Author: Press Room

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard on Thursday dismissed concerns of a credit crunch in reaction to the turmoil in the financial system following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other institutions in recent weeks.  Bullard said he does not expect lending standards to rise to a level that would push the economy into a recession.”It’s too soon to tell what kind of tightening we are seeing,” Bullard told reporters following his speech on the economy and monetary policy at the Arkansas State Bank Department’s Day with the Commissioner event. However, he said, “credit tightening will not tighten…

Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc., and Discover Inc., have paused their work on a plan to track when cardholders make purchases at gun stores. The payment processing companies said Thursday they have suspended their work on the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant category code (MCC) for firearms and ammunition stores. The move was first reported by Bloomberg.Anti-gun activists have championed the adoption of a new code, which they say would flag gun sales and potentially help monitor suspicious activity that could lead to mass shootings. Gun-rights activists, on the other hand, oppose the initiative as both a violation of Second…

Most seniors (89%) are worried that the U.S. is in the grip of a retirement crisis and nearly half said they are struggling to build their savings, according to a recent survey from the American Advisors Group’s (AAG). Nearly half (47%) of the seniors surveyed rated the conditions of their retirement savings as poor and 44% said they had not saved enough to retire comfortably. Additionally, 57% said they were somewhat or not optimistic that the savings would last through retirement.Rising costs and inflation has made it hard for 40% of the respondents to make ends meet, and 47% said…

Our goal here at Credible Operations, Inc., NMLS Number 1681276, referred to as “Credible” below, is to give you the tools and confidence you need to improve your finances. Although we do promote products from our partner lenders who compensate us for our services, all opinions are our own. Rates for well-qualified borrowers using the Credible marketplace to refinance student loans fell this week for 10-year fixed-rate loans, and rose for 5-year variable-rate loans. For borrowers with credit scores of 720 or higher who used the Credible marketplace to select a lender during the week of March 20, 2023:Rates on…

A growing number of Americans, still reeling from the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, are no longer benefiting from government relief efforts and are increasingly choosing bankruptcy to deal with unmanageable debt, according to a recent American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) report. An end to federal pandemic aid coupled with continued economic challenges has increased bankruptcy filings, ABI reported. Total individual bankruptcy filings in February rose to 30,193, up 18% from a year ago and up 2% from January, the report said.  Pandemic-era stimulus checks, unemployment benefits and reduced spending because of nationwide lockdown measures helped Americans collectively save roughly $2.3 trillion…

Wall Street expects a weak first-quarter earnings season, which kicks off next week with results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and other major U.S. banks. But more than a dozen Club holdings, including Amazon (AMZN) and Caterpillar (CAT), are projected to buck the trend and grow profits. First-quarter earnings per share for the S & P 500 are set to decline by 7% compared with the year-ago period, Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients Wednesday. That would be a “significant deterioration” from the 1% decline in the broad index’s fourth-quarter EPS , the firm said, and the largest year-over-year…

Zelenskyy awards Muslim soldiers, breaks Ramadan fast with themUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy honored Muslim soldiers before sharing iftar — the breaking of the daily fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan — with them.”Today, we’ll found a tradition new to Ukraine: Iftar on an official level, together with our Muslim warriors, our heroes, that are here today,” he said, according to an NBC News translation. Zelenskyy used the awards ceremony to call for the liberation of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.The Ukrainian population is predominantly Orthodox Christian, and Muslims make up about 1% of the population.…

Global crypto adoption continues to ramp up, with reports estimating that over 420 million people worldwide now own digital currencies. This level of adoption means an abundance of items can be purchased online using popular coins like Bitcoin – a process that brings a whole host of benefits. With that in mind, this guide discusses what you can buy with Bitcoin in 2023. We’ll explore an array of items and services you can purchase online using BTC (and other cryptos) before highlighting the cheapest and safest platform for making crypto-based purchases.The 10 Best Things You Can Buy with Bitcoin in 2023Those…

Tesla cut prices in the United States between 2% and nearly 6%, its website showed on Thursday, as the company extends a discount drive on its electric vehicles that analysts caution could hurt profitability. The fifth such cut in Tesla’s largest market since the start of the year comes as the United States prepares to adopt tougher standards this month that are expected to limit EV tax credits. Tesla (TSLA) cut prices on both versions of its Model 3 sedan by $1,000 and on its Model Y crossover by $2,000, the website showed. It also cut prices on both versions…

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