Author: News Room

The numbers: A survey of consumer sentiment fell to a four-month low of 62 in March on growing worries about a recession. The final reading in March was down from an original 63.4, the University of Michigan said. The index registered 67 in February. Consumer sentiment helps gauge how Americans feel about their own finances as well as the broader economy. Key details: A gauge that measures what consumers think about the current state of the economy dropped to 66.3 in March from 70.7in the prior month. More notably, a measure that asks about expectations for the next six months…

The numbers: Mortgage rates dipped to the lowest level in two months, but buyers are still finding the housing market challenging as the number of homes for sale remain low.  The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.28% as of April 4, according to data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday.  The 30-year was at the lowest level in eight weeks. That’s down 4 basis points from the previous week — one basis point is equal to one hundredth of a percentage point.  Last week, the 30-year was at 6.32%. Last year, the 30-year was averaging at 4.72% The average rate on…

Don’t miss these top money and investing features: Sign up here to get MarketWatch’s best mutual funds and ETF stories emailed to you weekly!INVESTING NEWS & TRENDSETF investors showed ‘a lot of restraint’ in the first quarter. Here’s why bonds won them over. Bonds have been the hot spot for money flowing into exchange-traded funds this year.  Read More Stock market is pushing back as investors look for a confidence boost S&P 500 shows stronger support at 3970. A close below 3950 would be bearish, writes Lawrence McMillan. Read MoreNasdaq and Dow have split in a way that isn’t healthy for…

The outlook for corporate profits during the first quarter is looking pretty gloomy.But a team of analysts at Goldman Sachs Group see hope for individual companies that could manage to buck the trend by delivering on four areas of critical importance to investors. Analysts cut their outlook pretty aggressively as the economic outlook deteriorated during the first quarter. As a result, operating profits are expected to have shrunk by 6.8% last quarter, according to an average of Wall Street forecasts compiled by FactSet. If this comes to pass, it would mark the worst quarterly contraction since the third quarter of…

A conservative Texas judge on Friday put a dent in the blue wall of abortion rights protections, issuing an order that could suspend approval of a drug used in medication abortions by women across the country – including in states with robust protections in place. The decision from District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk could represent the biggest blow to abortion rights in the US since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. That ruling upended the 2022 midterm elections, prompting a backlash that helped Democrats outperform expectations at almost every level of government. Kacsmaryk paused his ruling for…

Rumours that the Emmy Award-winning writer and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the frontrunner to write and direct the next James Bond film may be slightly implausible — the 37-year-old has hitherto never directed anything and the film’s producers have intimated that the next Bond is still some years away. But the fevered anticipation that has met the possibility of a “Fleabag Bond” illustrates the extent to which Waller-Bridge’s brand of salty, hypersexualised feminism has penetrated our cultural lives.Based on her one-woman stage play of the same name, Fleabag was a two-series tragicomedy about a young woman coming to terms with…

Bar Harbor Bankshares (NYSE:BHB) is a Northern New England regional bank headquartered in Bar Harbor, Maine, with 53 branches stretching from Maine through New Hampshire to Vermont. The bank ended 2022 well-capitalized, diversified across interest and non-interest income sources, and more profitable (as measured by its net interest margin) than it has been in years. But that was at year-end 2022. Since then, small banks like BHB have seen a massive outflow of deposits. In the month of March, small banks suffered a collective deposit outflow of $165 billion. Chartr Some of this money is going to larger banks, some…

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Demonstrators forced their way into the building that houses BlackRock’s office in Paris Thursday, taking their protest against the government’s pension reforms to the world’s biggest money manager. Videos shared on social media showed protesters entering the Centorial office block, located near the Opéra Garnier opera house, holding red flares and firing smoke bombs. About 100 people, including representatives of several labor unions, were on the ground floor of the building for about 10 minutes, chanting anti-reform slogans. BlackRock’s office is located on the third floor. “The meaning of this action is quite simple. We went to the headquarters of…