Author: Press Room

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to announce Friday what her campaign is describing as a four-year plan to lower housing costs, including $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homeowners and actions aimed at spurring the construction of new housing, including tax incentives for building starter homes. Harris intends to announce this plan as a part of a broader economic policy speech in North Carolina. As CNN has previously reported, the vice president is also announcing a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging aimed at lowering grocery costs. Campaign officials had also said that she plans to address…

The Inflation Reduction Act has generated many initiatives to cut drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. So, it’s possible that those past the age of 65 and still working probably don’t care about any of them. However, the IRA may have created a dilemma. Will the drug coverage incorporated into the employer group health plan still be considered creditable? Creditable Drug Coverage and Employer Plans Creditable means that the employer plan is expected to pay on average as much as the standard Medicare prescription drug plan. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has formulas and criteria for determining creditable coverage.…

Mortgage rates are still uncomfortably high for many would-be homebuyers and sellers, but recent declines have contributed to a significant boost in demand for refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday that refinancing applications soared 35% last week, when rates for the average 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages hit their lowest point in more than a year, according to Freddie Mac.  The surge in refinancing demand was the driving force behind the increase in overall demand for mortgage applications, which was up 15% on the week, the MBA said. For comparison, purchase applications only increased by 3%.Year-over-year, refinancing demand…

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets rally : Stocks are higher across the board Thursday, with the S & P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rallying and erasing their losses for August. The session marks the sixth straight positive session for the S & P 500, a move that started last week when initial jobless claims came in lower than expected and eased concerns of a quickly deteriorating labor market that had been sparked by the July…

About 2.9 billion people may have had their personal information hacked, a new proposed class action lawsuit alleges.If true, reports suggest all Americans may have had valuable personal information compromised — including full names, current and past addresses, Social Security numbers and information on parents, siblings and other relatives.  The alleged April 2024 breach occurred when a background check company doing business as National Public Data, owned by Jerico Pictures Inc., failed to properly safeguard information it scraped, the lawsuit states. The company provides instant search access to billions of records.Neither National Public Data nor Jerico Pictures returned requests for…

The standard, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.49% this week, up slightly from the prior week’s level, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. But that’s still well below this year’s peak and the two-decade high last fall — and that appears to be enough to entice homeowners to refinance. Mortgage applications surged 17% last week, driven by homeowners seeking to refinance, up by a staggering 35%, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. Mortgage rates plummeted last week to their lowest level in more than a year, according to figures from mortgage financing giant Freddie Mac. And borrowing costs are expected to fall even further…

TSS, Inc. (OTCQB:TSSI) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 14, 2024 4:00 PM ET Company Participants Danny Chism – CFODarryll Dewan – President and CEO Conference Call Participants Maj Soueidan – GeoInvesting Operator Good afternoon. My name is Brianna, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I’d like to welcome everyone to the TSS Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. Please note that today’s call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] I will now…

Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund founded by billionaire Bill Ackman, has taken a stake in Nike as the company tries to turn its business around and revive falling sales.The hedge fund owned about 0.2 per cent of the company as of the end of June, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday. Nike’s shares rose almost 5 per cent in after-market trading in New York.The world’s largest sportswear maker by revenue has struggled in recent months even as its chief executive John Donahoe has attempted to turn the group’s fortunes around. In late June, Nike issued a bleak forecast…

Former President Donald Trump delivered a Wednesday speech that was laden with false claims he has made before. One of them was about insulin prices for seniors. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, claimed in the North Carolina address that Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent in the presidential election, and President Joe Biden are lying when they tout their success in bringing insulin prices for Medicare recipients down to $35 per month (per prescription). Trump claimed that they are taking credit for his own work. Trump said: “Kamala and Joe tried to take credit for $35 insulin. You know…

Young adults in the U.S. have been skeptical about Social Security at least since the days when I was one of them. Today’s younger generations are no different, and that’s affecting their retirement planning. About 47% of non-retirees believe Social Security won’t pay them any retirement benefits, according to a 2023 Gallup survey reported in The Wall Street Journal. That number’s been consistent for the 30 or so years that Gallup’s asked the question. Pessimism is highest among those ages 30 to 49, the prime earning and saving years. There are good reasons to believe Social Security might not pay…