Author: starbpo

This is SAINT-DENIS, France. Noah Lyles beat Kishane Thompson of Jamaica by.005 seconds to win the 100-meter race at the Olympics on Sunday. It took him about 30 seconds after the race was over to find out that he had won, making it one of the closest sprints in history. After Lyles, Thompson, and five others crossed the line, the word “Photo” appeared next to their names on the scoreboard. Lyles walked along the track with his arms around his head. Things finally got better. It took Lyles 9.784 seconds to beat the Jamaican by a tiny bit more than…

A lot of people think that McDonald’s Corp. could offer deals like the ones its restaurants in other countries do since their second-quarter earnings were not as good as expected. More specifically, McDonald’s can be found in Australia, Germany, and France. MCD 2.95% has released a platform called McSmart that has value choices. Like a McSmart meal, which has two sandwiches (burger and chicken) with fries and a drink. This is different from the $5 American McDonald’s value meal, which has a sandwich, four Chicken McNuggets, fries, and a drink. From social media posts like this one, it looks like…

An after-tax operating profit of $11.6 billion was made by Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B -0.80% in the second quarter. This was due to higher profits from selling insurance and more income from the company’s large cash reserves. During that time, the company bought back only $345 million worth of stock. This was one of the lowest quarterly totals seen in a number of years. In the first quarter of 2024, it was $2.6 billion, and in the fourth quarter of 2023, it was $2.2 billion. On June 30, Berkshire’s total cash rose to a record $277 billion, up from $189 billion…

This weekend, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is meeting with six possible running mates. Next week, she will make an official announcement and go on a fighting tour with her new running mate. Two people who know how Harris chose her candidates say that she plans to meet Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Tim Walz of Minnesota, as well as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The people were given anonymity so they could talk about secret campaign discussions. Even though her selection process was cut short,…

Wednesday, Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve, put a “heavy thumb” on the scale in favor of lowering interest rates as soon as the next policy meeting in September. When asked what would happen next, he didn’t say much. Author Johnathan Pingle, an economist at UBS, told MarketWatch, “There hasn’t been a lot of talk about what happens” after September. When the Fed met on Wednesday, its interest rate stayed the same, somewhere between 5.25% and 5.5%. Rates have been this high for a year. After the press meeting, economists said it looks like the rate will be…

Warren Buffett’s company made $47 billion in stock sales in the second quarter after he cut Berkshire Hathaway’s huge share in Apple. However, earnings were lower than expected because the paper value of its remaining investments went down, even though many of the companies it owns did better. The biggest news of the quarter was that the company sold off a lot of its Apple AAPL 0.69% shares. Buffett once said that the company’s stake in the iPhone maker was a cornerstone of its business that he planned to keep forever. Other big investment moves Buffett made during the quarter…

This week wasn’t good for Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s price, based on the numbers. It’s still possible for AMD shares to drop 3% this week, even though the company reported good earnings. If you look at it another way, AMD AMD -0.03% could end up being one of the biggest winners this week. The company’s earnings showed that artificial intelligence was going in a good direction, and Intel Corp.’s earnings showed that AMD would likely continue to gain from Intel’s mistakes. Because of this new information, AMD shares are up 2.6% on Friday, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX is…

Troubled chipmaker Intel Corp.’s bonds were getting smashed on Friday as the stock fell to a 50-year low. As the selling sped up, spreads widened by 15 to 20 basis points. To make things even worse, S&P Global Ratings changed Intel’s A-minus rating to CreditWatch Negative, which means that the company could soon lose its credit ranking. This is because the rating agency said in a statement that they think the company will likely miss the free cash flow and possible leverage targets that are in line with its current rating. The earnings report from Intel INTC -26.06% late Thursday…

For months, stores have been telling customers that spending is going to be tough. It looks like not even Amazon.com Inc. is safe. Amazon’s AMZN -8.78% stock price has been moving a lot lately because of the company’s progress in cloud computing. Amazon delivered on AWS in the most recent quarter with 19% growth, which was better than expected and faster than the previous quarter. But Amazon shares were punished on Friday when the company posted a miss on overall revenue. They fell about 9%. According to what the company said, consumers being careful could slow down the growth of…

Intel Corp.’s stock just had its worst daily drop in decades, dropping 26%. This took more than $30 billion off the market value of the company. The company is in the middle of a $10 billion cost-cutting plan that includes ending the dividend, laying off a lot of workers, and cutting capital costs. All of this is happening while the company is burning cash and facing strong margin pressure. These problems seem to be enough to make investors very worried, but maybe Intel’s stock INTC -26.06% drop would have been even worse if the company didn’t have one important thing…