in May. Natural gas prices rose 8.2%, the most since October 2005, while the cost of electricity increased 1.7%. Food prices gained 1.0%. The cost of food consumed at home rose 1.0%, posting the sixth straight monthly increase of at least 1.0%.

Peloton Interactive Inc. rallied as much as 6.8% on Tuesday after announcing plans to cease in-house manufacturing and rely solely on partners for production, marking one of the most dramatic steps yet to simplify its operations and reduce costs, Bloomberg News reported. The move is an about-face from Peloton’s strategy over the past three years, when it split manufacturing between its own facilities and partners. The company built a portion of its standard Bike models and the higher-end Bike+ using facilities it acquired in 2019 as part of buying Tonic Fitness Technology. It also relied on Taiwan-based manufacturing partner Rexon Industrial Corp. to build bikes and its Tread treadmill. Now, the company will cease operating its Tonic facilities and move all of its bike and treadmill manufacturing to Rexon, Chief Supply Chain Officer Andrew Rendich told Bloomberg News in an interview. “We are going back to nothing but partnered manufacturing,” he said. “It allows us to ramp up and ramp down based on capacity and demand.” Peloton is making the change after several months of turmoil. In February, co-founder John Foley was replaced as chief executive officer by veteran media executive Barry McCarthy, and the company cut nearly 3,000 employees — including many members of its executive team. Rendich was appointed to his role in March.

More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, exasperation is growing among business, city and community leaders across the U.S. who have seen offices left behind while life returns to normal at restaurants, airlines, sporting events and other places where people gather, the Wall Street Journal reported. Even after many employers have adopted hybrid schedules, less than half the number of prepandemic office workers are returning to business districts consistently. The problem is most pronounced in America’s biggest cities. Nationally, office use hit a pandemic-era high of 44% in early June, while cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and New York have lagged behind, according to Kastle Systems, which collects data on how many workers swipe into office buildings each day. The divide has created a sense of urgency among politicians and business leaders in these cities, where the stakes are especially high because office workers are the engine of local economies and fuel small businesses. From April 2020 to March 2021, 26,300 New York City small businesses closed permanently, according to a report the mayor released in the spring. Available office space in New York has grown to about 125 million square feet, up from 90 million in the first quarter of 2020, according to data firm CoStar Group Inc. Retail rents in Manhattan have declined for 18 consecutive quarters, starting well before the pandemic, according to commercial real estate services firm CBRE Group Inc. One issue for workers in big cities is time spent in transit. New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Chicago have some of the nation’s longest commute times — as well as some of the lowest return-to-office rates, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the country’s 24 largest metropolitan areas in May.

Enjoy Technology Inc., a retail technology company started by former Apple Inc. retail strategist and chief executive of J.C. Penney Ron Johnson, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, citing difficulties raising new capital in a difficult fundraising market for tech firms, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The filing came less than a year after the company went public through a merger with Marquee Raine Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company. The transaction helped the company raise net proceeds of $112.6 million, according to court papers. Enjoy said that it has reached an agreement to sell most of its assets to device insurance company Asurion LLC, which has agreed to provide a $55 million loan to fund the company through bankruptcy. Enjoy said it would accept a higher offer and it expects that Asurion’s bid will be sufficient to pay all secured and unsecured creditors in full. Founded in 2014, Enjoy Technology sought to bring high-end retail service into customers’ homes in North America and Europe. The company has over 1,700 employees across the U.S., Canada and the U.K., some of whom hand-deliver iPhones and other tech gadgets on behalf of Apple, AT&T Inc. and others, and use those deliveries to try and sell more of those companies’ products. The company had initial backing from venture-capital firms including Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz. This spring, Enjoy began to evaluate strategic alternatives after failing to raise fresh capital to keep the business afloat, court papers show. Since going public last year, the revenue it generated hasn’t been enough to turn a profit because of costs associated with business development and growth, court papers said. The company generated about $25 million in revenue, but reported around $50 million in operating losses in the first quarter of this year, company filings show.

Former Toys “R” Us executives are set to stand trial over allegations they misled suppliers about the retailer’s dire financial condition while the company tried to stay afloat in bankruptcy and then stiffed them on more than $600 million of bills, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips on Monday said a trial should go forward, rebuffing a request from the former executives to throw out the creditor claims entirely. The former directors and officers have denied wrongdoing. Open questions, according to the judge, include whether the retailer was already insolvent when it paid nearly $18 million to its private-equity backers — Bain Capital, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust — between 2014 and 2017. The creditors also allege that millions of dollars of bonuses paid to 117 Toys “R” Us executives and managers just prior to the company’s 2017 bankruptcy amount to a breach of the former executives’ fiduciary duty. The largest bonus — $2.8 million — went to former Chief Executive Officer David Brandon. An official committee of low-ranking creditors later negotiated a reduction in the bonus amounts, according to court papers.

The University of Michigan’s gauge of consumer sentiment fell sharply to a record-low reading of 50.2, down from a May reading of 58.4, MarketWatch.com reported. The level is comparable to the low point reached in the middle of the 1980 recession, the university said. Americans’ expectations for overall inflation over the next year rose to 5.4% in June from 3.3% in May, while expectations for inflation over the next five years jumped to 3.3% from 3% in the prior month. That’s the highest level since 2008, according to Kathy Jones, a strategist at Charles Schwab.

Dallas-based manufacturer Corsicana Mattress Co. has filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and said it has a buyer lined up for its business, the Dallas Morning News reported. CEO Eric Rhea said the company voluntarily filed for bankruptcy to help it restructure operations, including efforts to “renegotiate agreements, flatten our organization and drive greater efficiency.” The mattress business has become more competitive in recent years. It was dominated by major manufacturers for decades until new materials and technology allowed for a mattress to be shipped in a box directly to consumers by new internet-based retailers such as Casper, Purple, Nectar and Avocado. Corsicana also sells shippable mattresses under the brand Luuf. The company was founded in 1971 in Corsicana and operates 10 factories in the U.S. employing 865 full-time employees and 58 contract workers. Its mattresses are sold by retailers under the multiple brand names, including American Bedding, Early Bird and SleepInc. After it bought Richmond, Va.-based Symbol Mattress last year, Corsicana Mattress became the largest U.S. manufacturer of mattresses that retail under $3,000. Blue Torch Finance LLC said that it is providing financing for Corsicana to operate during the reorganization and has agreed to buy the company. There will be a bankruptcy court-supervised auction and sale process. Another company could end up with Corsicana, but Blue Torch has said that it will be a bidder.

The retail industry is up against a potential wave of bankruptcies following a monthslong slowdown in restructuring activity, CNBC.com reported. There could be an increase in distressed retailers beginning later this year, experts say, as ballooning prices dent demand for certain goods, stores contend with bloated inventory levels and a potential recession looms. Last week, 90-year-old cosmetics giant Revlon filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the first household consumer-facing name to do so in months. “Retail is in flux,” said Perry Mandarino, co-head of investment banking and head of corporate restructuring at B. Riley Securities. “And within the next five years, the landscape will be much different than it is today.” The industry had seen a dramatic pullback in restructurings in 2021 and early 2022 as companies — including those that had been on so-called bankruptcy watch lists — received relief from fiscal stimulus that offered cash infusions to businesses and stimulus dollars to consumers. The pause followed a flood of distress in 2020, near the onset of the pandemic, as dozens of retailers including J.C. Penney, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew and Neiman Marcus headed to bankruptcy court. Including Revlon’s filing, there have been just four retail bankruptcies so far this year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. That’s the lowest number the firm has tracked in at least 12 years. It’s not exactly clear when that tally could begin to grow, but restructuring experts say they’re preparing for more trouble across the industry as the all-important holiday season approaches. An analysis by Fitch Ratings shows that the consumer and retail companies most in danger of default include mattress maker Serta Simmons, cosmetics line Anastasia Beverly Hills, skin-care marketing company Rodan & Fields, Billabong owner Boardriders, men’s suit chain Men’s Wearhouse and supplements marketing company Isagenix International.

New York’s biggest mall has reached a deal with lenders to avoid a default after the pandemic and years of retail turmoil left it deeply underwater on its mortgages, Bloomberg News reported. Destiny USA, a 2.4 million-square-foot (223,000-square-meter) shopping center in Syracuse, owed $430 million on two mortgage-backed securities that missed a June 6 repayment deadline. The mall’s owner, Pyramid Management Group, said Thursday that it got a five-year extension for its loans, with flexibility to keep investing in the property. The agreement buys time for Pyramid to return the property to profitability so bondholders can recover their investment, Pyramid Chief Executive Officer Stephen Congel said in an interview. “It’s like turning an aircraft carrier around at sea: it takes some time and space,” he said. “They realized time was important, and they gave it to us.” Congel said he couldn’t discuss financial terms of the extension, including how much Pyramid committed to invest in the property or if the interest rate changed. The expired loans have a 3.81% coupon. The mall’s value sank some 80% to just $147 million in an appraisal last year. Destiny was slammed by the usual suspects that have hurt malls broadly, as shoppers shift to e-commerce and pandemic lockdowns froze their businesses. But Pyramid was in an especially tough spot partly because of efforts a decade ago to make Destiny an entertainment destination, with go-karts, a ropes course and other accoutrements designed to lure more people through the door. That project was funded with $280 million of municipal debt, which would get paid before commercial mortgage-backed securities in a bankruptcy. That threatened recovery prospects for mortgage-bond investors. The new agreement doesn’t affect terms of the municipal debt, which matures in 2028 and 2036, Congel said.

Traders piled into shares of Revlon Inc., driving its gains from a record low to 650% as individual investors looked to strike a quick profit, while ignoring the fundamentals of the troubled cosmetics giant, Bloomberg News reported. The stock surged 34% on Wednesday, bringing gains from an all-time low to more than 650% as trading volume continued to soar past recent trends. More than 119 million Revlon shares have traded on average each day since bottoming — about 665 times the average daily volume in the past year prior to its boom. Retail traders have been helping to drive gains, piling in nearly $18 million over the past week, data from Vanda Research show. The maneuver is reminiscent of other bets in low-priced, debt-laden companies, such as Hertz Global Holdings Inc., with investors rapidly trading Revlon shares after the company filed for court protection on June 15.