Author: Press Room

When you buy a bag of potato chips from the neighborhood grocery store, how much of your money goes toward growing the potatoes and how much covers shipping the chips to the store? A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office answers those questions and examines the factors that affect retail food prices. It comes as grocery-store shoppers have been coping with bigger checkout bills: While food prices typically rise about 2% annually, they shot up 11% between 2021 and 2022 — the biggest annual jump in 40 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Here’s a look…

The Biden administration is reportedly days from proposing the toughest-ever U.S. limits on emissions from cars, SUVs and pickup trucks, but will likely stop short of a ban on gas-powered vehicles and a mandate to buy electric. The proposed standards on cars and light trucks is set to be announced Wednesday in Detroit, according to a report Thursday from Bloomberg News, which cited unnamed officials familiar with the regulation proposals. The proposal is expected to govern tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxide and other pollution from vehicles manufactured for model years 2027 through 2032. Even with federal rules…

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A electric vehicle charger is seen as a vehicle charges in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 7, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Used electric vehicle sales in the United States rose 32% in the first three months of 2023 as prices fell, data provider Cox Automotive said on Friday. The group said the average retail listing prices for used EVs was around $43,400, down 4% from the same quarter last year and significantly below the average new EV price of about $59,000. The group said used EV prices were probably cut due…

By Barani Krishnan  Investing.com — stockpiles had their second straight weekly decline last week, petroleum trade group API said in a report Tuesday that was expected to be matched somewhat by forthcoming government data. potentially fell by 4.346 million barrels during the week ended March 31, the API, which stands for the American Petroleum Institute, said. In the prior week to March 24, the API reported a 3.835M-barrel decline, after 10 weeks of builds that officially added some 60M barrels to U.S. crude inventories. Aside from the absolute inventory in crude, the API cited a 1.035M barrel deficit at the…

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK (Reuters) -The dollar rose against the euro on Friday but was on track for its fifth straight weekly loss against the common currency, after slower U.S. consumer spending growth boosted hopes the Federal Reserve would be less aggressive in hiking interest rates. U.S. consumer spending rose moderately in February after surging the prior month, and while inflation showed signs of cooling it remained elevated, which could prompt the Fed to raise interest rates once more this year. Earlier in the session, data showed euro zone inflation dropped by the most on record in March,…

By Anant Chandak BENGALURU (Reuters) – The Bank of Korea will opt to support a rapidly slowing economy by holding its main interest rate at 3.50% on Tuesday, according to a Reuters poll of economists that showed a slim majority now expect a 25-basis-point cut by the end of 2023. Policymakers at the BoK, who have raised rates by 300 basis points since August 2021, are wary of overtightening an export-dependent economy that is on the brink of a recession, especially when global growth is also slowing. Inflation eased to a one-year low of 4.2% in March, but it is…

Walgreens Boots Alliance has been named to the Dividend Channel ”S.A.F.E. 25” list, signifying a stock with above-average ”DividendRank” statistics including a strong 5.4% yield, as well as a superb track record of at least two decades of dividend growth, according to the most recent ”DividendRank” report. According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc is a member of the iShares S&P 1500 Index ETF (ITOT), and is also an underlying holding representing 1.82% of the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), which holds $415,532,797 worth of WBA shares. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) made the “Dividend…

Nothing drives up fear in the financial system like news of runs on banks. We had several large institutions go through a collapse in the last few weeks. Because of this, there has been renewed interest in understanding whether our individual deposits are safe. This is where it is important to understand how the FDIC works. While bank failures are rare and justifiably headline-grabbing, the scarcity of failures is due, in part, to the banking system being undergirded by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or what is commonly known as the FDIC. The FDIC was established in 1933 to offer…

Late last year, Congress passed and President Biden signed SECURE 2.0 legislation as part of the Omnibus spending bill. Enactment of this legislation is a clear signal that policymakers understand the depths of the frightening retirement savings shortfall facing millions of Americans. The reasons are many for the nation’s retirement crisis – from rising costs to fewer pensions to longer life expectancy. Despite these challenges, one segment of the workforce has been on stable ground when it comes to retirement: the state and local government workforce. Today, the vast majority of state and local workers have a defined benefit (DB)…

Today marks the final day of March and the conclusion of Women’s History Month. This month is a time to recognize the women who served as trailblazers, and inspire those that are blazing new trails for the next generation. While the progress of women in history is clear, that progress has stalled in the absence of changes in the gender wage gap over the past two decades. The gender wage gap is the difference between the earnings of men and women for the performance of the same work. Our nation has tracked the statistics on pay disparity between men and…