Author: Press Room

Gold futures finished a bit lower on Wednesday after posting back-to-back session gains that lifted prices to within 2% of their record settlement high. Weaker than expected U.S. economic data fueled expectations for a recession, supporting the precious metal’s appeal as a haven investment, analysts said. Price action The June gold contract  GC00, +0.87% GCM23, +0.87% declined by $2.60, or 0.1%, to settle at $2,035.60 an ounce on Comex after trading as high as $2,049.20. Prices on Tuesday ended at the highest level since early March of last year. The record-high settlement based on the most-active contracts stands at $2,069.40…

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. Unhappy with you credit score? Looking to buy a house? You’ve come to the right place. There are five big factors that play into your credit score, according to Freddie Mac FMCC, +0.32% : Your payment history. The amounts you owe. The length of your credit history. New credit you apply for. The types of credit you use.…

U.S. stocks finished mostly higher on Monday, with the S&P 500 eking out a slight gain in the final moments of trading, as investors returned from a three-day weekend to the start of a busy week for data and the first-quarter earnings season. How stocks traded The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.30% finished up by 101.23 points, or 0.3%, at 33,586.52, its third straight session of gains. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.10% advanced 4.09 points, or 0.1%, to 4,109.11 in the final minutes of trading, after being lower for much of the day. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.03% ended…

© Reuters. By Ambar Warrick Investing.com — Japan’s Nikkei index surged on Tuesday after a media report said that Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE:) Warren Buffett was considering more investment in local stocks, and that he had also increased his holdings in the country’s five major trading houses. The index jumped 1.4%, with shares of the country’s five biggest trading houses, including Marubeni Corp. (TYO:), Mitsubishi Corp. (TYO:), Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (TYO:), Sumitomo Corp. (TYO:), and Itochu Corp. (TYO:), up between 2% and 3%. The Nikkei Asia newspaper reported that Buffett now holds a 7.4% stake in the five firms after…

By Sudarshan Varadhan CHENNAI (Reuters) -Oil prices rose on Tuesday on expectations of potential economic stimulus by China, healthy demand in the rest of Asia and a drop in stockpiles. futures rose 64 cents, or 0.8%, to $84.82 a barrel at 0557 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 67 cents, or 0.8%, to $80.41 a barrel. Data from China showed that consumer inflation in March hit the slowest pace since September 2021, suggesting demand weakness persists amid an uneven economic recovery, which spurred expectations Beijing may take steps to boost growth. “China’s March CPI is lower than expected,…

By Ambar Warrick Investing.com — Most Asian currencies rose slightly on Tuesday, while the dollar was somewhat mixed ahead of more cues on the U.S. economy and monetary policy from key inflation data due later this week. Still, gains in regional currencies were limited following a string of less hawkish cues from local central banks, amid signs that inflation was peaking across a bulk of the region. was flat as data showed inflation in the country missed expectations in March, while inflation continued to fall. The reading pointed to a mixed economic rebound in the country, especially as its manufacturing…

By Jihoon Lee and Choonsik Yoo SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s central bank on Tuesday held interest rates steady and warned against expectations for a rate cut within this year, saying cooling but still high inflation posed a bigger risk than an economic slump. Remarks by the bank’s governor at a news conference were largely neutral, but economists said the unanimous rate decision indicated the board has turned more dovish than at the previous meeting, when there was one member voting for a hike. The Bank of Korea’s board kept the base rate unchanged at 3.50%, as it did on Feb.…

After a 29% rise this year, L’Oreal stock (OTCMKTS: LRLCY) looks fully valued. L’Oreal stock has risen from $72 in early January to $92 now. This marks a significant outperformance with the 7% return for the broader S&P500 index. Looking at a slightly longer term, LRLCY stock is up 55% from levels in late 2019. This can be attributed to 1. the company’s P/S ratio, which rose 20% to 6.1x trailing revenues from 5.1x in 2019, 2. a 22% rise in L’Oreal revenue to $92.4 billion, and 3. its average shares outstanding falling 5% to 2.7 billion. Our interactive dashboard,…

Consumers are getting more pessimistic about inflation and their access to credit, according to the results of a monthly survey the New York Federal Reserve released Monday.Respondents expect prices to rise by half a percentage point in the year ahead, equating to a 4.7% annual gain, the central bank branch’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for March showed.That’s the first time the near-term outlook increased since October and runs counter to the narrative from Fed officials that they expect inflation to subside as a series of interest rate increases take hold. In their most recent economic projections, policymakers said they anticipate…

Australian broadcaster Sky News has left TikTok because of security concerns that have led several Western governments to ban the video app on devices used by officials. In an article published on the Sky News Australia website Monday, digital editor Jack Houghton said the security risks posed by the “Beijing-controlled platform” were “too great for any serious news publisher.” “TikTok is a spy network masquerading as a social media platform which has been proven to illegally pilfer the data of journalists, public citizens and politicians,” Houghton wrote. “We urge [media organizations] to consider this dilemma and stop trading security and…