Does Elizabeth Warren Have A Critical Vulnerability?

In this excerpt from a new IBD profile of $559 million Alger Focus Equity Fund, the savvy fund managers explain why they like Apple stock.

According to an article from law firm Venable posted on legal news site Lexology.com, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission’ s ban on investment advisers operating in the state from using mandatory arbitration clauses in advisory contracts went into effect this week, but is unlikely to withstand a legal challenge.. It was meant to combat the“ growing trend…

A Fed rate cut was paired with mixed signals on future cuts, but stocks rebounded after Fed chief Powell hinted at new balance-sheet expansion.

The Dow Jones industrials and other key indexes extended losses in today’s stock market, after the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points.

The Federal Reserve stepped into financial markets on Tuesday to keep short-term interest rates from rising— the first time the central bank has had to carry out this type of“ market operation” since the global financial crisis. The New York Fed announced Tuesday that it would conduct a second, similar operation on Wednesday to help keep the fed funds rate in its…

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell faces one of the toughest moments of his tenure on Wednesday as he faces close scrutiny– from Wall Street and the White House– about his leadership of the central bank. Trump and many on Wall Street want several more cuts by the end of the year, but some economists and top Fed leaders say the economy is doing well enough that it…

President Trump is counting on a strong economy to propel him to reelection in 2020, but his signature issue now looks dicey. But they have yet to find a zinger as effective as what they used during last year’s midterm elections, when Democrats characterized the GOP tax cut as tilted heavily toward the rich. Most forecasters predict a trickier situation: The U.S….

But a prolonged surge in gasoline prices after the attacks on oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia could undermine that phenomenon and increase the risk of a recession. “It’ s clearly not a positive, and it adds a negative to the outlook,” said Steve Blitz, chief United States economist at T.S. Monday’ s jump is expected to add roughly 20 cents to gas prices, which…

WASHINGTON— The Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates for the second time this year on Wednesday as policymakers try to get ahead of economic risks emanating from a global slowdown, President Trump’ s trade war and uncertainty about the road ahead. The central bank’ s leadership is under immense political pressure from Mr. Trump, who denounces its…

WASHINGTON– The Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates for the second time this year on Wednesday as policymakers try to get ahead of economic risks emanating from a global slowdown, President Trump’s trade war and uncertainty about the road ahead. The central bank’s leadership is under immense political pressure from Mr. Trump, who denounces its…

The financial services industry is attempting to move away from harmful sales practices toward more customer-friendly standards. Much has been written about the Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation Best Interest adopted in June 2019 that governs the sale of investments. In the annuity and life insurance markets, New York Department of…

That occurred clearly recently when the 2- year Treasury bond yield crossed below the 10- year, and it has done that further more recently. And Treasury bond yields have been so manipulated in the last decade of QE that who knows how meaningful that is anyway…. My first non-mainstream indicator was the Dow Jones Home Construction index that peaked in late 2005, 26…

Data: U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Axios Visuals Health care expenses forced 8 million Americans into poverty in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. The big picture: That’s actually an improvement from the past several years, when an annual average of 11 million people fell into poverty because of medical costs — a reflection of the country’s expensive system. How it works:…

Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said that while the U.S. economy was in a good place, threats to the outlook have increased and the central bank will continue to respond. But she acknowledged that the chances of a U.S. recession had increased- repeating a warning she made last month- though it was still not what she was forecasting to occur.

But as the financial sector begins to weigh its potential tab from a Warren presidency, a more practical question is arising: Does the candidate known for her plans have a plan to advance them through a GOP Senate if she makes it into the White House? Executive nominations, under current Senate rules, can be approved with 50 votes. Her plans to institute a wealth tax…

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has charged a former insurance agent and registered rep for allegedly selling fraudulent annuity contracts to several investors in the states, totaling more than $160,000. Michael L. Piaseczny was holding himself out as a financial advisor with Prudential Financial, according to Galvin’ s…

The drop, despite a strong economy, was the first since 2009 and at least partly caused by efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act. About 27.5 million people, or 8.5 percent of the population, lacked health insurance for all of 2018, up from 7.9 percent the year before, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. ”said Eliot Fishman, a senior director at the consumer group…

Insurers are projected to pay out $1.3 billion in medical loss ratio rebates in 2019, a record high, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Attorneys general from New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon and the District of Columbia filed the complaint Monday in federal court in the Southern District of New York, arguing that the rule package fails to protect investors and puts brokers ahead of their clients. The SEC was not immediately available for comment..

AmeriHealth still owes the company $193,000. Iowa Department of Human Services spokesman Matt Highland would only say Monday that the agency has completed its review of all providers who sought help on AmeriHealth claims. AmeriHealth spokesman Jawanza Keita said Monday that the $1.4 million is an estimate of the potential liabilities for claims that may…

BEIJING— China’ s central bank moved on Friday to give the country’ s slowing economy a jolt, saying it would essentially inject $126 billion into the financial system as Beijing fights an escalating trade war with the United States and contends with a dangerous addiction to debt at home. The People’ s Bank of China said that it would cut its reserve requirement…

The Federal Reserve had slashed interest rates by the largest amount in 25 years. As it turned out, 2008— in the heart of the Great Recession— was a banner year for people searching for current-year recession information, according to Google Trends data. There was no equivalent in prior years, and in the years since— the longest expansion in U.S. history— Googled…

Meanwhile, Envestnet’ s partner for Insurance Exchange, a firm called Fiduciary Exchange, LLC, confirmed it is working on Guidance Desk with Envestnet. The latest details for Insurance Exchange come as Envestnet released its second of three major planned technology updates for 2019, with notable improvements for insurance-licensed advisors using…

The United States and China may resume trade negotiations in“ early October,” according to a statement released by China’ s Commerce Ministry, according to CNN Business. Chinese Vice Premier and chief trade negotiator Liu He has spoken with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over the phone about the talks.

Recent articles have appeared to claim that premium financed indexed universal life insurance is a risky bet with odds that favor the insurance companies and banks rather than the policyholders. However, as with any technique, there is a right way and a wrong way to employ it. Any financial instrument that promises to provide potential upside compared to a…

Shortly after President Trump fired off a tweet Tuesday urging the Federal Reserve to boost the economy by slashing interest rates, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said cutting rates now would be a mistake. There are costs to accommodating at a time when the economy is doing reasonably well, “Rosengren told The Washington Post in an interview before his…

A number of executive moves were announced recently by Prudential Financial, including the promotion of Andrew Sullivan to excutive vice president and head of U.S. Businesses, following the retirement of Stephen Pelletier on Dec. 1. Prudential’ s president of Retirement and Pension Risk Transfer, Phil Waldeck, will be moving into Sullivan’ s former role as head…

Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller has warned how a recession could be “the undoing” of President Donald Trump. In an op-ed published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper Monday, Shiller explained how Trump has for decades sold a narrative of his life that showcases glamor by “surrounding himself with apparently adoring beautiful women, and maintaining the appearance…

A recent Monmouth University poll drew national attention after showing that former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead had evaporated, and that he was locked in a three-way tie with Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, and Elizabeth Warren, D- Mass. The poll director, Patrick Murray, later called it an “outlier” because no other major respected poll like his showed the same…

But some worry that there’ s a danger of simply talking the U.S. into a downturn. The U.S. economy is sending mixed messages about its health:. •The Economist says that some parts of the U.S. may already be in recession.

President Trump is conducting his trade war with China as though it were a zero-sum game, but it’s not. It’s clear at this point that Trump’s ill-advised gambit of tariffs and bombast is hurting both economies. The question is who can more stoically withstand the pain- an autocrat with a mandate to rule indefinitely over a tightly controlled one-party state, or a…

Rick Scott to cut taxes by the amount raised from the tariffs imposed on China, according to a senior official, as the Trump administration faces pressure to contain the economic damage from the global trade conflict. The United States has raised about $43 billion in import duties from the tariffs that have gone into effect on China since Trump became president,…

eMoney’ s Foundational Planning feature is getting a new module, according to an announcement by Fidelity’ s financial planning software company. Called Life Insurance Gap Analysis, the feature is intended to illustrate client insurance needs through either a modular approach or as part of a broader financial plan. “With a planning-led approach, advisors are…

These three things are all true: The United States almost certainly isn’ t in a recession right now. Longer-term interest rates have plunged since the end of July— a shift that historically tends to predict slower growth, interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, and a heightened risk that the economy slips into outright contraction. The United States economy…

Mr. Sanders rolled out a plan for organized labor as more than a dozen Democratic candidates pitched themselves to workers in Iowa. Mr. Sanders was among the biggest names in a procession of Democratic presidential candidates who affirmed their support for unions on Wednesday in speeches at a labor convention near Des Moines. “If there is going to be class…

Amazon brought in a record $3.6 billion in profit during the first quarter of 2019, more than doubling its profit from a year ago and continuing its streak of record-breaking earnings. “We expect to make steady progress quickly and through the year,” Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer, said in a Thursday earnings call with analysts.

Stock futures: The stock market recouped some of Friday’s China trade war losses, along with Apple and AMD, on President Donald Trump’s China trade optimism. JNJ stock rose late on an opioid ruling.

There’s one phrase we’re undoubtedly going to hear repeated ad nauseam over the course of the next year. It’s James Carville’s famous post, made during a presidential election a quarter-century ago. He put it simply: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

The Fed lowered borrowing costs in July amid mounting trade uncertainties, but it has refused to promise the kind of aggressive rate-cutting campaign that Mr. Trump wants. The central bank’ s unwillingness to bend to the White House’ s wishes has frustrated Mr. Trump, who implied on Friday that the Fed chair he appointed, Jerome H. Powell, was America’ s enemy.

In its latest retirement report, Fidelity Investments said the number of 401 participants who had $1 million or more in plans the company manages increased to an unprecedented 196,000, up from 180,000 at the end of the first quarter. As of June 30, Vanguard reported about 55,900 401 millionaires, up 37 percent from 40,700 at the end of 2018. As of June 28, there were…

BIARRITZ, France— President Trump asserted on Saturday that he has the authority to make good on his threat to force all American businesses to leave China, citing a national security law that has been used mainly to target terrorists, drug traffickers and pariah states like Iran, Syria and North Korea. “For all of the Fake News Reporters that don’ t have a clue as to…

President’s sudden shifts, aides’ infighting, message chaos rattle markets, GOP. Top White House advisers notified President Trump earlier this month that some internal forecasts showed that the economy could slow markedly over the next year, stopping short of a recession but complicating his path to reelection in 2020.. Ideas that have been discussed…

Fed officials were split on July rate cut, minutes show. Federal Reserve officials viewed the July interest rate cut as a “recalibration” of monetary policy and not as the start of a long string of reductions, according to minutes from the July meeting released on Wednesday. Members were divided on how to move to combat apparent soft spots in the economy, with a “…

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump confirmed that he was considering“ various tax reductions,” including a payroll tax cut, to stimulate an economy that is beginning to slow. Companies that Mr. Trump has pointed to as signs of economic strength are now warning of weakness. Blue-collar job growth has fallen to its lowest level since Mr. Trump took office, and key surveys of…

WASHINGTON– Federal Reserve officials were sharply divided when they voted to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade in late July, newly released minutes from their meeting show. The division highlights the challenge of setting monetary policy when Mr. Trump’s trade policy is clouding the outlook for an otherwise decent-looking economy.

HighTower Advisors, the RIA consolidator based in Chicago, said Tuesday that it has made an investment in Lexington, Mass.- based RIA Lexington Wealth Management.. Lexington was advised on the deal by Raymond James| Silver Lane Advisors and it is expected to close in the third quarter.. Lexington was founded in 2000 by Michael Tucci and Kristine Porcaro and has 17…

Is a recession coming in 2020 or 2021? Experts continue to debate the conflicting signals, but an equally telling question might be: How does the “Trump economy” compare to Barack Obama’s? President Trump constantly refers to the economy as “strong,” “terrific” and the “greatest in the history of our country,” but a closer look at the data shows a mixed picture in terms of…

The outlook reflects growing skepticism among economists and investors that the U.S. economy will be able to withstand a protracted trade war with China without serious harm amid the weakening global outlook. Stock markets gyrated last week as investors grappled with continuing U.S.- China trade uncertainty and absorbed grim data showing Germany and eight…

Several senior White House officials have begun discussing whether to push for a temporary payroll tax cut as a way to arrest an economic slowdown, three people familiar with the discussions said, revealing growing concerns about the economy among President Trump’s top economic aides. But the White House increasingly is discussing ideas to boost a slowing…

A top executive of a U.S.-based multinational is pushing back hotly against a White House official’s assertion that companies are preparing to pull production out of China as part of President Trump’s squeeze there. The state of play: On ABC’s “This Week,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said that during an Oval Office meeting with a group of executives, “We heard from…

In a survey released Monday by the National Association of Business Economists, 38 percent of respondents said they expected a downturn in 2020. The caveat: Most respondents to the survey, which was taken July 14 through Aug. 1, replied before the trade fight with China escalated. On Aug. 1, President Trump ordered tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese…

Just in: The C.E.O. of the Hong Kong- based airline Cathay Pacific, Rupert Hogg, has resigned, a week after the Chinese authorities criticized the involvement of its staff in protests.. Now, Mr. Markopolos has published a report claiming that accounting fraud“ bigger than Enron and WorldCom combined” lurks within G.E. •“I think that they’ re a bankruptcy waiting to happen,”…

The good news is unemployment remains low nationally and even lower in Kansas, especially western Kansas. The Federal Reserve at the national level has a dual mandate from Congress, Wilkerson said. He said the slowing economy in the Kansas City Fed region, which includes Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming as well as western Missouri and northern New…

Wouldn’ t it be nice to be immersed in a career that the American public ranked in the top quintile for ethics and integrity? The Gallup organization has been studying this for decades and the top five professions ranked“ very high” to“ high” have been consistent. Very High/ High Ethics and Integrity.

Frost Equity Growth Fund invests in secular, consistent and cyclical growth stocks. Here’s why most of the fund’s bets are on secular growers.

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. of Denver, Colo., said Wednesday that it has acquired Regent Wealth Management Group, Inc., an RIA based in Woodbridge, Conn. that serves approximately 110 high net worth households with AUM of about $300 million.. The addition allows Mercer, which was put up for sale by its majority owner Genstar Capital a month ago, to increase its…

WASHINGTON— From tax cuts to relaxed regulations to tariffs, each of President Trump’ s economic initiatives is based on a promise: to set off a wave of investment and bring back jobs that the president says the United States has lost to foreign countries. “We have the greatest companies anywhere in the world,” Mr. Trump said at the White House recently.“ They’ re all…