Author: Press Room

Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -1.66% has held informal talks with Pioneer Natural Resources Co. PXD, -1.06% about a possible acquisition, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Exxon has been exploring options to put its cash to use and its executives have discussed a potential tie-up with at least one other company, although it sees Pioneer as a top target, according to the report. A deal, if it happens, likely won’t come until later this year or next year, the report said. Shares of Exxon ended Thursday down 1.7%, while Pioneer shares closed down 1%.…

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. In the U.S., credit scores are a critical part of a person’s financial life — it rules how much you can borrow, what credit cards you can apply for, and even where you can live. Yet they’re also one of most misunderstood numbers. People often struggle with comprehending why their credit score is too low, or why it…

In the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, conventional wisdom has been that banks will cut lending, known as a credit crunch, that will damage the economy. On Thursday, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said he was “less enamored’ with this forecast. “Only about 20% of lending is going through the banking system and only a fraction of the banks are small or regional banks “I just don’t think it is big enough by itself to send the U.S. economy into recession,” Bullard said. Bullard said he doubted there would be a pullback of lending by…

© Reuters. By Mike Scarcella (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday declined to reinstate a lawsuit from Chicago drivers who claimed the city’s costly parking meter rates were derived from a 75-year, $1.1 billion contract with a private company in violation of U.S. antitrust law. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the motorists’ legal challenge in Illinois federal court. The lawsuit sought to compel Chicago to end its long-term contract with Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the defendant in the case. The cost of metered parking…

By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON (Reuters) -Oil prices were little changed in choppy trading on Tuesday as investors weighed OPEC+ planned production cuts against weak U.S. and Chinese economic data that could suggest cooling oil demand. futures settled 1 cent higher at $84.94 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures closed up 29 cents, or 0.4%, at $80.71 a barrel. “We will need to see demand hold and grow to push crude into the upper $80’s,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial. Brent crude and WTI had jumped by more than 6% on…

By Georgina Lee HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chicago’s CME Group opened options trading for futures on Monday, as it looks to deepen a market that investors use for betting or hedging against moves in China’s currency. Hong Kong has offered similar exchange-traded options since 2017, though bringing the product to CME – the world’s biggest derivatives exchange – may be a step toward competing with the banks that dominate options by selling directly to customers. “Many traders no longer view CNH as an emerging market currency like it was ten years ago,” said Chris Povey, CME Group’s (NASDAQ:) executive director…

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Yoshifumi Takemoto TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan (BOJ) should be cautious about changing its unconventional monetary policy for now, given financial market uncertainty due to problems in Western banks, former top financial diplomat Takehiko Nakao told Reuters in an interview. Nakao made the comments amid speculation the BOJ may abandon its yield curve control policy when new Governor Kazuo Ueda takes over incumbent Haruhiko Kuroda, whose term ends on April 8. U.S. bank failures and the buyout of Credit Suisse by UBS last month have driven financial market risk aversion. Nakao said the BOJ…

The DividendRank formula at Dividend Channel ranks a coverage universe of thousands of dividend stocks, according to a proprietary formula designed to identify those stocks that combine two important characteristics — strong fundamentals and a valuation that looks inexpensive. Western Union presently has an above average rank, in the top 50% of the coverage universe, which suggests it is among the top most “interesting” ideas that merit further research by investors. Start slideshow: 10 Oversold Dividend Stocks » But making Western Union an even more interesting and timely stock to look at, is the fact that in trading on Tuesday,…

Snap’s stock (NYSE: SNAP) has gained roughly 26% YTD as compared to the 7% rise in the S&P500 index over the same period. That said, at its current price of $11, it is trading at the same level as the fair value of $11 – Trefis’ estimate for Snap’s valuation. The company posted mixed results in the fourth quarter of 2022, with earnings beating the consensus but revenues missing the expectations. It reported total revenues of $1.3 billion, marginally above the year-ago period. Snap, like its peer Meta, suffered in 2022 due to the Apple AAPL iOS privacy update, restricting…

A federal appeals court has issued a ruling that clears the way for the Biden administration to implement student loan forgiveness and other debt relief under a landmark settlement to resolve stalled Borrower Defense to Repayment claims. Here’s the latest. $6 Billion Student Loan Forgiveness For Over 200,000 Borrowers In Sweeping Settlement With Biden Administration A federal district court ruled in February that settlement relief to resolve Sweet vs. Cardona could proceed. The class action lawsuit had pitted thousands of student loan borrowers against the Education Department for several years. The class of borrowers alleged that department officials had illegally…