LL Flooring files for bankruptcy and will close 94 stores
CNN
LL Flooring, formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, has filed for bankruptcy and will close 94 of its stores across the United States.
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 than a wind-down of the business. Instead, LL Flooring will use the process to seek a sale of the 30-year-old business, which said it’s in “active negotiations with multiple bidders,” according to a press release. Major furniture retailers are continuing to struggle after a pandemic boom, particularly as Americans deal with persistent inflation. Plus, discretionary big-ticket items, such as furniture, have quickly dropped off the shopping list for more budget-conscious consumers. That means that it’s much tougher out there for companies like LL Flooring. “After comprehensive efforts to enhance our liquidity position in a challenging macro environment, a determination was made that initiating this Chapter 11 process is the best path forward for the company,” said CEO Charles Tyson. He added that the process gives the company “additional time and financial flexibility as we reduce our physical footprint and close certain stores while pursuing a going-concern sale of the rest of our business.”
Price hikes picked up speed for US-based businesses toward the end of last year, a potential signal that inflation has yet to peak and prices could soon rise faster for consumers.
Trump is threatening to take “strong action” against Iran just after capturing the leader of Venezuela. His administration is criminally investigating the chair of the Federal Reserve and is taking a scorched-earth approach on affordability by threatening key profit drivers for banks and institutional investors.
Perhaps no data point better encapsulates the American economy right now than this nugget from Delta’s quarterly earnings:
China recorded the world’s biggest ever trade surplus in 2025, as well as a 20% jump from 2024, capping off a year in which the world’s largest manufacturer defied US trade pressure by ramping up exports to other global markets.
Saks Global, the parent company of luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, filed for bankruptcy protection late Tuesday, according to court documents filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Texas.
China on Wednesday reported a strong export run in 2025 with a record surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion, as producers braced for three more years of a Trump administration set on slowing the production powerhouse by shifting US orders to other markets.
Microsoft says it will ask to pay higher electricity bills in areas where it’s building data centers, in an effort to prevent electricity prices for local residents from rising in those areas. The move is part of a broader plan to address rising prices and other concerns sparked by the tech industry’s massive buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure across the United States.
US consumer prices rose 2.7% annually in December, closing out a year that saw slight progress on inflation but continued affordability concerns for many Americans.
The BBC is taking steps to have Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against it dismissed, a court document showed.
Amazon executives laid out their vision for Alexa’s future in an interview with CNN at the CES tech convention, where the company launched a new Alexa website and updates to other Amazon products.
After cutting interest rates three times in a row last year, the Federal Reserve indicated last month it probably won’t lower interest rates again for a while. A months-long pause, cemented by key economic data released Friday, may indeed be the best-case scenario for the world’s largest economy.
What is Corporate America so afraid of?
President Donald Trump wants to juice the economy with dramatically lower interest rates, to take credit for a booming stock market and, perhaps most of all, for his handpicked Fed chair to get off the stage.