Author: starbpo

It wasn’t a good day for the tax man when U.S. lawmakers passed a bill over the weekend to keep the government open before the holidays. Because of the law that President Joe Biden signed on Saturday, over $20 billion that was supposed to help the IRS with its long-term enforcement efforts is now frozen and can’t be used. Since 2022, when the Inflation Reduction Act gave the IRS more money, lawmakers have gone back and forth about giving it more money to make sure people pay their taxes. The goal is to do more audits of high-income households and…

One of the most important parts of last week’s bill to fund the government that wasn’t included was new limits on American investments in China. These limits would have mainly affected advanced technologies like AI, semiconductors, and quantum computers. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who is the top appropriator for the Democrats in the House, has said that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla TSLA +7.36%, worked with Republicans to get that part of the bill taken away to protect his interests in China. According to DeLauro, Musk has “extensive investments in China in key sectors and personal ties with Chinese…

The heads of the Federal Reserve are all determined to stop the worst inflation in 40 years. They still want to reach their goal, but they can’t agree on how high to keep U.S. interest rates. Last week, the central bank cut interest rates for the third time this year. The vote was almost unanimous. Senior officials, on the other hand, seemed to be split into several groups over how much further to go in the next few years. One of the main points of disagreement is how hard the Federal Reserve should try to bring inflation down to its…

Currently, average household equity allocations suggest that the U.S. stock market will deliver a real total return of minus 1.5% annualized over the next four years. More than any other Inauguration Day in U.S. history, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to find a stock market that is too high on his first day in office. Trump is known for seeing the stock market as a measure of his success. If the market does even slightly better than its historical average over the next four years, Trump will have his work cut out for him. Take a look at the table…

Tesla Inc. said it found a problem with its tire pressure tracking system that, if not fixed, increases the risk of a crash. Because of this, the electric car company is recalling about 700,000 cars. The problem can be fixed with an over-the-air software update, which is good news for people who own the recalled cars. Before the market opened, Tesla stock TSLA +2.27% went up 2.8%, which means it’s likely to end a three-day losing run. The stock had dropped 12.3% in the last three days. On December 17, it hit a high of $479.86. That company said owners…

Don’t think that investing in bitcoin BTCUSD -2.00%, which is going up all the time, was the best idea of the year. The cryptocurrency made news when its value shot up by almost 130% in 2024. This was partly due to hopes that the new government in Washington, D.C., would flood the digital-asset industry with public dollars. Financial records show that this year, nearly 400 U.S. stocks and 20 digital currencies gave even better returns. Myra Saefong of BourseWatch says that the humble cocoa bean CC00 -1.40% did the same thing. Once more, cocoa nuts aren’t very useful. Besides making…

Even with Friday’s rise, stocks have been having a hard time before the holidays. If you talk to Mark Hackett, chief market analyst at Nationwide, on the phone, he said that the U.S. stock market had a “breakdown in breadth” at the beginning of December. This came after a strong rally in November. He told them, “I don’t think the traditional ‘Santa Claus rally’ is going to happen because I think you might have already skipped that in November.” After losing 4.6% from December to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.05% has lost most of its gains this…

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not like most other investments: Bitcoin wasn’t created and spread by banks or, like stocks and bonds, by companies and the government. Instead, it was created by an anonymous person. It was quickly picked up by people who wanted to do business without using the usual banking system. At first, almost all of the people who invested in bitcoin were individual buyers. However, that has changed with each rise. Crypto prices went up after Donald Trump won the election on November 5, in part because Trump has positioned himself as a leader who is friendly…

This year, the “Santa Claus rally” might not begin until much later than usual. Still, it’s better late than never. Ned Davis Research’s team of analysts said that stocks have been having a rough time before the “Santa Claus rally” period starts on Tuesday. Some buyers are scared about that. Many people are beginning to wonder if the end-of-year rise will not happen for the second year in a row. But history shows that there is still hope, even if the protest doesn’t start on time: The NDR team says that when stocks are having a rough time in the…

Even though Chinese companies are making a name for themselves in the popular market for electric cars, both at home and abroad, many people in the world’s second-most populous country are ready to buy goods with foreign labels. For example, Liu Wenming, who lives in Shanghai, is ready to get more foreign goods for his stores all over China. It will be a great time for me to buy all over the country in March, April, and May. He told MarketWatch over the phone, “I’ll be at trade shows in Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Beijing.” Next year, China will be…