Author: News Room

The top two senators on the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs called the Biden administration’s plan to reduce veterans’ health care staffing a “mess” that could undercut the timing and quality of care. In a letter sent to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough Monday, Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, and Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, demanded to know why the VA has paused hiring and planned to cut 10,000 full-time jobs despite veterans across the nation experiencing long wait times for care. Their letter, obtained by CNN, called VA’s apparent “zero growth” policy a “drastic” and “shortsighted” decision.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Global sales of handbags and perfumes made by LVMH account for a larger share of France’s exports than all of the Camembert and wine produced by the country’s famed agricultural sector. The Paris-based luxury leader accounted for 4 per cent of all French exports last year, according to a study by consultancy Asterès for LVMH released on Thursday. The €23.5bn value of its goods heading abroad last year beat the 3.2 per cent contribution of the entire agricultural sector, reinforcing the importance…

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 18, 2024 10:00 AM ET Company Participants Jay Staley – Director of Investor Relations and Corporate DevelopmentGeorge Gleason – Chairman and Chief Executive OfficerBrannon Hamblen – PresidentTim Hicks – Chief Financial OfficerCynthia Wolfe – Chief Operating Officer Conference Call Participants Stephen Scouten – Piper SandlerCatherine Mealor – KBWMatt Olney – StephensMichael Rose – Raymond JamesManan Gosalia – Morgan StanleyTimur Braziler – Wells FargoBenjamin Gerlinger – CitiBrian Martin – Janney Montgomery ScottBrandon King – TruistSamuel Varga – UBS Operator Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bank OZK…

Last updated: April 18, 2024 10:47 EDT | 2 min read In a note to clients, Goldman Sachs, one the world’s largest investment bank, advised against extrapolating data from previous Bitcoin halving cycles due to macroeconomic changes.Every four years, the “halving” event occurs, in which the per-block Bitcoin (BTC) emissions are cut in half. The next halving is in 2 days, and it will see rewards cut to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC, essentially halving the rate of new supply.This creates artificial scarcity, which increases demand, and has historically preceded massive multi-month BTC rallies – something the cryptocurrency community believes…

Mortgage rates soared this week, breaching the key 7% threshold and extending America’s housing affordability crisis. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.10% in the week ending April 18, up from 6.88% the previous week, according to Freddie Mac data released Thursday. A year ago, the average 30-year fixed-rate was 6.39%. Breaching 7% represents a psychological threshold that hadn’t yet been crossed this year and adds to pressures buffeting the US housing market during the crucial spring homebuying season. Mortgage rates are climbing based on expectations that the Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates anytime soon. The Fed doesn’t directly set…

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Duolingo — The online language app company popped 7.5% after JPMorgan reiterated its overweight rating on the stock , saying it has an attractive risk/reward and potential upside for its first-quarter guide and 2024 outlook. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — U.S.-traded shares of the Taiwanese chipmaker dropped 3.6% after the company noted that, although it did not experience structural damage, some wafers “had to be scrapped” after the earthquake in Taiwan earlier in April. Most of the lost production will be recovered in the second quarter, according to management. The company still beat…

Hedge funds and other money managers have been stepping up wagers on gold as the bullion reached a series of new highs on the back of reaccelerating inflation. Overweighting precious metals has become the consensus among the largest money managers, with 83% of them being long the asset class, a new Citi analysis of top investors overseeing more than $18 trillion showed. The study also found that gold is the only commodity that big allocators added to over the past month. Gold futures settled at a record high above $2,400 an ounce this week. The precious metal is coming off…

The arrival of spring means a new group of college graduates will soon be entering the workforce in earnest and facing financial choices that will impact their futures. Between planning for retirement, saving for other goals like purchasing a home or raising children, dealing with student loans and managing their credit, new college graduates who may be inexperienced in handling their finances will have to proceed strategically, or they may have to regroup to meet their financial goals.”There’s a plethora of students that really struggle financially because a lot of them are graduating with debt, a lot of them don’t…

Our goal here at Credible Operations, Inc., NMLS Number 1681276, referred to as “Credible” below, is to give you the tools and confidence you need to improve your finances. Although we do promote products from our partner lenders who compensate us for our services, all opinions are our own. Borrowers with good credit seeking personal loans during the past seven days prequalified for rates that were higher for 3-year loans and lower for 5-year loans when compared to fixed-rate loans for the seven days before. For borrowers with credit scores of 720 or higher who used the Credible marketplace to…

More student loan forgiveness is here, this time for 78,000 public service workers. Nurses, teachers, firefighters and a large array of other workers qualify for President Biden’s $6 billion in forgiveness, the White House recently announced.  Due to fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, workers that never received forgiveness are now having their debts partially forgiven or canceled. Only about 7,000 public service borrowers received forgiveness prior to the Biden Administration, now that total hovers closer to 870,000, the announcement said.This forgiveness comes on the tail of other educational fixes the Biden Administration says it has implemented.…