Author: News Room

One of the first financial calculations I did with my father in the early 1980s was regarding the decision of a home purchase. The question we addressed was should the person pay cash or get a mortgage. We did the calculation using Lotus 1-2-3, a better spreadsheet program than VisiCalc, and the precursor to Microsoft Excel. We kept adding feature after feature to the analysis. Your cash would be put in a taxable account. You would have to pay tax on interest, dividends, and capital gains. Assuming you itemized, you would receive a mortgage interest tax deduction. We had to…

As 2023 dawned it seemed the used-vehicle market was finally settling back down to some degree of normalcy after a pandemic’s worth of events fell into place like the components in a Rube Goldberg invention to drive up prices precipitously. Used-car prices that climbed by a whopping 45% from June 2020 to June 2021 fell by 8.8% over the 12-month period ending this past December, which seemed like good news for shoppers. Unfortunately, experts caution that the roller coaster ride is expected to continue with regard to pre-owned vehicle prices. The just-released Manheim Used Vehicle Index suggests that prices of…

Electronic Arts stock (NASDAQ NDAQ : EA) is up 7% in the last two months and looks like it has more room for growth. EA stock has risen from $117 in early February to $125 now. This performance compares with a -0.3% return for the broader S&P500 index. Looking at a slightly longer term, EA stock is up 16% from levels in late 2019. This can be attributed to 1. a 47% rise in Electronic Arts revenue to $7.3 billion, 2. its average shares outstanding falling 8% to 274 million, partly offset by 3. the company’s P/S ratio, which plunged…

(Bloomberg) — Traders raised the odds of another quarter-point rate increase by the Federal Reserve in May in the wake of strong employment data released Friday during a holiday-shortened session. Swap contracts referencing Fed meeting dates repriced to levels indicating more than 80% odds of the US central bank raising its policy rate range to 5%-5.25% on May 3. The May contract’s rate increased to just over 5.03%, a level 20 basis points higher than the effective policy rate has been since the last increase. The repricing accompanied a move higher in Treasury yields to their highest levels in several…

By Peter Nurse Investing.com – The U.S. dollar slipped lower in early European trade Tuesday, handing back some of the previous session’s gains amid uncertainty over the future path of the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking cycle. At 03:05 ET (07:05 GMT), the , which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded 0.2% lower to 102.013, having risen 0.4% last session, bouncing off a two-month low last week. Friday’s official jobs report, released on the Good Friday holiday, had given the greenback a boost as it showed a resilient labor market, with increasing by 236,000 jobs last month,…

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia started fuel exports to Iran by rail this year for the first time after traditional buyers shunned trade with Moscow, according to three industry sources and exports data. Russia and Iran, both under Western sanctions, are forging closer ties in order to support their economies and to undermine Western sanctions which both Moscow and Tehran cast as unjustified. Western sanctions on Russian oil products over what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine have reshaped global fuel markets with tankers taking longer routes and suppliers choosing exotic destinations and ways of transportation. Iran has been…

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Barclays’ CEO Jes Staley arrives at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain january 11, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge rejected requests to sever JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:)’s lawsuit accusing former executive Jes Staley of concealing what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein from two related lawsuits over its work for the late sex offender. Monday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan is a defeat for Staley, who said the scheduled Oct. 23 trial for all three cases left him too little time to defend against…

A record share of consumers in March said credit standards were tighter than a year ago, according to a new look at consumer expectations that also showed people predicting their access to credit would only narrow in the year ahead. After Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in early March, experts and policymakers predicted one outcome would be tighter credit access from banks that were feeling the jitters about their lending approaches. In an ongoing look at consumer perceptions, just over 58% of those polled said it was either “much harder” or “somewhat harder” to tap some form of…

Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc. VORB, -17.20% on Monday said that the Nasdaq planned to delist its shares after the developer of space-launch systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week and said it was looking for a buyer. Trading will be suspended on April 13, although the company plans to appeal the decision. Shares fell nearly 16% after hours on Monday. Virgin Orbit has reportedly planned to halt operations and lay off around 85% of its staff, after it was unable to secure funding. Nasdaq also said Virgin Orbit is not compliant with listing guidelines because it has not…

The U.S. is facing a long, shallow recession instead of a “deep and long credit crunch contraction” after the Federal Reserve’s tightening of monetary policy over the past year, according to Mizuho Securities. “The Fed always tightens until something breaks!” said Steven Ricchiuto, U.S. chief economist at Mizuho Securities USA, in a new note. “The key question markets have to answer right now is which type of credit dislocation the economy is dealing with following the regional bank debacle.”   A “systemic credit crunch” can sometimes emerge after the Fed tightens its policy to tame inflation, while other times “idiosyncratic issues…