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Bitcoins are being displayed in Huai 'an city, Jiangsu province, China, on June 26, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Wisconsin school shooting, Crypto keeps cooking, what Russia got out of A$$ad, Japan’s biggest bank makes huge apology, Brazil tracks DNA of gold
2: Police have identified that the shooter who opened fire at a Christian school in Wisconsin was a 15-year old female student. The shooter killed two people, a student and a teacher, and left six others severely injured before taking her own life.
106,000: Whether you see them as heroes or as villains, one thing is for sure: the crypto bros are absolutely cooking these days. The value of Bitcoin, the world’s largest crypto currency, has tripled in value this year, hitting a record high of $106,000 on Monday before settling back to a still-scorching $105,000. Investors in the currency are eagerly awaiting a crypto-friendly Trump administration. Last week Trump proposed creating a strategic stockpile of Bitcoin, akin to the US strategic oil reserves.
250 million: What did the Kremlin get out of supporting the now-deposed Syrian despot Bashar Assad for so long? At least $250 million, for one thing. According to a phenomenally detailed report by the Financial Times, Assad, under severe US and EU sanctions, airlifted two tons of cash in that amount to Moscow in 2018 and 2019, as part of a broader scheme of embedding Syrian interests in Russia’s financial system.
1 billion: Japan’s biggest bank on Monday apologized after one of its employees allegedly stole more than 1 billion yen (about $6.6 million) from clients’ safety deposit boxes. The thefts occurred over the past four years at two Tokyo branches of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, known as MUFG for short. Gomenasai indeed.
38: Call it the 23 and Me of Brazilian gold.Brazil, which has long struggled to rein in illegal mining in the Amazon, has developed a database that classifies samples of the metal from different regions, based on “radio-isotope scans and fluorescence spectroscopy” (we can’t tell you what that is but it sounds cool). This database of gold’s “DNA” has helped the authorities to better trace illegal gold hauls, boosting seizures of illegal gold by 38% in 2023 alone.
Putin and Zelensky at the Forgotten Wars Bar
With all eyes on Gaza these days, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky are now drinking at the place Where Everybody Forgets Your Name™. #PUPPETREGIME
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What to expect for second-quarter earnings season; H2 2020 outlook
Betty Liu, Executive Vice Chairman for NYSE Group, provides her perspective:
What are analysts expecting, going to the second quarter earnings season?
So, this earnings season has just started this past week, you saw banks kick off their reports. And as you can well imagine, analyst estimates are pretty much all over the place. And part of that is because a good number of companies did not provide guidance. Now, according to some estimates, some analysts estimates, we could see an earnings season decline or earnings decline as much as 44% this time around. That would be one of the biggest declines since 2008, the prior crisis.
What is the outlook for the second half of 2020?
Well, that's the million-dollar question. What is going to happen the rest of the year? So, nobody knows, right? But there's a few factors that we're going to be watching to see how companies perform. One is going to be watching the number of coronavirus cases across the country. And the second, of course, is watching the results of the November presidential elections.
How are public companies giving back during the COVID-19 pandemic?
How are public companies giving back during the COVID-19 pandemic?
So, you've seen communities around the world come together to support each other during this pandemic. And we've seen private companies, organizations, as well as public companies use their resources. Many of those public companies are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. So, we wanted to recognize a few of those. There's too many of them to name one by one. But a few you do stand out.
So, for instance, Nordstrom. They put together, they reuse their facilities in order to provide PPE, personal protective equipment. So, they've sewn one million masks and distributed them across the country to hospital systems. Sherwin-Williams, the building materials company, they've also put together their resources and they provided 250 thousand masks, gloves, lab coats to health care workers around the country. They've also distributed hand sanitizer to hospital systems as well. And then finally, Cisco, the global food distributor distribution company, they've provided more than 20 million meals to partners and organizations all around the US. And so, we thank each and every company that has gone above and beyond to help during this crisis.
Why Stocks Climb During Bad Economy News
In this pandemic environment, why are stocks climbing when news about the economy isn't good?
I've actually been getting that question a lot. And look, nobody really knows why stock markets move the way they do in real time. But there's a variety of factors why we've seen stock market rallies these days. So, one is improving investor sentiment that some of the government measures to stabilize the economy are working. And the other one is something you saw on Monday, when the Dow rose more than 900 points, there was some news out about a potential coronavirus vaccine. Some positive preliminary results on that experimental trial. So, that helped also improve investor sentiment.
Is there any major economic data coming out this week?
So, we've been carefully watching economic data to see the shape of the economy. Every week we've taken a look at the initial jobless claims that are filed on Thursday. That gives a great sense of how the jobs market is shaping up. The other piece of economic data to watch out for is retail sales. That indicates consumer spending in the first quarter. And of course, consumer spending is a big driver of the economy.
What is the role of the SEC?
What is the role of the SEC?
So, the SEC has three roles: The first is to protect the investing public. The second is to help maintain fair, efficient and orderly markets. And the third is to facilitate capital formation.
Why was the SEC created?
So, for that you kind of have to go back in history, back in time to the Great Depression. It was created then to restore public confidence. And to help establish some baseline public disclosure standards, standard dealing practices. Congress had passed the Securities Act in 1933 and then the Securities Exchange Act in 1934. The SEC was created under the 1934 Act in order to enforce the securities laws that were being passed.
Betty Liu Explains: Environmental Social Governance (ESG) & Growth
What is ESG?
ESG stands for Environmental Social Governance. These are factors that investors use to measure the societal and sustainable impact of their investment in a particular company.
Why is ESG investing growing so?
So, increasingly, investors are using ESG factors as one of the more important determinants for why they will invest in a particular company. And the reason why is that companies that focus on ESG may deliver better returns, they may lower risk, and they also may demonstrate that the companies have better or good management principles. Now, a recent report said that the growth of investments in ESG funds could grow by $20 trillion over the next two decades. That would be the equivalent of the S&P index today.
Why You Should Save For Retirement Over Education: Money in 60 Seconds
What should be a bigger priority for me: saving for my children's education or saving for retirement?
This one hurts me. It hurts me to say this, because I've got children, and I really like 'em a lot. It's gotta be your retirement. I know that doesn't feel right as a parent, but if you have to make a choice, there are scholarships and there are loans for college. Nobody ever got a scholarship for retirement. And so this is one where you need to strap your oxygen mask on before assisting others, and — as much as it hurts me — to put yourself first.
The stock market's had a good year so far. Is now a good time to invest?
Yeah! Wow, what a difference. Remember December? I remember sitting, December 24th, when the market was down like 2.4 or 2.5% and it was just like [choking sound]. And it's up 16% since then. Now it feels like, gosh, maybe this isn't a good time to invest. But let's be perfectly clear: You have no idea. And anybody who says they have an idea has no idea. No one knows where the market is going from one week or one year to the next. There are just too many factors into it. So you want to — for those of you who are familiar with the term — dollar-cost average. For those of you who aren't, you want to invest through up markets and down, a bit out of every paycheck, sometimes it'll be lower, sometimes it'll be higher, and then it evens out over time which doesn't feel sexy, but actually is very sexy. It's very sexy in order to earn market returns, because most folks don't.
And go deeper on topics like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence at Microsoft on The Issues.