Author: starbpo

There was a huge rise in the U.S. stock market in 2024, but things have gone wrong in December. As a result, investors have gone back to what they know how to do: buying up shares of megacap tech giants. People have long called these stocks the “Magnificent Seven,” but since Broadcom Inc. shares recently climbed above $1 trillion in market value, they have been given a new name: the “BATMMAAN stocks.” Broadcom is in the group, along with the seven original Magnificent Seven companies: Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) -2.09%, Tesla Inc. (TSLA) -4.95%, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) -1.45%, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)…

Jimmy Carter has done a lot of amazing things in his life and as president. He won the Nobel Peace Prize, helped make the Camp David Accords, fought for human rights around the world, built homes for Habitat for Humanity, and turned 100 years old. A big moment is coming up for a lot of Americans, but most of them can’t afford it. It’s a big deal to reach the triple-digit mark. According to the Carter Center, Carter is spending the day with his family at his simple home in Plains, Ga. He is the only president to have lived…

Jimmy Carter died on Sunday. During his one time in office, inflation rose, and he is remembered for his humanitarian work around the world. He was 100 years old and the 39th president of the country.There was peace at Carter’s home in Plains, Ga., where he was with his family, the Carter Center said in a statement Sunday. In his message, President Joe Biden said that the world had lost a “extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian.” He also said that he had lost a close friend.Biden said in a statement, “To all of our young people and anyone else who…

So far, investors who were looking for a Santa Rally have been let down. Futures for stock indexes show that Wall Street will have a hard time getting back on track on Monday after the S&P 500 SPX -1.11% dropped 1.1% at the end of last week. One reason to be careful is that bond rates are going up. The standard 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y +4.593% hit its highest level in seven months on Friday. It has gone up almost a full percentage point since September, even though the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate. Concerns that President-elect Donald…

Wall Street sold almost everything on Friday, the last Friday of 2024, which caused stocks to fall. The Nasdaq Composite COMP -1.49% had a rough time, especially when people sold off Big Tech and chip stocks. These stocks moved: Tesla TSLA -4.95% dropped 5%, making its losses from Thursday even bigger than they were on Friday, when the car company dropped 1.8%. The price of Tesla TSLA -4.95% has gone up 74% this year. The company that makes electric cars will announce fourth-quarter deliveries next week. Wall Street thinks Tesla will deliver about 510 cars, which would be a record…

After a rough year of big drops in the prices of stocks related to the business of approved marijuana in the U.S., investors in cannabis stocks will surely be hoping for a better year in 2025. It’s almost the end of 2024, and the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF MSOS -3.29% is down 48% for the year. Curaleaf Holdings (CURLF -2.56%) has lost about 62% of its value this year, Verano Holdings (VRNOF -1.64%) has lost about 73%, Trulieve (TCNNF -1.36%) has lost about 7.5%, Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF +0.78%) has lost 31%, and Cresco Labs (CRLBF +0.18%) has lost…

Let’s have a happy new year! As the year comes to a close in 2024, there are a lot of stories about tax-loss harvesting. This is the act of selling losing stocks before the end of the year to avoid paying taxes on the gains from other investments sold during the year. Perhaps this seems like a strange idea, since it is most likely better to make money and pay taxes than to lose money and not pay taxes. But if you still want to get out of the lost trades, you can deduct more of your current year’s capital…

After drawing the lucky number, at least one Mega Millions player has a lot of money to celebrate the New Year. The Mega Millions website says that a ticket worth about $1.22 billion was bought in California for the drawing on Friday night, three months after the jackpot had not been won. The lucky ticket matched the gold Mega Ball 6 with the white balls 3, 7, 37, 49, and 55. It wasn’t clear right away who the winner or winners were. The full Mega Millions jackpot amount would only be given to a winner who decides to get payments…

Many of the stocks that lose the most in a given year will jump after tax-loss selling ends. It’s not as easy as it might look to tax-loss harvest your lost stocks in less than two weeks.Getting rid of a loser by December 31 is the easy part of selling for tax losses. You can use the loss to lower your 2024 taxable capital gains as long as you keep the stock in a taxable account. The tricky part comes when you think that your stock is still a good investment even though it lost money. For 30 days after…

Gold and cryptocurrencies have been having a great end to the year. Both bitcoin and gold have reached all-time highs. In 2024, digital and real assets all of a sudden had a lot in common. But it will be their differences that can help investors balance their portfolios in the coming year. Bitcoin might seem like a competitor to gold because both are alternative assets that can help lower risk in a traditional portfolio, according to Edmund Moy, senior IRA analyst for U.S. Money Reserve, a company that sells precious metals. People who are bullish on cryptocurrencies have long called…