Author: starbpo

IN ATLANTA — The Georgia election-interference case against former President Donald Trump and others has been put on hold while an appeals court looks over the lower court judge’s decision to let Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis stay on the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee can’t move forward with pretrial motions as he had planned because of the order from the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday. This is because the appeal is still being processed. It wasn’t likely that the case would go to trial before the November election, when Trump is likely to be…

Since there are no plans for a Federal Reserve rate cut this summer, most economists on Wall Street think investors can take a break. But some economists still think the central bank might lower its key interest rate at its meeting in July. “We expect a cut in July,” said Steve Englander, who is in charge of North America Macro Strategy at Standard Chartered Bank. The Federal Reserve will meet again to talk about interest rates on June 11 and 12. According to what Fed officials have said over the past six weeks, most economists agree that nothing will change…

Shares of GameStop Corp. kept going up Thursday and ended the day up 47.5% after news came out that famous trader Keith Gill, also known as Roaring Kitty, will host his first YouTube livestream in three years. The livestream is set to start at noon on Friday in Eastern time. Over 1.1 million people have watched Gill’s most recent livestream on YouTube, which happened on April 16, 2021. There are 714,000 YouTube subscribers to Roaring Kitty, who is a big deal in the 2021 meme-stock craze. People on social media had a lot to say about Friday’s livestream. Today, June…

It sounds like everything will be on sale this summer if you believe what big American stores have been telling guests: Some stores are having sales on 5,000 items at Target (TGT, -1.51%), 7,000 items at Walmart (WMT, +0.09%), and 4,000 items at Amazon Fresh (AMZN, +2.05%). People may need sales like these to get some relief from the effects of inflation, but they might not actually save money because of a common buying habit: buying things on the spur of the moment. Sally Lyons Wyatt, chief adviser of consumer goods and food service insights at consumer analytics company Circana,…

Analysts at Susquehanna Financial Group say that Mexico’s underbanked and heavily cash-based economy is a good fit for three fintech companies that offer mobile financial services. In a note released earlier this week, they named dLocal Ltd. (DLO, -0.24%), MercadoLibre Inc. (MELI, +1.01%), and NU Holdings Ltd. (NU, +3.67%) as their “best ideas to enjoy the exciting rise of fintech in Mexico.” All three stocks have good ratings from Susquehanna. The three companies were named as major players in Mexico’s online shopping market in the report. In the meantime, Susquehanna said that only 49% of adults in Mexico have access…

Affirm Holdings Inc. is adding new payment plans to give customers who get paid every two weeks or once a month more options and help them save money. With one of the new options, customers can pay in two installments. With the other, they can pay back the full amount whenever they can within 30 days, with no interest. At the moment, users can choose to pay in four interest-free installments or every month, with or without interest. Vishal Kapoor, who is in charge of products at the company, said in an interview, “People love choices, especially at the checkout.”…

In the past few years, it hasn’t been easy to buy PayPal Holdings Inc. shares, but on Thursday, the stock gained ground. Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev says there are two main reasons for this. When he spoke to investors late Wednesday, CEO Alex Chriss sounded optimistic. It’s also possible that investors are starting to see the chance in PayPal’s (PYPL, +5.49%) new Fastlane product, which is meant to make guest checkout faster. The price of PayPal’s stock went up 5.5% on Thursday, the most in a single day since January 19, when it went up 6%. The stock also gained…

The long-term debt ratings of Old National Bancorp and a number of other U.S. regional banks are being looked at by Moody’s Ratings for possible downgrade because of worries about their exposure to commercial real estate. The following banks were all affected by the news from Moody’s on Thursday: WaFd WAFD, -0.47%; Peapack-Gladstone Financial PGC, -1.03%; F.N.B. FNB, +0.30%; Old National Bancorp ONB, -0.30%; First Merchants FRME, +0.66%; and Fulton Financial FULT, +0.30%. As a regional bank with a large concentration in commercial real estate (CRE) loans, it faces ongoing asset quality and profitability pressures as higher-for-longer interest rates heighten…

There are three U.S. stocks that make up more than 20% of the value of the S&P 500 for the first time since at least 2000. These are Microsoft Corp., Nvidia Corp., and Apple Inc. According to data from Bespoke Investment Group, this means that just three stocks in the index are worth more than all of its other components put together. Some historical data shows that higher concentration is usually accompanied by better returns for the S&P 500 SPX. However, the quick rise in value of a few of the biggest stocks is starting to worry some investors, even…

The numbers: The productivity of American workers increased by an annual rate of 0.2% in the first quarter, according to a revised report released by the government on Thursday. Initially, the increase was reported as 0.3% last month. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal had anticipated no change in productivity for the first quarter. This modest gain is a significant drop from the average 2.8% growth rate seen over the four quarters of 2023. Key details: The output, or the total goods and services produced, was weaker than initially reported, with the increase adjusted down to 0.9% from 1.3%.…