Author: News Room

April is National Financial Literacy Month. To mark the occasion, MarketWatch will publish a series of “Financial Fitness” articles to help readers improve their fiscal health, and offer advice on how to save, invest and spend their money wisely. Read more here.Ask and you shall receive — unless you’re female, apparently. A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that both men and women often fail to ask for more money than what they are initially offered at a new job. And that’s because 60% of all employed adults said they didn’t ask for higher pay the last time they were negotiating the starting salary.…

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies edged higher after the release of the U.S. jobs report for March. With stock markets closed for Good Friday, cryptos could have been a leading indicator of risk sentiment—but those hopes have so far fallen flat with muted moves. The price of Bitcoin has risen less than 1% over the past 24 hours to near $27,970, up from around $27,900 before the release of the labor market data. The largest digital asset was holding below the $28,000 level at which prices have recently hovered—around the highest level since the crypto crash accelerated last June, though below…

Yamundow Camara grew up in Gambia, West Africa, in a house without electricity and running water. Now she runs a bustling rental-real-estate business in the U.S., where she owns more than $2 million in property, including a “dream house” for her growing family in an Atlanta suburb.  In less than three years of investing, she became a millionaire with multiple sources of income. During most of that time, she was a visa holder. Last year, she became a permanent resident. Camara, 34, is a buy-and-hold investor who rehabs distressed properties and rents them out. Some of her tenants are 12-month lease…

Assured Guaranty Ltd. stock is up 4% in premarket trade Wednesday after the credit product provider to the financial sector said it’s creating the world’s fifth largest asset management business that handles collateralized loan obligations in a transaction with Sound Point Capital Management. Assured Guaranty AGO, +1.51% said the deal that will immediately add to its earnings per share and return on equity and will result in 30% ownership of the combined entity in exchange for 100% of its equity in Assured Investment Management LLC (AssuredIM). Sound Point Capital Management will acquire AssuredIM, which has $15.2 billion in assets under…

Tupperware Brands Corp. late Friday issued a going-concern warning, saying that it has hired financial advisers to help navigate its near-term difficulties. “Tupperware has embarked on a journey to turn around our operations and today marks a critical step in addressing our capital and liquidity position,” Chief Executive Miguel Fernandez said in a statement. “The company is doing everything in its power to mitigate the impacts of recent events, and we are taking immediate action to seek additional financing and address our financial position,” Fernandez said. The advisers would help the company, synonym with storage containers and other kitchen products,…

The Internal Revenue Service is planning a hiring spree for top-tier talent as it uses $80 billion to upgrade the tax agency’s systems and to scrutinize a greater number of the more complicated returns that are filed by corporations and wealthy taxpayers.Now it has to convince people to come aboard at the IRS instead of taking potentially more lucrative work in the private sector. And it has to make that recruiting pitch in the midst of an accountant shortage, and knowing that the prospect of working for the taxman in a politically charged moment may turn off some candidates. On…

Illustration by Elias Stein Even after oil prices surged this past week following a surprise OPEC production cut, oil traders don’t seem convinced prices will keep rising. In fact, oil futures seem to expect prices to retreat after the near-term price shock. While the nearest-term Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were up 6.6%, to $85.05 per barrel, on the week through Thursday, futures expiring in December 2023 rose 4.6%, to $81.50. The fact that December futures are trading at lower levels than today’s prices looks bearish: Why buy oil stocks if oil prices will fall by year end? But…

The numbers: Deposits at U.S. banks rose slightly in the last week of March, but lending to businesses declined for the second week in a row. Deposits rose at both large and small banks, according to data released Friday by the Federal Reserve. The deposit figures are unadjusted. There has been a sharp drop-off in lending. There has been a sharp drop-off in lending since the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Total commercial and industrial loans fell $68 billion over the two weeks since the startling bank run led the government to close the bank. Key details: Deposits at large U.S.-owned…

Inditex plans new U.S. stores and relocations of its Zara retailer. Dreamstime Zara’s owner Inditex is looking to the U.S. as an engine for growth. If American shoppers can be tempted to spend more on its fast-fashion outfits, investors should find the shares are a good fit.  Inditex’s (ticker: ITX.Spain) expansion in the U.S. has been cautious. It only has 101 U.S. stores, having opened its first in New York in 1989.  That could change under CEO Oscar Garcia Maceiras, who has been in charge for just over a year. Over the next two years the company plans 30 projects—including…