DealBook: Winners And Losers Of The Trade Deal

Buyers, their confidence bolstered by sustained job and income growth, have taken advantage of the lowest borrowing costs in almost three years as Federal Reserve policy makers reduced their benchmark rate three times in 2019.. Fresh earnings announcements show order books are growing at builders including Lennar Corp., with its increasing focus on the…

After nearly two years of a bruising trade war, the new U.S.- China trade deal to be signed Wednesday gives President Trump some immediate benefits and allows both sides to put off the most difficult issues. But below the ceremonial veneer of a White House signing event and Trump's extravagant tweets on his achievement, the hard reality of the so-called Phase 1…

Retirement may come sooner than expected, leaving most Americans unhappy about their preparations, a new study says.

—At a time when Americans hold a record $14 trillion of debt, including mortgages, credit card and student loan debt, according to the New York Federal Reserve, Americans may still be doing better than they realize when it comes to debt. A new survey from New York Life Insurance Company suggests that although debt is growing, the challenge of paying it off is not…

The market resumed its rally from last week, amid renewed trade optimism.

We want a society where we have safe roads, low crime, good public schools and, for times when people fall short financially, a safety net. Our taxes support Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which we know have kept millions of seniors out of poverty. Fifty-seven percent of retirees say Social Security is their major source of income, according to a 2019 Gallup…

–A New York wealth manager who overbilled clients and diverted firm funds to inflate his salary by millions of dollars plans to plead guilty to fraud charges. Richard T. Diver, co-founder and former chief operating officer at M&R Capital Management, was arrested in March. Prosecutors in Manhattan said he misused his position as manager of the firm’ s payroll and…

Mike Bloomberg has pitched his tent in the improve-on-Obamacare camp as he tries to forge his own pathway to the White House among a still-crowded Democratic field.. Bloomberg's ad, which your Virginia-dwelling Health 202 author spotted at least three times during the Golden Globe Awards, touts improvements in insurance coverage, life expectancy and infant…

The new year is already bringing new threats to fray nerves from C-suites to Wall Street: Just as the the U.S.- China trade war cools off, the risk of a hot war with Iran is spiking.. “The economic and financial fall-out from Friday's events seems likely to be minor,” Macroeconomic Advisors economists wrote, referencing the U.S. military drone attack that killed Iranian…

A new federal law has been hailed for its retirement savings reforms. But while it makes tweaks to IRAs, it probably won't make them more popular.

Stock futures fell and oil prices rallied Friday after a U.S. airstrike killed an Iranian military leader, reigniting geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

Tensions, and oil prices, rise after U.S. move against Iran. U.S. officials said General Suleimani had been hit in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport. Critics of the killing worry that it will cause huge trouble for the U.S. and allies like Israel, including putting America closer to war with Iran.“ Managing the trouble this strike seems likely to produce…

The Trump White House and Washington policymakers have touted the tight labor market as the main engine driving gains for the working class, but a Washington Post analysis of Labor Department data suggests that paychecks also grew because of a nationwide movement of rising minimum wages in various states and cities over the past couple of years.

Under normal circumstances, the U.S. economy would be poised to greet 2020 with optimism. Signals suggest exports will be more competitive. The economy, consumer spending, business investment, unemployment, interest rates, inflation and wages look good.

You don't own a crystal ball. You can't foresee births, deaths, divorces, stock market swoons or huge rallies. So make a financial plan.

Want individual stock ideas for 2020? Want ideas for the part of your portfolio in mutual funds? Look at how one of 2019's best mutual funds invests.

Congress recently passed one of the most significant changes to retirement savings regulation that has occurred in years. The “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement or” SECURE Act “as it is known, was included as part of the massive $1.4 trillion spending bill. Keep in mind, this new RMD rule will only apply to individuals who turn 70 ½ after Dec. 31,…

At 27, Nick de León knows firsthand about the gulf between millennials and Wall Street. De León graduated this year from UC Berkeley with bachelor's degrees in political science and rhetoric with plans to start law school soon, and he has an internship with a Superior Court judge in his hometown of San Bernardino. Saddled with $1,400 in monthly payments for…

Higher interest rates, fees pad banks' profits but can be costly for consumers. Profits at Visa were up 17- percent in its most recent fiscal year, while Mastercard reported an 11 percent profit jump in its most recent quarter. They use their credit cards far more than they use their debit cards,' Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said in July.' I don't…

Millennials trail in expected wealth accumulation compared with older generations at the same age, a Federal Reserve of St. Louis study shows.

The U.S. central bank did lower its benchmark three times this year, but officials argued it was doing so for economic reasons rather than because of presidential pressure. The Federal Reserve's plans to raise USA interest rates gradually are aimed at sustaining full employment and near-2-percent inflation without letting the economy overheat, Fed Chair…

Consider putting these items on your to-do list with a Dec. 31 due date:. Check your beneficiaries: If you need convincing that updating beneficiaries is important, consider the case of David Egelhoff, a Washington man who died two months after his divorce was final in 1994.. The children sued, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2001…

In a 2- to-1 ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed with Judge Reed O’ Connor of Federal District Court for the North District of Texas that the law’ s requirement that Americans buy health insurance is unconstitutional. If you’ re wondering why the courts are considering the legality of the Affordable Care Act after the Supreme…

Technology companies led stocks higher on Wall Street Thursday, extending the market's gains for the week and pushing the major indexes to more record highs. Rite Aid, Conagra Brands and Micron Technology rose after posting quarterly results that exceeded analysts' forecasts. Stocks, bonds, gold and a measure of fear among investors on Wall Street made only…

—Not only can financial problems in a marriage be a significant factor in a couple’ s decision to get a divorce, the financial fallout from divorce can leave spouses struggling to pick up the pieces. Whether you’ re currently working through a divorce or just want to be prepared, here are six tips to consider that can help you better understand— and stay in control of—…

Ryan Skinner has been charged with acting as an unregistered investment adviser, according to a Wednesday announcement from Secretary of State William Galvin. Skinner, who is president of Summit Financial Partners in Woburn, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A new paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public…

Of lesser note were the final Treasury regulations on life insurance reporting and excluded death benefit and how the National Association of Insurance Commissioners may look at using genetic information in life underwriting. •Treasury regulations regarding information reporting and excluded death benefits of life insurance policies. 5.

The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found shortcomings in the exit strategies — or “living wills” — of six of the eight largest banks in the U.S., it said on Tuesday. Why it matters: These living wills dictate how big banks handle bankruptcy during financial distress — or a financial crisis. Bank of America and Wells Fargo are among those…

MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 17, 2019/ PRNewswire/– Unless lawmakers pass legislation soon to save struggling multiemployer pension plans, it may be too late for some. These are the highlights of a new analysis by Cheiron Inc., the actuarial consulting firm, based on the latest annual financial reports filed by multiemployer pension plans with regulators.

The 2017 tax law lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35- percent to 21 percent, but in practice large companies often pay far less than that because of deductions, tax breaks and other loopholes. In the first year of the law, the amount corporations paid in federal taxes on their incomes “their' effective rate'” was 11.3- percent on average, possibly its lowest…

The 2020 spending bill includes the SECURE Act which passed in the House 417-3 in May but stalled in the Senate. We have a link to the text, all 1,773 pages of it.

Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Monday, extending the market's gains from last week and sending the major indexes to record highs.

The U.S. economy is heading into 2020 at a pace of steady, sustained growth after a series of interest rate cuts and the apparent resolution of two trade-related threats mostly eliminated the risk of a recession. He also reached a limited trade agreement with China that scrapped hefty tariffs set to take effect over the weekend in exchange for China agreeing to…

At the request of a state lawmaker, the Citizens’ Property Insurance board is again bringing in an outside evaluator to help the insurer decide if and how to cull its policyholder base further. The numbers swelled as Citizens picked up policyholders shed by insurers that either went out of business after significant storms in the late 1990 s and early 2000 s or…

Grant Haas, managing partner of the Haas Portman Family Office investment group, is joining forces with McGrady to create a financial advisory program to help curtail the number of athletes facing financial hardship.

Realizing that parents are increasingly worried about affording their child’s college tuition, advisors branch out to provide expertise.

Elizabeth Warren attempted Thursday to move beyond a rocky stretch in her campaign by refocusing on the economic message that helped her rise in the first place, taking the opportunity to aim attacks at her more centrist rivals. In the tightly crafted speech reiterating the rationale for her candidacy, Warren criticized former vice president Joe Biden and…

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell isn't heeding President Trump's demands to slash interest rates. But the central bank chief still delivered unequivocal good news for Trump's reelection hopes: He doesn't see the Fed raising interest rates anytime soon, leaving in place the cushion it put under the economy earlier this year.. Per my colleague Heather Long: “…

Brace yourself: New York city officials estimate the pool of money allocated to bonus payouts by Wall Street firms will shrink by at least 9% this year — to about $25 billion from the $27.5 billion doled out in 2018. Why it matters: A surging stock market and low unemployment rate don’t mean that bonuses in the securities industry will keep growing and growing. Then there's…

The Federal Reserve and its leaders have done something unusual in 2019 for central bankers: They admitted they were wrong in their short- and long-term outlook for the U.S. economy. The benchmark U.S. interest rate is just shy of 1.75 percent, down from nearly 2.5 percent a year ago. The Fed lowered the interest rate in July, September and October in an effort to calm…

A Medicare Advantage price hike could be headed for Pennsylvania's senior citizens. This health insurance tax is bad news, and Congress knows it. Congress needs to pass the HIT Tax Relief Bill.

That was Jerome Powell in early October, answering a reporter’ s question on whether the Federal Reserve’ s intervention in the overnight U.S. repo market constituted another round of quantitative easing. Judging from this alone, you would think that we were on the brink of another financial crisis, even as Powell himself says the U.S. economy remains strong.

President Trump is on track to secure a political victory by forging a breakthrough with congressional Democrats to update the North American trade pact. Indeed, economists say the agreement may be most important for what it prevents. Trump had threatened to pull the United States out of NAFTA if the three countries couldn't reach a deal.

Cigna is in talks with New York Life Insurance Co. to sell off its group benefits insurance business in a deal that could be worth $6 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Mr. Volcker arrived in Washington as America’ s postwar economic dominance was beginning to crumble and devoted his professional life to wrestling with the consequences, write the NYT’ s Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert D. Hershey Jr. As a Treasury Department official under Democratic and Republican presidents, Mr. Volcker waged a long, losing struggle to preserve…

A new study conducted by a Stanford University researcher with the help of the Internal Revenue Service explodes both notions. First, it undercuts Republican actions that led to the elimination of the penalty by the 2017 tax cut bill, effective in January 2019, while supporting legislation in California, two other states and the District of Columbia that…

–Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who broke the back of U.S. inflation in the 1980 s and three decades later led President Barack Obama’ s bid to rein in the investment risk-taking of commercial banks, has died. He died Sunday in New York, according to his daughter, Janice Zima. He flew coach, grumbled about restaurant prices and took his first wife on a…

Last month, the United States government issued sanctions against eight Chinese companies for complicity in the crackdown on Chinese Muslims in Xinjiang. By any standard, China is led by an amoral dictatorship. In addition to the continuing horrors in Xinjiang, young people in Hong Kong fighting for freedom fear being brutalized by Chinese security forces.

But a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services shows the nation remains in a period of relatively slow growth in health spending. Health spending in the United States rose by 4.6 percent to $3.6 trillion in 2018— accounting for 17.7 percent of the economy— compared to a growth rate of 4.2 percent in 2017. Federal officials said the slight…

S&P 500 volatility reminds investors of the importance of owning quality companies. Even better? High-quality stocks that also make big profits for investors. 

Hospitals sued the Trump administration yesterday over its requirement that they disclose their negotiated rates, the latest of the industry's moves to protect itself from policy changes that could hurt its revenues. Why it matters: Hospitals account for the largest portion of U.S. health costs — which patients are finding increasingly unaffordable. The big picture: Hospitals…

The manufacturing industry got a huge boost from President Trump's election, seeing a groundswell of job gains during his first year in office. But the trade war with China has undone that progress: Jobs in the sector have stalled out and turned negative in 2019. Why it matters: Reviving American manufacturing was a central tenet of Trump's 2016 campaign, and the industry's…

The unexpected contraction in the U.S. November manufacturing ISM report was responsible for the dollar's currency downturn, which came concomitantly with an erosion in the dollar's yield advantage against other major currencies. The 10- year U.S. T-note yield spread over the Bund, for instance, has shrivelled by about 7 bp since the data release.