The beauty industry is having its department store moment: American cosmetics giant Revlon Inc, controlled by billionaire Ron Perelman, filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company had assets of $2.3 billion as of late April and total debts of $3.7 billion, Bloomberg News reported. It’s the clearest indication yet of the impact of shifting consumer habits on the beauty ...

  In commodity markets, there are few phenomena more feared than a corner. If a few traders become too dominant, they can at times set prices at will by withholding supply, driving values to ridiculous levels. That’s what happened when the Hunt brothers cornered the market in silver in 1980, sending it to prices that are still a record. In ...

  Last week’s surprisingly bad news on inflation — prices rose 8.6% in the year to May, the highest for 40 years — and the financial markets’ anxious reaction have seriously complicated the Federal Reserve’s job. With policy makers set to announce their latest interest rate decision along with projections for the rest of this year, the Fed’s prospects for ...