Author: starbpo

More than 150 people went on a protest in July in front of the UnitedHealth Group Inc. offices in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Their problem was that the health insurance company had turned down a lot of cases. People who are covered are very frustrated about this problem, which is made worse by the fact that insurance companies aren’t open about their denial rates and aren’t required to by government rules. Brian Thompson was the CEO of the company’s UnitedHealthcare health insurance business. No one knows why he was killed, but words found on shell casings found at the scene of the…

The world’s biggest hedge fund by assets told its clients not to bet on U.S. stocks continuing to rise without any competition and described a way to protect their investments as the “holy grail.” “There are more investors in stocks than ever before, especially in U.S. stocks.” In a way or another, they are hoping that U.S. stocks will keep doing well, like they have for the past few decades. “However, prices are much higher than they were at the start of this bull run,” co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater Associates Karen Karniol-Tambour wrote in a new note to investors…

Even though Nvidia Corp. has grown very quickly, Ben Reitzes, an analyst at Melius Research, said that some investors are worried that the “law of large numbers” might catch up with the company in the next few years. As the saying goes, companies that grow quickly can’t keep growing quickly forever. Investors are beginning to wonder more about Nvidia’s NVDA -0.36% future growth path. Experts think that the company’s sales will more than double this year, and they think they will rise by around 50% next year. Even so, 50% growth is still very good; it was enough to put…

Brown-Forman Corp.’s stock was the biggest winner in the S&P 500 on Thursday, rising 10.4%. This was the biggest gainer in the index. The company said it expects to make money from net sales and operating income this fiscal year, even though there are “macroeconomic uncertainties.” Its core whiskey sales went down 1%, but growth from Woodford Reserve and Old Forester more than made up for drops in its more expensive names. A year ago, Brown-Forman’s BF.B +11.02% second-quarter profit was $242 million, or 50 cents a share. This year, it was $258 million, or 55 cents a share. FactSet…

The numbers: The number of people applying for unemployment benefits hit a six-week high over Thanksgiving. However, jobless claims stayed very low, giving the U.S. economy a clean bill of health. New claims went up by 9,000 in the week ending November 30, from 215,000 the week before to 224,000, the government said Thursday. Still, a number in the low 200,000s is a long way below the average for the past few hundred years. Due to the very low number of layoffs, not many Americans are losing their jobs and having to apply for jobless benefits. People who do lose…

As we approach the end of the year, U.S. stocks have been on a record-breaking run. This has coincided with plans by company leaders to buy back their own shares as a way to thank shareholders and themselves. The S&P 500 index SPX +0.10% has gone above 6,000, thanks to strong buying interest. The stock market index is on track for a nearly 30% year-to-date gain and a 58.5% two-year gain. According to Dow Jones Market Data, that would be its biggest back-to-back gain since 1998. Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager at Northwestern Mutual, said, “The raw fuel for buybacks…

People are talking about the real estate investor who made an offer of $30 million for Sean “Diddy” Combs’s now-famous “freak off” home. He has explained why he made the offer and why he thinks the house needs “painful” work to make it liveable. Bo Belmont, CEO of the real estate crowdfunding company Belwood Investments in California, made news around the world on November 21 when he said he had made an offer of $30 million on Diddy’s Holmby Hills home, which is less than half of the $61.5 million asking price. Now, in an exclusive interview with Realtor.com, Belmont…

AT&T Inc. is buying back its own stock again, which shows that the company is making progress in paying down its debt. The phone company used to take on a lot of debt to make expensive deals in the media world. Over the past few years, it has worked to lower its debt as it has stopped pursuing those deals and returned its attention to core connections. AT&T T 3.26%, which already pays a big dividend, is raising the amount of cash it wants to give back to owners. AT&T wants to spend at least $40 billion in cash on…

There was a big drop in U.S. and U.K. stocks of South Korean companies on Tuesday after the country’s president declared martial law without warning. The parliament of the country quickly overturned the decision. When the country’s government was dissolved for the first time since 1979 because of martial law, the army told doctors on strike to go back to work. The lawmakers, on the other hand, voted 190 to 0 to overturn South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s order for “emergency martial law.” Even though South Korean prices were still down for the day, they were not as low…

People were shocked when President-elect Donald Trump didn’t re-nominate Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Representative. Lighthizer would have been in charge of trade talks with countries like China and Mexico. Markets continue to play down the danger of new tariffs on U.S. imports. They may see the fact that Lighthizer, a known hardline protectionist, wasn’t nominated as proof that tariffs will only be used as a bargaining chip and not as a permanent policy of the administration. New stories, though, say that Trump didn’t choose Lighthizer because he wasn’t pro-tariff enough for the job. CNN reported on Sunday that Trump…