Author: starbpo

Mike Lynch was found not guilty of federal theft charges in June. The charges were related to the sale of his data-analysis company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. This was good news for the British tech mogul and those who supported him. But in the past week, Lynch, who was sometimes called the “Bill Gates of Britain,” and a number of other important people in the case have died. After a storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday, Lynch, his defense lawyer, and a former member of the Autonomy board who appeared in Lynch’s defense went missing. They…

When it comes to picking their next set of wheels, U.S. drivers have long believed that “more is more.” But high interest rates and rising prices for new cars are making some people look at smaller cars. In the past few months, sales of smaller cars have grown faster than sales of big and midsize SUVs and pickup trucks. This shows that people who want to buy a new car are increasingly choosing to downsize. Edmunds.com expert Ivan Drury said that people who are buying their first car or a car for their family are looking for these kinds of…

A new report says that a high number of people who were going to buy a home back out of deals in July, even though mortgage rates were going down. Real estate brokerage Redfin RDFN 8.56% said on Monday that about 59,000 home-purchase deals were canceled in July. That’s about 16% of the homes that were put under contract that month. As far back as the company started keeping track of cancellations in 2017, that’s the most of any July ever. The most cancellations happened in places where builders have been very busy, and the number of new homes for…

Chi-town — Monday night, President Joe Biden gave his farewell speech to the Democratic National Convention. By ending his run for reelection, Biden gave his party new energy, which led to Vice President Kamala Harris being promoted to the top of the ticket. After 52 years of becoming the most powerful person in his party, Biden, 81, was praised for stepping down for Harris, even though many people in his party were pushing him to drop his reelection run. One month after an unprecedented mid-campaign switch, the opening night of the convention in Chicago was meant to give the current…

On Monday, Kamala Harris’s campaign for president released a policy idea: they want to raise the business tax rate from 21% to 28%. You can tell the market took it seriously because the S&P 500 SPX -0.06% went up 1% after a plan was released that would cut domestic earnings by 9%. This was the fifth best finish in track record. Even though there is a 50/50 chance that Harris will win and oddsmakers say Republicans will win back the Senate 72% of the time, it was still a very boring election. But it’s a good way to start talking…

U.S. stocks have generally gone up around the time of the Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. This week, investors will be paying close attention to the event, especially on Friday when Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to give a speech. In an email sent Monday, Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek, said, “The S&P 500 tends to rally over the two weeks on either side of the Fed’s Jackson Hole conference, with returns coming mostly after the Chair’s speech.” It looks like things will stay the same this year. It will be held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming,…

A group of tech and business leaders have backed a new super PAC that is supporting Donald Trump’s campaign for president. According to multiple reports, Elon Musk will soon join them. Monday night, the New York Times, Bloomberg News, and the Wall Street Journal all said that Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. TSLA, +1.78% and the richest person in the world, will soon give a lot of money to the America PAC. A report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday showed that the group raised $8.75 million in the second quarter and spent $7.78 million of that…

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has picked Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio to be his running mate. Vance is a rising star in the GOP and is best known for his 2018 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” Trump is running against Vice President Joe Biden for the White House. Trump’s campaign for president has the help of Vance, who has worked in venture capital with Peter Thiel, an important tech entrepreneur. Trump announced his choice on social media on Monday. “J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly…

Some investors in the U.S. stock market have been worried that falling prices could hurt stocks because companies may not be able to charge as much, which would hurt their future earnings. However, strategists at BofA Global Research say that there isn’t any data to support the claim that disinflation could hurt the finances of American businesses. The weak inflation data from last week showed that we’re moving towards a Goldilocks situation… “But there are worries that disinflation is becoming a bigger drag on earnings, since earnings are nominal and higher inflation leads to faster earnings growth,” wrote Ohsung Kwon…

After downgrading Apple Inc. stock a little over a year ago, Ananda Baruah, an analyst at Loop Capital Markets, is making a statement with his new buy call. On Monday, he raised the price of Apple stock (AAPL, +1.67%), making him Wall Street’s biggest bull. Baruah’s target price of $300 is the highest on FactSet and 30% higher than the end of the trading day on Friday. Apple stock is up 1.6% in early trading on Monday, and it looks like it will be the ninth gain in the last ten trading days. In those 10 days, the stock has…