Author: Journalist

The targets range from 6,400 to 7,007. This implies returns between +5% and +15% from Friday’s close. It’s a tighter range than last year’s targets, with many clustering in that 8%-10% return expectation.Before we move on, I’d once again caution against putting too much weight into one-year targets. It’s extremely difficult to predict short-term moves in the market with any accuracy. Few on Wall Street have ever been able to do this consistently. DataTrek’s Nicholas Colas recently pointed out that the standard deviation around the mean annual total return for the S&P 500 is nearly 20 percentage points! More here.I…

Millions of Americans who are behind on their student debt may face a financial shock next year: The federal government is expected to start collecting on defaulted loans for the first time since payments were paused during the pandemic. Though the Biden administration required borrowers to begin making their normal repayments in 2023, it has yet to resume efforts to recover money involuntarily from people with seriously past-due balances. That process can involve garnishing wages, tax refunds, and Social Security benefits, along with formal legal proceedings. There are approximately 5.6 million former students currently in default, meaning their loans are…

Something as simple as writing a will could help close the racial wealth gap. As it stands now, Black families are less likely to take this crucial estate planning step than white households. A will helps to preserve wealth — especially the home — as it’s transferred from one generation to the next, rather than go through the state’s process of designating heirs. Overall, the racial wealth gap could be reduced by 10% over three generations if Black households wrote wills at the same rate as white ones, according to a recent study. The reduction may be “modest,” according to…

This is The Takeaway from today’s Morning Brief, which you can sign up to receive in your inbox every morning along with: Now that bitcoin has cracked the $100,000-per-token milestone, you’re probably getting texts (or sending them) asking whether it’s too late to get in, and fielding the classic taxi driver conversations about crypto. If you’ve been paying attention during cryptocurrencies’ ascent this year, you know that the rise has been fueled by two factors: the introduction of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and Donald Trump’s election win. Along with the price gains, the usual cast of characters has returned to…

Oracle (ORCL) stock fell more than 7% Tuesday, putting shares on track for their steepest daily loss of the year following second-quarter results that fell short of Wall Street analyst expectations and a forecast for AI spending that drew investor scrutiny. Joining other high flying tech companies ramping up their cloud businesses, Oracle reaped the benefits from the rapid expansion of data infrastructure across corporate America. The company reported that revenue from its cloud Infrastructure unit surged 52% to $2.4 billion. But overall sales and earnings missed analyst forecasts. The company posted earnings of $1.47 a share, compared to analysts…

Oscar Raposo Joins Scouting America as New Chief Financial Officer Oscar Raposo, Chief Financial Officer, Scouting America IRVING, TX, Dec. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Scouting America, the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, is proud to announce that Oscar Raposo has joined the organization as its Chief Financial Officer. “We are delighted to welcome Oscar to Scouting America,” said Roger Krone, president & chief executive officer at Scouting America. “His extensive experience in financial management and his passion for Scouting make him an invaluable asset to our organization. We are confident that his leadership…

Virtu Financial, LLC NEW YORK, Dec. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: VIRT) a leading provider of financial services and products that leverage cutting-edge technology to deliver innovative, transparent trading solutions to our clients and liquidity to the global markets, announces its recognition across multiple categories at The TRADE Leaders in Trading Awards, reflecting its ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence in trading technology. At the European awards ceremony, Virtu was honored with Best Access to Market and Best Dark Pool Capabilities. In addition, Virtu Triton EMS received recognition for: Best User Experience, Best Provider for Large…

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is one of the world’s largest companies. Its market capitalization stands at $3.3 trillion as of this writing, with $3 trillion of that value added in the last two years alone. Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) for the data center are the gold standard for developing artificial intelligence (AI) models, and they are the main proponent behind the company’s incredible growth. Over the past year, CEO Jensen Huang has spread some of Nvidia’s good fortune by investing in other AI stocks. Start Your Mornings Smarter! Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For…

The Nasdaq Composite has been on fire over the past couple of years, driven higher by the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), improving economic conditions, an uncontested election, and the Federal Reserve Bank’s recent moves to cut interest rates. After returning 43% in 2023, the tech-centric index is up roughly 30% in 2024. History suggests the rally will likely continue into 2025. The current bull market began on Oct. 12, 2022, and while every rally is different, history can provide important context. Bull markets last more than five years, on average. Since the current rally just entered its third year,…

A new year will be upon us in less than a month, and investors are thinking about how they want to invest during 2025. Trends can change quickly, which is why the most important factor in making a decision about any investment should always be its underlying fundamentals. If you’re looking for excellent stocks that are also benefiting from strong tailwinds right now, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI), and Carnival (NYSE: CCL)(NYSE: CUK) would be great picks. Are You Missing The Morning Scoop? Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free » Amazon…