Business
Chocolate’s reign over Halloween is under threat from inflation, tariffs and high cocoa prices
A customer shops for Halloween candy at a Walmart Supercenter on October 16, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
The scariest thing haunting Halloween this year isn’t a ghost, goblin or ghoul — it’s the price of chocolate.
From Snickers to Reese’s to Twix, one of America’s favorite indulgences is getting more expensive, as tariffs, inflation and high cocoa prices squeeze profit margins and customers’ pocketbooks, possibly leading to fewer chocolate bars landing in trick-or-treat buckets this year.
Chocolate prices have surged nearly 30% since last Halloween and almost 78% in the past five years, according to data from research firm Circana and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A 100-piece variety bag of candy now costs $16.39, up from $7.20 in 2020, FinanceBuzz found.
That spike is showing up on store shelves. Variety packs from Hershey — maker of Reese’s, KitKats and Heath bars — are up about 22%, while Mars, the company behind M&M’s and Milky Way, raised prices about 12%, according to the Century Foundation, a progressive, independent think tank, and the Groundwork Collaborative.
“The season did get off to a slow start,” Hershey CEO Kirk Tanner told investors on an earnings call Thursday, warning that holiday sales could be softer this year.
About 4 in 5 Americans buy candy for the Halloween holiday, according to YouGov. This time of year makes up about 18% of annual U.S. confectionery sales — second only to Christmas, according to the National Confectioners Association.
But chocolate’s dominance is slipping. Circana found it made up 52% of Halloween candy sales last year, compared with 44% this year, as shoppers shift toward cheaper, trendier sweets.
“Macroeconomic headwinds” are among the culprits, said Sally Wyatt, who works for Circana analyzing global consumer packaged goods and as a food-service industry advisor. “It’s the compounded impact on top of the fact that we’ve outpaced wage growth. So consumers have started to … [make] very specific choices on discretionary items.”
Sector-wide, candy prices are outpacing the national inflation rate, marking a roughly 10% increase compared with last year, according to the Century Foundation. Still, the National Retail Federation said 2025 is expected to be a record year for candy sales in the U.S., with about $3.9 billion spent on Halloween candy alone.
“Even as consumers face higher prices for food, they continue to leave room in their budgets for chocolate and candy, meaning that the category is strong, vibrant and growing,” Carly Schildhaus, a spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association, told CNBC.
Much of the chocolate filling U.S. shelves this fall was made from cocoa beans purchased at record prices last December, when futures peaked above $12,000 per ton, experts said. Prices have since cooled to around $6,000, but that’s still more than double the pre-pandemic average.
A cocktail of rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, drought and crop disease for the past three years has devastated harvests in West Africa, which produces roughly 70% of the world’s cocoa. The result: the largest global cocoa deficit in 60 years, with supply falling half a million tons short of demand.
Prices could stabilize, but not decrease, by next year as crop yields have increased, said David Branch, a sector manager at Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute.
“It’s not just the cost of manufacturing cocoa and other ingredients,” Branch told CNBC. “It’s also a combination of labor, transportation, fuel, overhead [and] all of those factors, and, given the inflationary rate we’ve been in, those came up and haven’t really come down.”
Hershey said Thursday that tariff expenses will cost the company $160 million to $170 million this year. In July, it also announced a “low double-digit” price hike, though executives said those increases weren’t tied to tariffs or Halloween pricing.
Chocolate makers have lobbied the Trump administration for tariff exemptions on cocoa and other agricultural imports, arguing they have little ability to source those ingredients domestically.
Sweet variety
As chocolate becomes more expensive, fruity, sour and chewy candies have gotten more popular. More than half of shoppers said they planned to prioritize gummy candies for Halloween this year, NielsenIQ found.
On average, the price per pound of chocolate rose nearly 14% in the 12 weeks ending Oct. 5, while sales volumes fell 6%, Circana data show. Non-chocolate Halloween candy such as Jolly Ranchers and Skittles saw sales climb 8.3% in that same period.
Younger adults, especially Gen Z, are also fueling growth in non-chocolate categories — gravitating toward gummies, freeze-dried sweets and TikTok-friendly flavor mashups.
“It’s that experiential [aspect] because you can have it [non-chocolate items] with chewy, with sweet flavors, with hot and sweet, spicy flavors,” Wyatt told CNBC. “Some candies you get this big explosion in your mouth of flavors. We’ve seen it popular with different cohorts.”
Chocolate makers are responding in kind. Hershey has expanded its gummy lineup, including a partnership with Shaquille O’Neal, and rolled out ghost-shaped Twizzlers and mismatched “Trickies” Jolly Rancher gummies.
Mondelez International, maker of Cadbury and Toblerone, said it’s also prioritizing gummies in the U.S. market. CEO Dirk Van de Put said on an earnings call Tuesday, however, that the U.S. market in particular “is slower than we’ve seen in quite a while” and the company’s promotional strategy earlier this year “was not giving us the volume effect that we were hoping for.”
Manufacturers are also experimenting with smaller bars, new fillings and cocoa-free options such as crème or nut-based confections to offset rising ingredient costs, Branch said.
“Companies have got to be very aware of if they can keep their prices in line. They can’t just keep increasing their prices and expect sales to continue to go up,” Branch said. “But customers have not lost their appetite for chocolate. It’s going to remain an indulgence that people will always have and can’t really do without.”
Business
Nike tops earnings estimates but shares fall as China sales plunge, tariffs hit profits
A shopper carries Nike bags in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nike on Thursday posted quarterly earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s estimates, as strength in North America helped to offset a plunge in China sales.
The company’s stock slid more than 6% in extended trading Thursday, as investors digested the weakness in China and the sustained hit Nike is taking from higher tariffs.
Here’s what Nike reported for its second fiscal quarter of 2026, according to consensus estimates from LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 53 cents vs. 38 cents expected
- Revenue: $12.43 billion vs. $12.22 billion expected
The athletic apparel retailer said sales in North America rose 9% to $5.63 billion. But revenue in its Greater China market dropped 17% to $1.42 billion.
The sneaker company is just over a year into CEO Elliott Hill’s turnaround strategy, focusing on regaining its growth and market share, clearing out old inventory and investing in wholesale relationships.
“Fiscal year ’26 continues to be a year of taking action to rightsize our classics business, return Nike digital to a premium experience, diversify our product portfolio, deepen our consumer connection, strengthen our partner relationships and realign our teams and leadership,” Hill said on a call with analysts. “And I say we’re in the middle inning of our comeback.”
“We’re nowhere near our potential,” he added.
Hill said Nike’s improvements in its China market are “not happening at the level or the pace we need to drive wider change,” though he said the country remains one of the company’s most powerful long-term opportunities.
Nike expects fiscal third quarter revenues to fall by a low single digit percentage, with modest growth in North America. It also anticipates gross margins will drop 1.75 to 2.25 percentage points – including a 3.15 percentage point hit from tariffs.
The company said wholesale revenues climbed 8% to $7.5 billion during the quarter. But direct sales — which were a focus for Nike in the years before Hill took over and moved away from the strategy — fell 8% to $4.6 billion.
Nike has also been feeling the impact of tariff increases. It said Thursday that its gross margin decreased by 3 percentage points and inventories dropped 3% primarily due to higher tariffs.
The sneaker company has been reporting weakness in its Converse brand, too. In its first fiscal quarter, Nike said Converse sales dropped 27% – on Thursday, it reported a 30% drop in revenues for the sneaker brand.
Despite the weakness in some parts of Nike’s business, the company highlighted some areas of strength and new initiatives ahead. CFO Matt Friend said on the call that Nike.com posted its best Black Friday ever this year, partially driven by its Air Jordan “Black Cat” launch.
Nike also plans to launch a new footwear platform in January called Nike Mind, which aims to help athletes prepare for performance and competition, Hill said on the call.
Nike has been making larger internal changes under Hill.
Earlier this month, Nike underwent leadership changes to “remove layers,” according to Hill. Under its “Win Now” strategy, the company announced that Chief Commercial Officer Craig Williams would leave the sneaker giant.
Hill called the shakeup a move “about growth and offense.”
“Collectively, these changes amount to us eliminating layers and better positioning Nike to continue to have an impact the way only Nike can,” Hill said in a statement at the time.
Nike shares have dropped more than 13% this year as of Thursday’s close.
Business
Trump signs executive order reclassifying cannabis, opening door to broader weed access
U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office to sign executive orders, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Dec. 18, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing federal agencies to reclassify marijuana, loosening long-standing restrictions on the drug and marking the most consequential shift in U.S. cannabis policy in more than half a century.
The order, once finalized by the Drug Enforcement Administration, moves cannabis out of Schedule I classification — the most restrictive category under the Controlled Substances Act, alongside heroin and LSD — to a Schedule III classification, which encompasses substances with accepted medical use and a lower potential for abuse, such as ketamine and Tylenol with codeine.
“This action has been requested by American patients suffering from extreme pain, incurable diseases, aggressive cancers, seizure disorders, neurological problems and more, including numerous veterans with service-related injuries, and older Americans who live with chronic medical problems that severely degrade their quality of life,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, led by Dr. Mehmet Oz, is expected to launch a pilot program in April enabling certain Medicare-covered seniors to receive free, doctor-recommended CBD products, which must comply with all local and state laws on quality and safety, according to senior White House officials. The products must also come from a legally compliant source and undergo third-party testing for CBD levels and contaminants.
Shares of cannabis conglomerates were down following the announcement, likely from worries of new compeititon from international companies.
Trulieve’s stock finished the day down about 23%, Green Thumb Industries fell more than 16% and Tilray Brands fell about about 4% as of close on Thursday. The AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF, which tracks American operators, slid almost 27%.
“Millions of registered patients across the United States, many of them veterans, rely on cannabis for relief from chronic and debilitating symptoms. We commend the administration for taking this historic step. This is only the beginning,” Ben Kovler, founder and CEO of Green Thumb, said in a statement to CNBC.
The reclassification is viewed by many analysts as a financial lifeline for the cannabis industry. The move exempts companies from IRS Code Section 280E, allowing them to deduct standard expenses like rent and payroll for the first time. It also opens the door for banking access and institutional capital previously sidelined by compliance fears.
Many on Wall Street also expect the changes and the Medicare pilot to draw major pharmaceutical players into the sector to chase federally insured revenue.
While CBD has surged in popularity in recent years, with infused consumer goods ranging from seltzers to skin care, the Food and Drug Administration has stopped short of granting the compound its full backing.
Studies have found “inconsistent benefits” for targeted conditions, while FDA-funded research warns that prolonged CBD use can cause liver toxicity and interfere with other lifesaving medications.
Currently, the FDA has only approved one CBD-based drug, Epidiolex, for rare forms of epilepsy.
“I want to emphasize that the order … doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug,” Trump said.
Experts and industry insiders told CNBC this week that a reclassification could pave the way for more research into the effects of CBD use.
Business
SHANTI shields N-plants from safety oversight: Experts – The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The new nuclear energy bill, which was passed in Rajya Sabha by voice vote after a four-hour discussion while rejecting many amendments moved by opposition to send it to a parliamentary panel for scrutiny, marks a decisive shift in India’s nuclear governance, embedding safety oversight in law across the lifecycle of an atomic plant, unlike the existing framework that relied largely on executive discretion and post-accident accountability.Sustainable Harnessing of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill will allow private participation in India’s tightly controlled civil nuclear sector as the country seeks to meet its clean energy goals by 2047. As opposition raised safety and liability concerns, officials said it establishes a statutory safety regime that ensures continuous compliance rather than reliance on one-time permissions. It seeks to provide for a “pragmatic civil liability regime for nuclear damage and confer statutory status to Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB)”.Officials said unlike the previous law – in which nuclear safety oversight was shaped largely by broad executive authority and administrative rules – SHANTI fundamentally recasts the framework by shifting to a “statutory, lifecycle-based regulatory regime”. Govt manages radiation risks and radioactive waste, but does not mandate separate safety authorisations or legally bind safety obligations to each phase of a nuclear plant’s life. AERB’s stage-wise consent process for construction, commissioning and operation existed only as an administrative practice. Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act, 2010 further reinforced a post-accident approach by focusing on compensation and insurance rather than prevention.“These laws (Atomic Energy Act and CLND Act) treated safety primarily as a post-damage responsibility, rather than a proactive governance requirement,” said an official. SHANTI separates “permission to operate” from “permission to operate safely”, requiring both a licence and an independent safety authorisation. Any activity involving radiation exposure risk – including construction, operation, transport, storage, decommissioning, or waste management – will now require explicit safety approval.It also consolidates regulation, enforcement, civil liability and dispute resolution within a single statute, reducing legal complexity and compliance uncertainty. “It grants a clear statutory authority to AERB to inspect facilities, investigate incidents, issue binding directions, and suspend or cancel operations that do not meet safety standards. Regulatory action is no longer dependent on executive discretion. Accident prevention is significantly enhanced by legally recognising serious risk situations as nuclear incidents, even without actual damage,” said the official. Core functions such as fuel enrichment, spent-fuel reprocessing, and heavy water production will remain exclusively under Centre’s control.Anujesh Dwivedi, partner at Deloitte India, said continuing with the existing legal framework would make it difficult for nuclear energy to replace thermal power in the long run. “Over decades, India added only about 8GW of nuclear capacity. Scaling this up to 100GW by 2047- and potentially 300GW or more by 2070 – required major reforms, which these regulations seek to address,” he said.Meanwhile, PM Modi said passing of the bill marks a “transformational moment for our technology landscape”.
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