Author: starbpo

Shares of Honda Motor Co. that are traded in the U.S. went through the roof on Monday, when the Japanese automaker made its merger talks with Nissan official and announced a big return of its own shares. Some people think that a merger would be a sign that the auto business needs to get in better shape. Before the market opened, Honda’s stock HMC +12.08% went up 16%. If it kept going up during the trading day, it would be the biggest one-day percentage gain since Oct. 28, 2008, when it went up 19.6%. The stock hit a 23-month low…

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 +3.01%, worked with Republicans to get that rule 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 Communist Party leadership.”…

This week was crazy on Wall Street thanks in part to Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve. However, a sign that policymakers have stopped cutting interest rates further seems like the right thing to do after a closely watched inflation indicator and more budget wrangling on Capitol Hill. Steve Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard, said in a Friday note, “The message from the November personal-income data is that the Fed was right to stop right here.” He also said that the House’s trouble getting a spending bill that would keep the government open was another reason…

Apple Inc. is set for a good holiday season that could start a “supercycle,” since hundreds of millions of people around the world are planning to buy new iPhones with AI features in the next few months. With new features coming out, this could mean huge sales in China, which is a very important market. It’s also likely to mean a new partner in China. The stock of the Cupertino, California-based company AAPL -0.17% dropped 0.2% in the afternoon, going down from Friday’s record high of $254.49. In December alone, the stock set 11 new highs. Analyst Dan Ives of…

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY +1.20% is weighted by market capitalisation. This means that its three biggest holdings—Apple Inc. AAPL +1.88%, Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.10%, and Nvidia Corp. NVDA +3.08%—make up 20.5% of its portfolio. Overall, this has been a good year for the stock market. However, it might be interesting to learn more about how big the market really is. If you put profits back into the stocks, this year-to-date chart below shows how much money the S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index have made: SP500EW +1.39% through Thursday: The S&P 500 had lost…

A part of the U.S. government could shut down after midnight on the East Coast because the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate have not yet passed legislation to keep many federal offices and programs funded. A smaller bill that most Republicans in the House and President-elect Donald Trump backed failed to pass that chamber of Congress late Thursday night. This left House Speaker Mike Johnson trying to figure out what to do next. The smaller bill failed after a much bigger bipartisan package was turned down by many Republican lawmakers on Wednesday. Trump and his billionaire friend Elon Musk…

Spending by consumers went up quickly enough in November to point to a pretty good start to the holiday shopping season, but not quickly enough to show that the U.S. economy is growing even faster than it already is. Last month, spending by households went up by a healthy 0.4%. People in the US bought more cars after auto stores increased incentives to get rid of their extra stock. They also spent more on entertainment and gadgets. The Wall Street Journal asked economists and found that they thought spending would go up by 0.5%. Consumer spending, which is what keeps…

Parts of the U.S. federal government could start to shut down after midnight Friday if there isn’t a joint deal to keep the government funded. This could affect people’s holiday travel plans and their wallets. A broad spending plan that congressional leaders released on Tuesday was turned down by many Republican lawmakers on Wednesday. They were first pushed to take this stance by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are co-heads of President-elect Trump’s new organisation called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. Then Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance spoke up. They told House Speaker Mike Johnson and…

Every year, Zelle is used to send more than $481 billion. At least $125 million of that is being taken from customers. The government says the platform’s owners, the big banks, haven’t done much to stop it. A lawsuit filed Friday by the Consumer Financial Protection Board says that the banks that own Zelle rushed to release the payment transfer service in 2017 to compete with newcomers like Venmo and Cash App. However, they made a product that is very easy to hack, and they haven’t done much to fix it. He said, “By not putting in place proper safeguards,…

Actively and passively managed bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds have had a great year so far. They received a total projected net inflow of almost $500 billion through November as investors flocked to safe assets that paid a yield. Some flagship bond funds from well-known Southern Californian firms, on the other hand, fell behind, with at least $10 billion in client money leaving each one. Morningstar Direct data shows that the MetWest Total Return Bond Fund from TCW Group in Los Angeles lost the most money, almost $17.7 billion so far this year through last month. Franklin Resources Inc.…