In the United States, the college experience typically begins with an acceptance letter. And around four years later, for seniors like Reaz Khan who told us his story in the accompanying video, it ends with a very different type of mail…bills from student loan issuers. Related: Are Millennials a “Lost Generation”? Sixty percent of of [...]
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It’s been a rough week for gold. Prices fell for a seventh day in a row Friday morning, marking the worst slump since March 2009, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. By mid-morning gold futures were trading at $1,362 an ounce, down almost 2% from the previous close and 28% from the September 2011 high of $1,920. [...]
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J.C. Penney (JCP), the beleaguered department store chain, reported a net loss of $348 million, or $1.58 per share, for the first quarter, more than double its loss from the same quarter last year. Total sales were down 16.4% to $2.67 billion and the company’s gross profit margin fell nearly 7 percentage points to 30.8% [...]
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U.S. markets opened in positive territory Friday morning after taking a breather from their recent record-breaking rally. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% on Thursday — its biggest one-day drop since May 1. Whether you believe in this rally or not, don’t fight it, says Barry Ritholtz, the CEO of Fusion IQ and author of “The [...]
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A day after topping $900 for the first time ever, Google shares were taking a bit of a breather Thursday, recently trading down 1.2% to $905. Meanwhile, Tesla shares continued their phenomenal run, jumping 6% to over $90 in recent trading following last night’s news that founder Elon Musk will invest $100 million of his [...]
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Thursday’s economic data was mixed: weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose while housing starts in April unexpectedly fell. The Labor Department reported that the number of people who applied for new unemployment benefits jumped 32% to 360,000 in the week ending May 11, the highest level in a month and a half. But the average of [...]
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In 2006, Congress passed the Military Lending Act, which was designed to prevent predatory lenders from targeting men and women in uniform. But a new report from ProPublica and Marketplace entitled Beyond Payday Loans suggests aggressive lenders have merely shifted tactics and are still very actively going after military personnel. Rather than a loophole, installment [...]
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The Dow (^DJI) and S&P 500 (^GSPC) hit yet another record high Wednesday but Apple extended its decline, closing just under $429 and capping a 22% decline year-to-date. Apple’s story isn’t an outlier– tech stocks have lagged the broader market this year. The Technology Select Sector ETF (XLK) has gained just 6.3%–less than half the [...]
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Sell in May and go away. Or don’t, which is the choice investors have made thus far when you look at the stock market, which has hit one all-time high after another and continues its ascent. Related: Dow 20000 by 2020, Beware “Safety Bubble”: Bernstein’s Seth Masters Author and investor Zachary Karabell tells The Daily [...]
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Can a dating website help you find a job? EHarmony thinks so. The Santa Monica-based online dating service has plans to launch a career service by the second half of next year. EHarmony may have success matching single men and women – an average of 542 eHarmony members are married every day in the U.S. [...]
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President Obama’s second term has suddenly become embroiled in three scandals that have put the Administration on the defensive: Questions about the White House’s role in communications about the Benghazi embassy attack, The IRS’s unfair targeting of conservative groups for tax harassment, and The Justice Department’s decision to sub-poena phone records from AP reporters in [...]
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Provided by Business Insider: The Congressional Budget Office just published its updated budget projections. “If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, the smallest shortfall since 2008,” they wrote. Related: Debt Ceiling Deadline Delayed: [...]
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The Dow (^DJI) and S&P 500 (^GSPC) closed at new record highs Tuesday, leaving both major market indexes up 15% year-to-date, outperforming most other asset classes. Investors clearly are favoring stocks over other asset classes. Commodity prices are little changed (oil) or lower (gold). And 10-year Treasury yields, at 1.95%, are near where they started [...]
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Shareholder activism is a rough business. Investors who amass large stockholdings and then demand changes are usually resisted and excoriated by the companies’ managements, who do everything they can to defeat them. The resulting fights for control can often be public and ugly, with both sides seeking to dig up dirt or arguments with which [...]
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) is on track to extend its Tuesday winning streak to 18: Blue chips were up 93 points to 15,185 in recent trading. Seth Masters, chief investment officer at Bernstein Global Wealth Management, which has over $450 billion in assets under management, reiterates his call that the Dow would hit [...]
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