On April 17, 2023, S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) announced a major change to its inclusion criteria. Effective immediately, all companies with multi-class share structures will be eligible for inclusion in the S&P 1500...more
On December 9, 2022, S&P Dow Jones Indices (DJI) announced the results of its 2022 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Annual Review. The top five worldwide additions by market capitalization added this year are:...more
Prompted by concerns over privacy, “government investigation, a class-action lawsuit and regulatory woes,” Facebook is planning to “shut down its decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of...more
More good economic news in the U.S. this week, with first-time jobless claims falling to 613k, a decrease of more than 150,000 from a week earlier and the lowest level of the pandemic. ...more
With Vice President Harris acting as the tiebreaker (and following a 15-hour amendment vote-a-rama), the Senate voted on Thursday to move forward with the White House’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief measure....more
In Washington: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is finalizing new guidelines to shorten its recommended coronavirus quarantine period from 14 days to between 7 and 10 days. The agency hopes more people...more
The official transition to a new administration and early Cabinet selections helped drive Wall Street to new highs on Tuesday, with the Dow topping 30,000 for the first time and the S&P 500 up 1.6% to another new high, too....more
As we thought, stocks rallied on Monday thanks to Moderna’s news of promising results for its Covid-19 vaccine, with the Dow and S&P 500 hitting new record highs....more
The European Union has unveiled a new antitrust probe and accompanying charges against Amazon over alleged the “use of non-public business data from independent sellers on its marketplace that could benefit the company’s own...more
Microsoft made a huge gaming move on Monday with its $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the “parent company of gaming studios like Bethesda,” and maker of titles like “The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Quake and...more
New figures from the Congressional Budget Office predict that U.S. government debt will, thanks to the pandemic recession, just about eclipse the size of the nation’s GDP—a level not reached since just after World War II....more
Despite an earlier White House promise to postpone, American and Chinese trade negotiators met via videoconference on Monday to discuss “the status of the trade deal both nations signed in January, a pact that continues to...more
Consumer spending at stores and auto dealerships increased in June, the second straight month, but the recent uptick in coronavirus cases could slow future growth....more
In Washington: Congressional leaders will soon name the chair of the coronavirus oversight commission, which was created by the CARES Act to increase transparency and oversight of the coronavirus relief funds. Retired...more
The Federal Reserve has “temporarily restricted shareholder payouts by the biggest banks,” preventing stock buybacks and barring increases in dividend payments in the third quarter. ...more
In Washington: The House will now require masks during committee hearings, per new guidance issued by the Capitol physician last night. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had discussed the idea with Democrats during a conference...more
In Washington: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday said that President Trump is “open” to another coronavirus stimulus package and that he still wants a payroll tax cut, which many Republicans do not...more
With HBO Max entering the fray today, we’ve got your latest dispatch from the streaming wars, including thoughts on Max’s ability to deliver on its promise to “crush” Netflix despite a very crowded playing field, a spendy...more
The current COVID-19 pandemic is causing significant concern in the financial markets, reviving memories of the 2008 financial crisis. The sudden and almost complete shutdown of many non-essential businesses due to the...more
The emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic has caused global stock markets to plummet, and has seen countries around the world take measures to try to stop its spread, including the imposition of travel...more
The Senate unanimously passed a hotly anticipated third COVID-19-related stimulus bill last night, and the House is set to take up the measure today and vote tomorrow on the bill that would deliver $2 trillion in loans, tax...more
As the world grapples with the health threat posed by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the secondary threats of the coronavirus—including economic and financial consequences—have come into clear view....more
It’s been a week or so, and we’re running out of ways to say that this is bad. But it certainly is. Your bear market stats for the day: the biggest daily drop by percentage for both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial...more
Go ahead and put Tuesday, March 11th in the history books. The same day the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as an official pandemic, the US stock market’s 11-year bull run officially came to an end, with the Dow closing...more
Monday on Wall Street was the equivalent of a well-forecast storm that still managed to blow meteorologists’ minds. The deadly combination of diving oil prices and yet more COVID-19 worries spelled disaster for U.S. markets,...more