Author: Press Room

Joe Biden vowed the US would be a “partner for peace” in Northern Ireland, as he called on political leaders in the region to restore power-sharing at Stormont at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.Speaking at Ulster University in Belfast on Wednesday afternoon, the US president celebrated the 1998 accord, which ended three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland and established a power-sharing executive. “We forget how hard-earned, how astounding, that peace was at the moment. It shifted the political gravity of the world,” Biden said. “Peace was not inevitable. You can’t ever forget that.…

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Nine national media organizations, including CNN, are suing for access to Capitol Hill surveillance tapes of January 6, 2021, that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has provided to Fox News but so far to no other press outlets. The lawsuit, filed in the federal court in DC against the FBI and US Attorney’s Offices at the Justice Department, argues that other media outlets should be given access to 44,000 hours of tapes now since they’ve been given to Tucker Carlson’s producers at Fox. “Plaintiffs here are among the many news organizations that have been denied access to the Capitol Surveillance Videos…

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Shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Cl B BRK.B inched 0.35% higher to $313.70 Tuesday, on what proved to be an all-around mixed trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index SPX remaining mostly unchanged at 4,108.94 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA rising 0.29% to 33,684.79. This was the stock’s fourth consecutive day of gains. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Cl B closed $40.30 short of its 52-week high ($354.00), which the company reached on April 12th. The stock demonstrated a mixed performance when compared… Read the full article here

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Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. SKT said Tuesday that it will raise its quarterly dividend by 11.4%, to 24.5 cents a share from 22 cents. The new dividend will be payable on May 15 to shareholders of record on April 28. Based on Monday’s closing price of $19.46, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 5.04%, which compares with the implied yield for the S&P 500 SPX of 1.66%. Shares of the operator of open-air outlet centers, which were still inactive in premarket trading, has advanced 8.5% year to date while the S&P 500 has gained 7.0%….…

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April is National Financial Literacy Month. To mark the occasion, MarketWatch will publish a series of “Financial Fitness” articles to help readers improve their fiscal health, and offer advice on how to save, invest and spend their money wisely. Read more here.Dear Quentin, I’m a 67-year-old widower with a credit score of around 800. I’ retired and live off of Social Security of $1,440 a month. I live rent-free, and my car is paid off. I pay my credit cards off each month. About 18 years ago, I went bankrupt for the second time. To re-establish my credit I got not-so-great…

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People walk past a screen displaying the Hang Seng stock index outside Hong Kong Exchanges, in Hong Kong, China July 19, 2022. REUTERS/Lam Yik/File Photo By Herbert Lash NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks closed mostly flat and the dollar rose on Monday after strong jobs data last week pointed to the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates in May, while the yen eased after Japan’s new central bank governor vowed to maintain ultra-loose policy. Gold prices slipped below the key $2,000 level due to a resurgent dollar, while Treasury yields edged higher on growing market expectations that…

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed new health protections to reduce exposure of U.S. workers and communities to ethylene oxide, a toxic, colorless gas mainly used to sterilize medical equipment and spices. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed rule with new requirements at 86 sterilizer facilities across the country, that if finalized, aims to reduce ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions by 80%. Long-term exposure to EtO can have health implications, including certain cancers, studies say. The proposed rule is part of President Joe Biden’s initiative to cut the death rate from cancer and create new treatments to…

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(Bloomberg) — The International Monetary Fund lined up against former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers in the debate over where interest rates will gravitate to once inflation is beaten. In its latest World Economic Report, the IMF argued that rates in the US and other industrial countries will revert toward the ultra-low levels that prevailed prior to the pandemic, driven by aging populations and sluggish productivity growth. It sees the so-called natural or neutral rate – the inflation-adjusted short-term rate that neither pushes the economy ahead nor pulls it back – comfortably below 1% in the US in the coming…

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OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK Banks’ attempts to steer clear of taking positions on controversial social issues like mental health, climate change, and ESG may be hurting their ability to acquire and retain customers according to new research. Banks Get Questionable Advice on Social Issues If banks are confused by the advice they get on social issues, it’s understandable. On one hand, Boston Consulting Group claimed banks are “uniquely positioned to have a broad and sizable impact on many social challenges” and asserted, “there is a clear business case for creating solutions to address social issues, including access to…

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Key News Asian equity markets were mixed on light volumes in advance of today’s US CPI print. Overnight was a Tale of Two Chinas: Onshore (Mainland/domestic investors) versus Offshore (Hong Kong-US ADRs/foreign investors), as both performance and volume diverged. Mainland China investors cheered yesterday’s economic release with small gains on high volumes while Hong Kong fell on light volumes. China’s credit expansion will be a driver of economic growth, while M2 provides a nice tailwind for stocks. Brazil’s President Lula will visit China next week following French President Macron’s visit last week. Australia and China have made some baby steps…

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