Author: starbpo

Analysts have been telling investors not to put too much money on Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president. This comes at a time when the stock market has seen a “Harris trade.” In a note earlier this week, Terry Haines, founder of the forecasting company Pangaea Policy, said that this trade is “completely overblown” because Harris is 70% likely to have a Congress that is politically split and wouldn’t support her policy ideas anyway. “There’s no blue or red wave on the horizon,” he said. Instead, his “70% base case” is that the Democrats just barely win a majority…

Macy’s Inc. M 3.33% said that its shoppers became more careful in the second quarter because they were still trying to fight inflation. Things were so bad at Urban Outfitters Inc. URBN 2.42% that company leaders said they would change the company’s “traditionally alternative sensibility” to be friendlier. It’s not just big box stores that cut their financial predictions. Even dollar store chains Dollar Tree Inc. DLTR 2.67% and Dollar General Corp. DG1.85% did it. Dollar General said most of its customers felt “worse off financially.” Though the story was very different at Walmart Inc. WMT 1.18%, which is also…

These two big chip companies have had a great week on Wall Street. Shares of Nvidia Corp. are up 15% and shares of Broadcom Inc. are up 20%. Also, the chip business has had a good week. Since the beginning of September, when it lost its edge, the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX 1.68% has gained 9% and is now back to beating the S&P 500 SPX 0.54% on the year. But the PHLX Semiconductor Index is still down 26% from its July highs, and Jordan Klein, a desk-based analyst at Mizuho, is worried about the health of the sector as…

Friday was another bad day for Boeing Co. All of the company’s credit ratings were put on review by Moody’s Ratings for a possible drop because of worries about how a strike by machinists would affect the company’s cash flow. The rating of Baa3 is already the lowest level of investment grade. If it were to go down even further, it would be in speculative-grade, or “junk” land right away. That would make it harder for Boeing to borrow money at a time when it is trying to fix its production problems by fixing itself. Also, a lot more buyers,…

As worries about a recession make gold more appealing, it’s not a surprise that gold prices recently hit new highs. This is because people think the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates. But gold might also be useful as a “all-weather hedge against whatever happens next,” even if the central bank does something odd. Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter, told MarketWatch that there has been “some risk from the ‘buy the rumour, sell the news’ phenomenon” when the Fed actually cuts rates or when the day of the decision is very close. But more and more global portfolios are…

An agency watchdog said that from 2018 to 2023, Raphael Bostic, President of the Atlanta Federal Reserve, broke rules about investing “multiple” times. However, the watchdog did not find any proof that he made money from inside knowledge. The Office of Inspector General at the central bank said Bostic “created a “appearance of a conflict of interest” that could make a reasonable person question” his honesty as a top Fed officer. Dictators made dozens of deals and investments for Bostic during blackouts from 2018 to 2023. These were done by outside investment managers. Before the Fed decides to raise or…

Experts in the job market and human resources say that the days when bosses expected workers to be in the office a certain number of days a week may be coming to an end. And workers seem to be taking advantage, as more and more of them spend some time working from home. The latest sign that companies are becoming less strict about working from home is the August jobs report, which came out last week. It shows that workers are still attached to their flexible schedules. Some of the questions in the Bureau of Labour Statistics report that ask…

Moderna Inc. said Thursday that it was making progress on getting new vaccines approved, but it also said it would cut back on its R&D spending and its pipeline in order to get out of the slump caused by a COVID vaccine market that isn’t growing. For the years 2025 through 2028, the biotech company said it would spend 20% less on research and development, or $16 billion. Moderna MRNA 0.29% said Thursday that it wants to get 10 approvals by 2027, which is less than what it said a year ago when it said it wanted to get up…

Boeing is waiting to find out on Thursday if 33,000 workers who put together planes, mostly in the Seattle area, are going on strike, which would stop production of the company’s best-selling planes. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is going to vote on whether to accept a contract offer that includes four years of 25% pay raises. There would be no work on Friday at 12:01 a.m. PDT if two-thirds of the plant workers vote to strike and reject the contract. There wouldn’t be any direct effects on airline passengers or flights if workers went on strike,…

Francine was a Category 2 hurricane when it hit Louisiana late Wednesday. It knocked out power to more than 275,000 homes and businesses, flooded coastal communities with storm surge, and caused flood fears in New Orleans and beyond as heavy rains spread along the northern Gulf Coast. The National Hurricane Centre said that the storm would weaken to a tropical depression as it moved north over Mississippi on Thursday. Forecasters said that parts of Mississippi and neighbouring states could get 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimetres) of rain. They also warned that scattered flash floods could happen as…