U.S. shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion online this Black Friday, a report showed on Saturday, as consumers weathered the squeeze from high inflation and grabbed steep discounts on everything from smartphones to toys. Online spending rose 2.3 percent on Black Friday, Adobe Inc.’s data and insights arm Adobe Analytics said, thanks to consumers holding…

LONDON—Europe’s retailers are hoping Black Friday discount day will get shoppers spending, though it is taking place against a backdrop of a worsening cost-of-living crisis and the distraction of the soccer World Cup. Retailers across Europe fear the overall Christmas trading season could be the worst in at least a decade as shoppers cut back,…

RALEIGH, N.C./ NEW YORK—Inflation-weary shoppers were expected to turn out in record numbers for deals on Black Friday. But thin crowds were seen outside many stores in New York, Raleigh, Chicago, and Los Angeles on what historically has been the busiest shopping day of the year. Many who opened their wallets in the United States…

Americans will pay higher prices for a range of goods and services for the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping this year, and it looks like things may only get worse as we draw nearer to Christmas. Those driving for the holidays and of course those preparing the Thanksgiving meal will pay the price this…

NEW YORK—As the most important shopping period of the year approaches, some investors are betting shares of beaten-down consumer stocks will benefit if inflation keeps falling and retail sales stay strong. Consumer discretionary stocks, a group whose members run the gamut from Amazon.com Inc. and automaker Tesla Inc. to retailer Target Corp., have been walloped…

TOKYO—Japan’s foreign and defence ministers will hold talks with their U.S. counterparts in a “two-plus-two” format on Friday to discuss security issues, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. The announcement of the discussions by the two key allies came just hours after North Korea conducted an apparent ballistic missile launch. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi…

Shootings erupted at retail outlets crowded with post-Thanksgiving holiday shoppers in North Carolina and Washington state on Friday, sending bystanders at both locations scurrying for cover and injuring a total of seven people, police said. At a shopping mall in Durham, North Carolina, a late-afternoon shootout between “two groups who knew each other” left three…