Tag Archives: Federal

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

Investors in popular FAANG stocks have enjoyed a great run over the last year (especially the past month) as a combination of super low interest rates from the Federal Reserve and high growth from the individual tech companies has made an easy bull case.  But with the Fed on the cusp of beginning a tapering of its pandemic-era bond buying program — which could push up rates from the rock bottom that risk-taking traders have loved —the FAANG trade could be nearing a pullback.  “I think… Source link

Four Democratic members of Congress are calling for an investigation into whether an alleged secret 2018 agreement between Google and Facebook concerning digital advertising violated federal antitrust law. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Mondaire Jones (D-NY) wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Acting US Attorney General Nicholas Ganjei of Texas asking them to determine whether federal charges might be… Source link

The majority of U.S. households paid no federal income taxes in 2020, a spike driven by the pandemic-induced economic downturn and multiple rounds of tax-based assistance. The trend is likely to continue in 2021. Nearly 107 million households — or 61% of U.S. households — owed no federal income taxes in 2020, according to estimates by The Tax Policy Center, marking a 40% increase from 2019 when 43.6% of households didn’t pay taxes. “Even though those numbers are very dramatic, they are… Source link

Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s meeting notes showed that officials agreed on slowing the pace of bond purchases later this year. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images European markets declined on Thursday morning in London, pulling back after anxiety shook Wall Street about the potential tapering of bond purchases.  The FTSE (^FTSE) was down 2.1% by 9.40am, Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) was down 1.7% and the CAC (^FCHI) was almost 2.8% lower.  Over the… Source link

If you have amassed a large or even small fortune in your 401(k) retirement plan at work, an important decision eventually awaits: What should you do with the money when you retire or otherwise leave the company? One quandary is whether to keep the money in the company retirement plan (if that option is available) or roll it into an Individual Retirement Account to maintain your tax-sheltered status for a while longer. It’s obviously a key issue for those heading into retirement but it also… Source link

By Pete Schroeder WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Thursday how much each large bank that underwent the most recent stress test will have to hold on their books as capital cushions. The capital requirements for each of the 34 banks are based on how well each firm performed in the June test, and will take effect on Oct. 1. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were directed to hold the largest amount of capital to guard against losses, facing ratios of 13.4% and 13.2%,… Source link

This story has been updated to include a statement from the Education Department. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) — a national student loan servicer that has been criticized for failing to forgive the debts of public servants — is planning to exit the federal student loan servicing business in December of this year. PHEAA, which administers the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and operates as FedLoan Servicing, has notified the Education Department… Source link

An antitrust suit against Facebook by the FTC and several states had the wind taken out of its sails today by a federal judge, who ruled that the plaintiffs don’t provide enough evidence that the company exerts monopoly control over social media. The court was more receptive, however, to revisiting the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, and the case was left open for regulators to take another shot at it. The court decision was in response to a Facebook motion to dismiss the suit. Judge… Source link

For more business and finance explainers, check out our Yahoo U page. Since 2011, the Federal Reserve has published a chart known as the “dot plot,” which maps out policymakers’ expectations for where interest rates could be headed in the future. The dot plot serves as a guide for financial markets, which tend to dislike policy surprises from the nation’s central bank. But the dot plot also runs the risk of sending the wrong message, since forecasts are often wrong. What is a Federal… Source link