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Stock futures opened slightly higher Wednesday evening as investors mulled the Federal Reserve’s latest signals on monetary policy, which suggested the central bank was warming to a near-term policy adjustment as the economy improved further. Contracts on the S&P 500 gained. Earlier, the blue-chip index rose for the first time in five sessions and shook off some of its steep losses from the start of this week. The index is still on track to post a weekly decline of nearly 1%, however, to… Source link

A U.S. government agency created to counter Chinese infrastructure-fueled influence across the world is ramping up international vaccine distribution efforts, Yahoo Finance has learned. Coming on the heels of the U.S.-hosted COVID-19 summit, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) on Wednesday announced that it would be providing $383 million in financing to help nine countries secure vaccine doses. “The President is leading the world to elevate the world’s ambition to end… Source link

President Joe Biden very often cites research from Moody’s when he is trying to make a point on the U.S. economy.  He should use the latest from Moody’s Mark Zandi to emphasize any point being made to fellow politicians on both sides of the aisle on the need to get a debt ceiling deal done ASAP.  “Shutting the government down would not be an immediate hit to the economy, but a default would be a catastrophic blow to the nascent economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Zandi, the… Source link

This article was first featured in Yahoo Finance Tech, a weekly newsletter highlighting our original content on the industry. Get it sent directly to your inbox every Wednesday by 4 p.m. ET. Subscribe Facebook (FB), the world’s largest social network with nearly 3 billion daily active users, is once again awash in controversy. But that won’t deter it from continuing to gain users or generating revenue. After a series of articles by The Wall Street Journal revealed Facebook was either… Source link

For many Americans, social security benefits are a major source of income after retirement. In 2021, an average of 65 million Americans will receive monthly social security benefit checks totaling over $1 trillion paid during the year, according to the Social Security Administration. fstop123 / Getty Images See: How Does Social Security Get Calculated?Find: 5 Social Security Benefits You Can Claim Online While the average retiree receives $1,557 per month in benefits, the maximum you can… Source link

If history is any guide, then investors shouldn’t sell all their stocks and move into cash and gold amid fear of another government shutdown.  “History shows that U.S. government shutdowns generally have not meaningfully impacted equity returns,” points out David Kostin, Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist, in new research. Kostin crunched the numbers, and they support his view.  The S&P 500 posted median returns of -0.1% on the dates of budget authority expiration, 0.1% during the… Source link

It’s on to Week 3, where football fans and daily fantasy football players will be treated to fresh storylines and some tasty matchups. Our Week 3 Yahoo DFS picks include a quarterback making his first start paired with his top wide receiver, an expensive running back, and some bargains at WR who are poised to pay off. One thing we won’t be treated to is access to Christian McCaffrey. The Panthers play the Texans on Thursday night, so he’s off the main slate…. Source link

Do a read through of the disappointing earnings report out of FedEx on Tuesday night and you get the sense non-farm payrolls reports for the rest of 2021 may surprise economists to the downside.  The problem (one that may be getting worse, per FedEx)? Finding humans to accept jobs in a very tight labor market even at higher rates than what the specific job would have paid months ago.  “The impact of constrained labor markets remains the biggest issue facing our business as with many other… Source link

When will the Federal Reserve start pulling back on its extraordinary monetary stimulus? That’s the major question that Fed watchers hope to get an answer for later this afternoon, when the Federal Open Market Committee releases its updated policy decision.  Chatter has been building within the central bank over slowing the pace of its asset purchases. Since the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fed has been absorbing about $120 billion a month in U.S. Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed… Source link

Home sales in the U.S. cooled down in the final month of summer. Existing home sales fell 2% to a seasonally adjusted 5.88 million units in August from a month earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). July sales were revised slightly upward to 6 million units. The results exceeded analyst expectations of a 1.7% decline, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. The dip was expected since pending home sales — a leading indicator for actual sales — fell for two… Source link