Author: Press Room
Welcome back to Distributed Ledger. This is Frances Yue, crypto reporter at MarketWatch. Find me on Twitter at @FrancesYue_ to share any thoughts on crypto, this newsletter, or your personal stories with digital assets. Bitcoin has rallied over 70% so far this year, but it’s still down almost 60% from its record high in November 2021. The cryptocurrency is trading at slightly below $28,500 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk data. This week, I caught up with Vetle Lunde, senior analyst at K33 research, who said bitcoin could reach as high as $45,000 in a month, if it follows the patterns…
The numbers: U.S. mortgage rates rose for the first time in over a month in April, making homeownership more expensive for potential homeowners. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.39% as of April 20, according to data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday. The 30-year rate rose after dropping for five straight weeks. It’s up 12 basis points from the previous week — one basis point is equal to one hundredth of a percentage point. Last week, the 30-year was at 6.27%. Last year, the 30-year was averaging at 5.11% The average rate on the 15-year mortgage rose to 5.76%, from…
While advocates for marijuana use 4/20 day in part to reiterate their call for nationwide legalization, their opponents are marking the weed holiday in a different way.One group that’s against legalization — Smart Approaches to Marijuana — is running a conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C., that’s dubbed the 2023 SAM Summit & Good Drug Policy Conference. Ahead of the conference, SAM’s president and CEO, Kevin Sabet, spoke with MarketWatch about the event’s goals, Oklahoma’s vote last month against recreational marijuana, other policy developments, pot stocks MJ, -3.01% and more. Our Q&A with Sabet, who previously worked in the Barack…
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Garret Graves (LA-06) looks on during a news conference at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve site at Bayou Choctaw, Louisiana, U.S. May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman By Liz Hampton (Reuters) – Louisiana likely will receive permitting authority over wells designed to capture and store greenhouse gases by the end of the year, U.S. Congressman Garret Graves, who represents a southern section of the state, said on Tuesday. The state, which houses a large number of refineries and other industrial facilities, has been vying for control over so-called Class VI wells from the Environmental Protection Agency…
‘Is the Fed done?’ The four words, central to the debate on whether the U.S. central bank is ready to pause on , could shape the narrative across markets, including commodities, for the foreseeable future as inflation and recession prospects counteract the demand for raw materials such as oil and gold. On Friday, we again witnessed the impact of this buzz-phrase as Federal Reserve Governor , one of the biggest rate hawks, said he desired more monetary tightening despite evidence that inflation in the United States was steadily coming off the highs of recent months. Waller’s call helped trigger a…
By Mimosa Spencer PARIS (Reuters) -L’Oreal reported a 13% rise in first-quarter sales, beating expectations thanks to strong business in the United States and Europe as shoppers shrugged off rising prices, but has yet to benefit from the end of COVID-19 curbs in China. Sales of the French cosmetics group, which sells brands ranging from Maybelline to Lancome, came to 10.38 billion euros ($11.37 billion) over the first three months to the end of March. The 13% increase on an organic basis beat analysts’ expectations for 8.1% growth, according to a consensus estimate cited by Barclays (LON:). Sales in Europe…
The yield on the U. S. Treasury’s 13-week bill hit 5% this week and a day later backed off to 4.9% as the Philadelphia Fed reported what some could interpret as a softer kind of U. S. economy. Their manufacturing index came in at a -25% level, the sort of level usually associated with recessions. Investors are looking for a “pivot” from the Fed to lower rates and the Philly data seem to make that more likely to some. Nonetheless, even at 4.9% these yields are much higher than T-bills have paid in the recent past. The other piece of…
Robust consumer spending helped China’s economy grow by the fastest rate in a year last quarter — a development we’ve long been preparing the Club portfolio to capitalize on. Estee Lauder (EL), Starbucks (SBUX) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) are the Club’s consumer discretionary stocks with the greatest exposure to the Chinese market. We’ve been gradually building out our position in each on the expectation they’ll ultimately soar in the long term, as China’s economy continues to reopen after roughly three years of Covid-19 lockdowns. Beijing late last year started to unwind its strict zero-Covid policy, paving the way for an…
Tesla has cut the prices of its EVs repeatedly this year. Now investors are cutting the price of its shares. Shares of Tesla tumbled nearly 10% Thursday following its disappointing earnings report on Wednesday evening, as it reported that its profit margins fell below the 20% mark that analysts had been forecasting. The price cuts might have allowed it to increase sales volume, but revenue was down from fourth-quarter levels as a result, and which led to the squeeze on profits. The company announced its latest price cut, its sixth of the year, just earlier this week. CEO Elon Musk…
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