Author: starbpo

Since she started running for president two weeks ago, Vice President Kamala Harris has risen quickly in the polls and now leads former President Donald Trump across the country, according to groups that collect polls. As she gets ready for next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the California Democrat has more work to do to win over voters in swing states, who tend to be more conservative than the average American. Usually, presidential candidates try to win over undecided voters by softening their economic views. But Chris Meekins, a Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, says Harris might be…

Economists say that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will set the stage for a September interest rate cut in his speech next week in Jackson Hole. The actual size of the move will depend on the August jobs data that comes out a week later. In a note to clients, Krishna Guha, vice chairman of Evercore ISI, said that Powell will set the tone for future monetary easing by stressing the need to be “proactive” rather than “reactive” with rate cuts. The Fed won’t decide on the specifics until September 6, when they see the August employment data. “This is…

The Japanese company that owns the famous 7-Eleven convenience store chain said Monday that a Canadian competitor has made an offer to buy it out after its stock price went up. Alimentation Couche-Tard ATD -0.32% has sent Seven & I Holdings 3382 22.71% an offer to buy the company. This comes after the company’s stock rose 23% after a Nikkei report about the talks. Seven & I said it has set up a special committee to look over the proposal and put together a list of its own plans and other ways to increase the value of the company. Alimentation…

Monday saw a big drop in the prices of European defence contractors after news came out that Germany would stop giving new military aid to Ukraine. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, internal documents and letters from Finance Minister Christian Lindner show that Berlin will continue to give the approved aid, and future aid will come from the sale of frozen Russian assets. BMW shares (RHM -4.13%) fell 4%, and BAE Systems shares (BA -2.89%) fell 3%. Shares in Thales HO -1.34%, Rolls-Royce RR -2.16%, and Leonardo LDO -1.59% also went down. The aerospace and defence index SXPARO 0.26% on…

Stormy Weather Ernesto turned back into a hurricane on Sunday as it moved away from Bermuda and out into the northeastern Atlantic. It sent huge waves towards the East Coast of the United States, which caused rip currents that killed one person and required many rescues. The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said that Ernesto had sustained winds of up to 75 mph, which is just about Category 1 strength. The hurricane centre said that Ernesto would get stronger over the next 12 hours. On Tuesday, it would weaken and become a post-tropical cyclone. The storm’s centre was about 520…

At the start of the year, tech executives were sure that a new generation of phones and PCs powered by artificial intelligence would bring new customers to those categories that were having a hard time. They might have had too much hope. The most recent data shows that the shift in how people use AI is still moving slowly. This week, Alphabet GOOGL 1.03%’s Google showed off its newest Pixel smartphones, which are said to have AI features like the ability to turn text into images and enhance photos in new ways. They don’t seem interesting enough to make people…

Bulls in Nvidia Corp. have come back with a vengeance, pulling the stock of the leading artificial intelligence and semiconductor company out of the abyss and to its best weekly performance in over a year. Before this week, Nvidia shares NVDA 1.40% had fallen into a bear market because investors were pulling their money out of big tech companies and there were worries that the release of Nvidia’s new Blackwell chip might be pushed back. This made people worry that the AI bubble was popping. The stock had been going down for four weeks in a row, down 19% as…

Fed Chair Jerome Powell might not be as enthusiastic about rate cuts as the White House. Traders remain overly confident about the pace and scope of the Fed’s lowering agenda, even if bond markets have tempered expectations for a fifty basis point rate decrease in September following alarming PPI data last week. “The assumption that the last employment report all but guarantees a September rate cut has driven market pricing… and if that assumption is wrong, pricing may suffer a harsh reversal.” Tim Duy, the head economist at SGH Macro Advisors and a seasoned Fed observer, believes that. Despite Powell’s…

Investors hope Fed Chair Jerome Powell will set the table for rate cuts in September during his Friday speech at Jackson Hole Even if the Federal Reserve pivots back to rate cuts in September, a wall of cash isn’t likely to flee money-market funds for stocks, a Goldman Sachs strategist says. U.S. stocks finished mostly unchanged on Monday – near record highs – with investors focused on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s coming speech Friday at the central bank’s summer Jackson Hole, Wyo., summit. Surprisingly resilient second-quarter earnings have been helping drive the stock market to record levels, but hopes…

Notwithstanding his mixed track record, Chamath Palihapitiya has taken what some may view as a dangerous step by establishing a new special purpose acquisition business. Palihapitiya described what will be known as the American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp., which is formed in the Cayman Islands tax haven, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The new SPAC will look to acquire or integrate a business in the decentralized finance, energy production, artificial intelligence, or defense sectors. Palihapitiya’s investment history is covered in the S-1 filing, including his time as a Facebook executive, his achievements as a venture capitalist who has backed…