Author: Press Room

The top four congressional leaders have formally invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress. “We join the State of Israel in your struggle against terror, especially as Hamas continues to hold American and Israeli citizens captive and its leaders jeopardize regional stability,” the letter from House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reads. “For this reason, on behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, we would like to invite you to…

Saving for retirement requires dedication and time. During those years of dedication, however, market movements will make significant jumps that you can then celebrate. And we’re in the midst of such a shift. A recent Fidelity study highlights this very fact. According to a review of Fidelity 401k accounts, the number of participants with over $1 million in assets within the account has increased by 15% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to end of 2023. This is a result of the market moving forward – it’s up 11% through 2024 and 25% over the course of the past…

Affording a home today requires households to earn good money and have a sizeable down payment saved, according to a recent report. Based on the current interest rate of 7.22% over a 30-year mortgage, buyers today would need to earn an annual income of roughly $120,000, plus a 10% down payment, to afford a home, according to the Clever Real Estate report. However, the average American household earns about $45,000 less than that, and many first-time buyers can’t afford a 10% down payment.Household earnings below $120,000 render the $332,494 price tag of median-priced homes in the current market unaffordable, even if…

In an effort to fix administrative issues that resulted in student loan borrowers not qualifying for forgiveness, the Biden administration announced an extended consolidation deadline for borrowers with certain loans. Student loan borrowers have been dealing with errors that inaccurately counted their student loan payments toward forgiveness programs like income-driven repayment (IDR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Within these programs, borrowers can have their remaining debt balances forgiven after they’ve worked in the public service sector for so many years or have paid toward their student loans for a set amount of time, typically 20 to 25 years. The…

Many companies are pivoting to a new form of hiring that emphasizes applicants’ skills over more traditional metrics, such as education or years of experience, according to recent reports and data.The share of U.S. online job postings that list a specific requirement for employment tenure has fallen by 10 percentage points, to 30%, in the two years through April 2024, according to data from job site Indeed.Additionally, most job ads, or 52%, don’t have a formal education requirement, up from 48% in 2019, Indeed found. The data from Indeed says that mentions of college degrees have fallen in 87% of…

“Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself,” Biden said. “A state case, not a federal case, was heard by a jury of 12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you, like millions of Americans who served on juries.””This jury was chosen the same way every jury in America has chosen,” the president said. “Five weeks after careful deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous verdict.”More news on Donald TrumpBiden noted that Trump will have the chance to appeal his conviction, after he is sentenced July 11.But the Democrat said “It’s reckless, it’s dangerous” for Trump to argue that the…

Two influential advisory firms have urged shareholders to vote against Elon Musk’s contentious $51 billion pay package and raised concerns about the CEO’s numerous side projects. On Friday, Institutional Shareholder Services called the package “excessive” and noted that shareholder concerns “have not been sufficiently mitigated” since the package was first approved in 2018. While recognizing Tesla’s growth and profitability, ISS said Musk’s pay package — first approved in 2018 and thrown out by a judge in January — “was considered outsized from the start” and has “failed to accomplish certain of the board’s stated objectives,” including focusing Musk “more closely…

High-quality bonds look increasingly interesting to me. We just went through one of the most vicious bear markets for bonds in history, which sounds like a good time to invest on a go-forward basis in this critical asset class. And if you’re in agreement, there are tons of core bond funds out there that you can use to allocate to. One fund that caught my attention is the Vanguard Core-Plus Bond ETF (NASDAQ:VPLS). This ETF invests in a broad spectrum of debt instruments, ranging from government bonds to corporate bonds to emerging-world debt. Don’t let the “plus” side of the…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Boeing submitted a plan to federal regulators on Thursday promising to improve the safety and quality of its manufacturing through training, simplifying processes and eliminating defects.Chief executive Dave Calhoun met with Mike Whitaker, head of the US Federal Aviation Administration, to turn in the plan, which the agency had given Boeing 90 days to submit. The aerospace manufacturer is facing multiple investigations since a door panel blew off a 737 Max during a commercial flight in January.The plan is supposed to show…

President Joe Biden has given permission to Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with American munitions, though he has restricted their use so Kyiv can only hit targets over the border close to Kharkiv after Russia made significant advances around the city in the northeastern part of the country close to the Russian border, two US officials told CNN. “The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use US supplied-weapons for counterfire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” one of the officials said.…