Author: Press Room

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign exchange reserves rose in March, official data showed on Friday, as the dollar fell against other major currencies. The country’s foreign exchange reserves – the world’s largest – rose $51 billion to $3.184 trillion last month, compared with $3.149 trillion tipped by a Reuters poll of analysts and up from $3.133 trillion in February. The yuan rose 0.86% against the dollar in March, while the dollar fell 2.3% against a basket of other major currencies. China held 66.50 million fine troy ounces of gold at the end of March, up from 65.92 million at end-February.…

By Barani Krishnan Investing.com — One of the craftiest moves in recent times to boost the oil market should result in a weekly gain at least in crude — which is exactly what OPEC+ got. But nothing more. Crude prices did not advance beyond initial rally to $86.44 per barrel this week and surge to $81.81, which came on the back of the announcement that the world’s largest oil producers will collude to cut a further 1.7 million barrels from daily output after an earlier decision in November to reduce 2.0M barrels per day. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or…

2/2 © Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Federal Councillor and chief of the finance federal department Karin Keller-Sutter attends a news conference on Credit Suisse after UBS takeover offer, in Bern, Switzerland, March 19, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse 2/2 ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS’s multi-billion state-sponsored takeover of Credit Suisse should proceed smoothly without political obstructions, Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said in an interview published on Saturday. The Swiss parliament is due to hold an extraordinary session next week to discuss the emergency merger engineered by the Swiss authorities after Credit Suisse came close to collapse. Nearly 260 billion Swiss francs ($287 billion)…

LTX has migrated its electronic trading platform for corporate bonds to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company, a subsidiary of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., said it will use AWS to better optimize its data science processes. “A key component of the LTX value proposition is our data and AI offering,” said Jim Kwiatkowski, CEO of LTX. “AWS’s tools, including cloud-based services and API connectivity, enable us to build, train and deploy state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) models at scale as well as accelerate and streamline ML lifecycles.” “By moving its trading platform and critical business applications to AWS, LTX can bring…

As America watched two large banks fail over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a mad dash of businesses and individuals to ensure their money is actually safe in the bank. Perhaps what’s scariest to us all is having to confront a tough uncertainty: what does safe actually mean? Banking somewhere too big to fail? Keeping deposits under the FDIC insurance limit? Banking where a small percentage of deposits are over the limit? Learning about exotic products outside the banking system? It’s enough to make your head spin, and your wallet ache. These unfortunate events have left community banks caught…

The employment report for March gives plenty of good news for the U.S. macroeconomic situation. The economy added 236,000 nonfarm jobs, matching what had generally been expected. In fact, March’s 0.15% growth rate (1.8% annualized) was exactly identical to the average over the past 77 1/2 years since the end of World War II. That’s perfect. Major softening in the job market would be an important sign that a recession is on the way, while too much strength in the job market would force more aggressive interest rate hikes. The March jobs report, though, suggests that we’re on exactly the…

Nobody likes to get letters from the IRS, much less statements involving fines. Both are easily avoided. The IRS provides multiple ways to file before the April 18th deadline this year. Here’s what you need to know: * Eligible individuals and families who earned $73,000 or less in 2022 can use IRS Free File, available only on IRS.gov, to electronically file their taxes. * All taxpayers, regardless of income, who need more time to file a return can use IRS Free File as an easy and quick way to electronically file for a six-month extension before April 18, 2023. An…

For most computer literate elders, online shopping is a great convenience and is usually fine — until something goes wrong. With an aging parent who is a little confused, or who has memory problems, online purchases can become a trap. While most purchases go as planned, one can understand that sometimes the wrong thing is delivered or what is paid for doesn’t arrive. Sometimes all too much arrives and no one stops it. The aging parent who has a little trouble keeping track of things will not know how to address these things successfully. They may be baffled by return…

A short grantor trust walks into a bar. After a few too many drinks he starts flirting with a pretty beneficiary, promising her a step up in his assets. But before he seals the deal, the bartender pulls the stool out from under him, shouting, “Get out! You’ve got no basis stepping up here.” “Based upon the detailed discussion that follows, we have concluded that there is a solid argument that there is a basis adjustment to the fair market value of the assets of a grantor trust on the death of the grantor.” EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: It is the duty…

We’re in an interesting time, financially speaking, with a unique set of financial circumstances. There’s likely an inverse relationship between your cash accounts and your mortgage. A decent, high-yield savings account is somewhere around 4% APR, and if you were able to lock in a low interest rate years ago, you may have a rate as low as 3.125% or somewhere in there. It’s an unusual environment where savings accounts are yielding a better return than a 30-year mortgage. This was the beauty of those low interest rates a few years ago, it allowed many to take advantage and lock…