Author: Press Room

The long-anticipated pause in the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate increases is almost here. The actual news isn’t likely to bring about a surge in stock prices.  The central bank is making progress in its effort to rein in inflation by raising rates to reduce demand for goods and services. Policy makers want inflation to keep falling, but they don’t want to hurt the economy too badly, and it isn’t clear how much damage is still to come from the nine rates increases they have rolled out over the past year. The upshot is that the rate increases could be over starting…

Don’t miss these top money and investing features: INVESTING NEWS & TRENDSWant to learn how to be good with money? The best teacher may surprise you. The average American is less financially literate about risk today than in 2017 — and Gen Z is the worst. Read Moreacc‘The inflation genie is not going back in the bottle anytime… Read the full article here

If you’re like most people, the smell of a new car makes you think of success and excitement. And, if you’re like us, you’re an avid reader of the journal Cell Reports Physical Science. Those two things clash this month, as the journal reported how that new-car smell consists of a series of volatile organic compounds, “indicating a high health… Read the full article here

President Joe Biden’s domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, is stepping down from the role, according to a White House statement. Biden said in the statement that he thanks Rice and that her record of public service makes history because she is the only person to have served as both national security adviser and domestic policy adviser. She served in the former role during the Obama administration, and she also was previously the U.S. ambassador to the UN…. Read the full article here

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Passersby are reflected on an electric stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan April 18, 2023. REUTERS/Issei Kato By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – A gauge of global stocks declined for a third straight day on Friday as investors weighed the latest round of corporate earnings results, while longer-dated U.S. yields were higher after a gauge of business activity climbed. On Wall Street, the closed slightly higher, with the consumer staples sector, up 0.75%, as Procter & Gamble (NYSE:) climbed 3.46% after the maker of products such as toothpaste and laundry detergent beat…

By Barani Krishnan Investing.com — Is gold losing its allure already after the power run to $2,000? It might be too early to tell, though a run again to below the key price mark might be giving those long on the yellow metal some consternation. on New York’s Comex settled down $28.60, or 1.4%, at $1,990.50. The session bottom for June gold was $1,982.35. Since its run to a more than three year high of $2,048.60 on April 13, Comex’s most-active gold contract has lost almost 3%. For the current week, it was down 0.6%, after last week’s slide of…

By Alun John and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The euro gained while the Japanese yen fell on Monday in thin trading ahead of a closely watched Bank of Japan meeting and the last few data releases before Federal Reserve and European Central Bank interest rate decisions in early May. The euro was up 0.3% against the dollar at $1.1023, back above $1.10 for the first time since it hit a 14-month high of $1.10755 earlier this month. Against the yen, the euro hit its highest since December 2014. It was last up 0.6% at 148.34 yen. The yen…

By Lucy Raitano LONDON (Reuters) – Investors cut their cash holdings for the first time in eight weeks in the week to Wednesday, while shedding equities and gold, according to a report from BofA Global Research on Friday. Market focus has shifted to inflation and the outlook for monetary tightening in recent weeks as fears around banking stocks receded and a market measure of volatility fell to its lowest level since November 2021. Cash funds saw outflows of $65.3 billion, BofA said, citing EPFR data. Bond funds recorded inflows of $4.6 billion, while investors sold $2.6 billion of global stocks…

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB VB ) delivered a powerful lesson about the importance of marking assets to market. That lesson shouldn’t just apply to banks and investors. Technology professionals working in financial services should consider how they put firms at risk when they fail to accurately benchmark the value of their technology stacks and capabilities against technology assets across the industry. Marking to market means adjusting the recognized value of an asset to reflect the most current market price. In the case of SVB, the bank had amassed a large portfolio of long-dated treasury bonds. The value…

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK Years after other developed countries have had real-time payments in place, they’re finally coming to America. The Federal Reserve recently confirmed that FedNow, the government’s version of real-time payments (RTP), will launch this summer. Two big questions remain: 1) How will RTP evolve, and 2) What impact will it have? Real-Time Payments Confusion It’s clear that not everyone is clear what FedNow is. In an embarrassingly incorrect tweet, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. referred to FedNow as a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and claimed that “CBDCs grease the slippery slope to…