Tag: article_normal

Virgin Galactic to cut staff to focus on lower-cost Delta spacecraft

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Commercial space-flight operator Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said it would cut staff in an effort to focus on developing its new class of Delta spacecraft that are expected to cost less and bring more profit.

Management, in an email to employees, did not offer specific figures on the cuts, while citing a shaky investing environment as part of the reason for them. The message said the company would offer more details during its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Virgin Galactic
SPCE,
+2.96%,
when reached on Tuesday, declined to offer additional information. Executives over the summer said they expected commercial service for Delta ships to begin in 2026, after testing in 2025.

Shares were little changed after hours on Tuesday. The stock has fallen 50.4% so far this year.

The cuts follow a handful of space flights this year from Virgin Galactic, which was founded by billionaire Richard Branson. But Chief Executive Michael Colglazier, in the email, said that following successes from the spaceship Unity and its carrier mothership, Eve, the company needed to “reduce our reliance on unpredictable capital markets.”

“To profitably scale our business, we must first invest upfront capital to create a fleet of ships based on a standardized production model — the Delta Class ships,” Colglazier said in the email.

He added that “uncertainty has grown in the capital markets,” with higher interest rates pressuring borrowing and “geopolitical unrest” making for a more cautious environment. He said the Delta spacecraft played a key role in expanding flight service and profitability, and that it was crucial to focus on bringing them into service.

“Interest rates remain high, which adds pressure to companies who are investing today for profits that will come in the future,” he said. “Geopolitical unrest continues to expand, and the combination of these factors makes near-term access to capital much less favorable.”

“The Delta ships are powerful economic engines,” he continued. “To bring them into service, we need to extend our strong financial position and reduce our reliance on unpredictable capital markets. We will accomplish this, but it requires us to redirect our resources toward the Delta ships while streamlining and reducing our work outside of the Delta program.”

He said employees would be notified of their job status between Tuesday and Thursday. Employees will be working from home for the rest of the week, Colglazier said, adding that on-site work locations would be unavailable through that time.

“Delta ships have been designed to have a relatively low unit-production cost and have a material improvement flight cadence relative to our initial ship, VSS Unity,” Colglazier said on Virgin Galactic’s earnings call in August.

“The Delta development process has yielded some excellent enhancements to the ship’s architecture, particularly with regard to manufacturability and maintainability,” he said. “And we are tracking well against our primary ship-performance criteria.”

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November 7, 2023
Sleep Number’s stock falls 30% as company saw demand change ‘abruptly’

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Shares of Sleep Number Corp. tanked 30% in the after-hours session Tuesday after the mattress maker and retailer swung to a surprise quarterly loss, predicted a loss for the full year and said it reached an agreement with a shareholder that had been pushing for change.

It was a “challenging” quarter for Sleep Number
SNBR,
-1.41%
and the bedding industry, Chief Executive Shelly Ibach said. “The consumer demand trajectory changed abruptly midway through the quarter,” Ibach said.

Sleep Number “acted quickly to further reduce costs, recalibrate our sales and marketing approach, and amend our credit agreement to provide additional covenant flexibility through the end of 2024,” she said.

Sleep Number lost $2.32 million, or 10 cents a share, in the third quarter, versus earnings of $5 million, or 22 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue dropped 13% to $473 million, the company said.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected the company to earn 16 cents a share on sales of $509 million in the quarter.

Sleep Number also kicked off a plan to reduce costs in light of the lower demand. It hopes the plan will result in about $50 million less in operating expenses next year, the company said.

The cost-restructuring actions are “broad-based” and include layoffs as well as store closures, the company said.

The layoffs will occur “across all areas of the organization,” including in corporate and research and development, the company said. It plans to close 40 to 50 stores by the end of next year, and slow down the rate of new-store openings and remodels.

The restructuring will result in up to $20 million in one-time costs, with about $10 million of the costs falling in the fourth quarter, the company said.

Sleep Number also dialed back its 2023 EPS outlook, calling for a per-share loss of up to 70 cents, including the fourth-quarter restructuring charges.

That compares with a July guidance of 2023 EPS in a range between $1.25 and $1.75.

Separately, Sleep Number appointed Stephen E. Macadam and Hilary A. Schneider to its board, effective immediately, expanding the board to 12 people.

In conjunction with the appointments, Sleep Number entered into a cooperation agreement with shareholder Stadium Capital Management LLC.

As part of the agreement, the board has established a “capital allocation and value enhancement committee” to review capital use and investments, it said.

Independent director Michael J. Harrison said that the company was “grateful to have reached an agreement with Stadium Capital on a constructive path forward and are looking forward to working with Steve and Hilary toward our common goal of delivering long-term value for our shareholders.”

Stadium Capital, which owns about 9% of Sleep Number, published a letter in September criticizing the company, its executives, and the “abysmal” shareholder returns.

Shares of Sleep Number have lost 38% so far this year, contrasting with gains of about 14% for the S&P 500 index
SPX.

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November 7, 2023

A wall of debt rolling over: Here’s what’s scaring Bridgewater’s co-CIO

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A weak session is setting up for Tuesday, with oil under pressure after unexpectedly downbeat China export data. So the preference is for bonds this morning, as stock futures tilt south.

Onto our call of the day, which deals with another worry — a wall of government debt that will be with us for decades. It comes from Bridgewater’s highly regraded co-chief investment officer Bob Prince, who was speaking at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on Tuesday, hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Prince touches on asset liability mismatches, such as what was seen during the banking crisis earlier this year. He explains that one big factor behind a crisis is when a certain economic regime exists for an extended period of time and “people extrapolate that into the future on the basis of leverage and asset liability mismatches. Then you get a shift in that regime.”

The events of March, which saw the collapse of SVB, Signature Bank and Silvergate, were a perfect example of that, Prince says. Then he turns to what he calls the “broader effects of a transition from 15 years of abundant free money,” that was first used to battle deleveraging pressures in the financial system in 2008 and then the pandemic.

One long-term effect of that gets particular attention by Prince, who points out how U.S. government Treasury debt to GDP was about 70% in 2008, around where it had been for decades.

“The after effects of offsetting deleveraging and pandemic, you’ve had a massive wealth shift from the public sector to the private sector and that’s left the government with debt to GDP up from 70% up to 120%. And the particular vulnerability of that is in the debt rollovers and the gross issuance that you’re going to see in the coming decades . You’re stuck with that debt until you pay it off and that means you have to roll it over like anybody else does,” said Prince.

“Gross debt issuance will be running at 25% for as far as the eye can see, that means every year you’re issuing 25% of GDP in debt. In 1960, the average amount of debt issuance was 12% of GDP,” he said.

Prince says most people really don’t pay attention to debt rollovers because they just assume those will get done, but notes that when countries have experienced balance of payments crisis in the past, mostly emerging markets, that is because they have been unable to roll over that debt.

In the U.S. case, it’s crucial to look at who is holding the debt, particularly the 27% held by foreign investors and 18% by central banks. “Foreign investors would normally be a reliable source of investment but it does heighten sensitivity to geopolitical risk, and so geopolitical risk converges with debt rollovers and gross issuance of the Treasury is an issue that you need to pay attention to in the coming years.

While not an “acute problem,” he says, it’s a lingering one, and when it comes to central banks it’s also unclear whether their holdings also present a “rollover risk.”

Prince also touches on the fact that that all that “abundant free money” has fueled a private-equity boom, but with interest rates now at 8% instead of 2% or 3%, “the pace and transaction cycle is bound to slow,” and they are starting to see that.

“When we talk to institutional investors around the world, many of them are experiencing liquidity issues right now and the liquidity issues result from the fact so much money was allocated to private assets and the transaction cycle is slowing,” he said.

MarketWatch 50: Forget U.S. stocks for now. Invest here instead, says Bridgewater’s co–investment chief

A team of analysts at Citigroup led by Nathan Sheets have also weighed in on government debt, telling clients in a new note that “it’s unwise for policy makers to experiment or test” where the threshold for too much debt lies. Here’s their chart showing the bleak trajectory:

Dirk Willer, head of global asset allocation at Citigroup, said a debt crisis scenario in the U.S. would likely mean a selloff of risk assets globally. He notes that bonds in rival countries may not be the best bet as they don’t always benefit. And both gold and bitcoin underperformed during the U.K. gilt crisis, so those may be out.

Also in attendance at the conference in Hong Kong, Deutsche Bank’s CEO is worried geopolitics could create another market event and Citadel’s Ken Griffin said investors should put money in China.

Read: ‘Stock-market correction is over’ after broad surge amid ‘epic’ market rallies

The markets

Stock futures
ES00,
-0.02%

NQ00,
+0.31%
are pointing to a weak to flat session ahead, while the 10-year Treasury yield
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
eases back. U.S. crude
CL.1,
-2.20%
is under $80 a barrel after worse-than-forecast China exports signaled more economic bumps in the global growth engine. The dollar
DXY
is up.

The buzz

Planet Fitness stock
PLNT,
-0.27%
is surging on upbeat results and an improved growth outlook. Uber
UBER,
+0.82%
is up as earnings beat forecasts, but revenue fell short. D.R. Horton
DHI,
-0.96%
stock is also getting a boost from results. EBay
EBAY,
-0.44%,
Occidental Petroleum
OXY,
-2.00%,
Akamai Tech
AKAM,
-0.06%
and Gilead Sciences
GILD,
-0.55%
after the close.

Reporting late Thursday, Tripadvisor
TRIP,
+2.29%
delivered blowout results and the stock is surging, while Sanmina
SANM,
-1.03%
is down 14% after the manufacturing services provider’s disappointing results.

UBS
UBS,
-0.49%

UBSG,
+2.79%
swung to a $785 million quarterly loss on lingering effects of its Credit Suisse takeover, but it pulled in $33 billion in new deposits and shares are up.

After a decade of turmoil, office-sharing group WeWork
WE,
-24.73%
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The U.S. trade deficit climbed 5% in September to $61.5 billion as imports rebounded. Still to come is consumer credit at 3 p.m. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr speaks at 9:15 a.m., followed by Fed Gov. Christopher Waller at 10 a.m.

The International Monetary Fund boosted its China outlook for 2023 and 2024.

Best of the web

Big banks are cooking up new ways to offload risk.

Retirees continue to flock to places where climate risk is high.

How to know when it’s time to retire

The chart

According to this recent JPMorgan survey, two-thirds of investors are ready to start pumping more money into equities, while just 19% plan to increase bond exposure. Also, note that 67% also said they did not expect performance of the Magnificent 7 stocks — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and Meta — to “crack before the end of the year.”

Top tickers

These were the top-searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m.:

TSLA, -0.31%	Tesla
AMC, +2.15%	AMC Entertainment
NVDA, +1.66%	Nvidia
AAPL, +1.46%	Apple
NIO, -3.16%	NIO
GME, -2.45%	GameStop
AMZN, +0.82%	Amazon.com
PLTR, -1.85%	Palantir Technologies
MULN, +3.88%	Mullen Automotive
MSFT, +1.06%	Microsoft
NVDA, +1.66%	Nvidia

Random reads

Fifteen people ended up with eye pain and sight issues after a Bored Ape NFT event.

A death metal band asked for singers on social media. A choir responded.

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November 7, 2023

RingCentral’s stock jumps on narrowing loss, revenue beat, raised guidance

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RingCentral Inc.’s stock jumped about 10% in after-hours trading Monday after it reported a narrowing quarterly loss, results that beat analysts’ forecasts on the top- and bottom-lines, and sales projections that were raised.

The cloud-based communications company
RNG,
-0.25%
posted a third-quarter net loss of $42.1 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $284.6 million, or $2.98 a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings were 78 cents a share.

Total revenue improved nearly 10% to $558.2 million from $509 million a year ago. Subscription sales were $531 million, or about 95% of total
revenue.

Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast on average adjusted earnings of 75 cents a share and revenue of $554 million.

“The results speak for themselves: Our solid third-quarter results demonstrate our ability to drive long-term durable, profitable growth,” RingCentral Chief Executive Tarek Robbiati said in an interview. This marks his first quarter as company CEO after five years as chief financial officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
HPE,
-0.13%.

Robbiati credited his predecessor for the quarterly performance and vowed to “infuse AI into everything we do.”

“We are leveraging AI into our core of products,” he added. “AI is a massive trend in turbo-charging productivity.”

At the same time, RingCentral raised its annual total revenue guidance to between $2.198 billion and $2.205 billion. FactSet analysts are projecting $2.198 billion.

The company’s board last week also authorized an incremental $100 million stock-repurchase plan.

Shares of RingCentral are down 20% in 2023; the broader S&P 500 index
SPX
is up 14%.

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November 6, 2023
Disney and other entertainment giants report after upbeat results from peers, but investors are getting harsher on companies that don’t deliver

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Last month, Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
+1.80%
stock jumped after it reported big subscriber gains and hiked prices. Last week, results from Paramount Global
PARA,
+15.44%
beat expectations, sending shares of the streaming and entertainment giant on its best percentage gain in nearly a year, and Roku Inc.
ROKU,
+8.58%
also offered an upbeat outlook.

This week — as Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. all report results — we’ll get a deeper sense of whether the entertainment industry is starting to make investors happy again, even if they make viewers less happy in the process.

Those companies will report as the streaming industry, under pressure from investors to turn a better profit, consolidates and as platforms charge more to watch and cram more advertisements into shows and films.

Cable TV providers and movie theaters, too, are trying to figure out a way forward as streaming becomes more prevalent. Even as Hollywood’s writers come back to work following a strike that shut down production, its actors are still striking, with issues surrounding AI usage to portray actors, streaming payments and other issues in the balance.

Disney
DIS,
+2.14%,
which reports results on Wednesday, faces questions about losses at Disney+, efforts to cut billions in costs and stamp out streaming-account sharing, its planned takeover of the streaming platform Hulu and speculation over which of its large media properties it might sell. BofA analysts recently estimated that ESPN, which Disney has leaned on for years, could be worth around $24 billion. Meanwhile, activist investor Nelson Peltz has been angling for seats on Disney’s board, and its fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continues.

Elsewhere, Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD,
+6.23%
— the parent company of the streaming service Max, Warner Bros. Pictures, Discovery Channel, CNN and other channels — reports on Wednesday, as it tries to turn its reserves of intellectual property into franchise films. Meme-stock theater chain AMC
AMC,
+2.19%,
which also reports Wednesday, following upbeat results from rival Cinemark Holdings Inc.
CNK,
-2.43%.

Sales at the theater chains have been lifted in recent months by “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” While both were original films, analysts have said the avalanche of sequels and remakes in theaters is unlikely to stop.

The pressure to boost profits will ultimately affect what TV shows and films get made, and what viewers actually consume. And a report from FactSet on Friday found that investors have been more unkind than usual to companies whose results come up short of Wall Street’s expectations.

That report found that through the third-quarter earnings season, companies whose earnings miss expectations have seen an average stock-price drop of 5.2% during the two days before the publication of the results through the two days after. If that figure holds, it would be the stock market’s biggest adverse reaction to an earnings miss since the second quarter of 2011.

This week in earnings

Among S&P 500 companies, 55 including one from the Dow, will report quarterly results during the week ahead.

EV startup Rivian Automotive Inc.
RIVN,
+0.68%
reports amid concerns about EV demand. Following Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s
LYV,
+3.53%
blowout quarterly results last week, results from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.
MSGE,
+1.03%
will shed more light on people’s appetites for live entertainment. Results from digital marketing platform Klaviyo Inc.
KVYO,
+3.86%
and fast-casual chain Cava Group Inc.
CAVA,
+5.49%
— both recent IPOS — will offer a deeper look at digital ad budgets and a competitive restaurant backdrop, respectively.

The New York Times Co.
NYT,
+0.91%
also reports during the week. So do Planet Fitness Inc.
PLNT,
-0.09%,
Gilead Sciences
GILD,
+0.44%,
eBay Inc.
EBAY,
+3.98%
and Take-Two Interactive Software
TTWO,
+1.03%.

The call to put on your calendar

Cybersecurity drama: Cyberattacks are getting more severe, and customers are starting to feel their effects more acutely. Against that backdrop, casino and resort operator MGM Resorts International
MGM,
+5.27%
will report quarterly results on Wednesday, in the wake of a cyberattack that took down some of its systems. MGM has said that attack, which the company disclosed in September, would cost them roughly $100 million.

The company said the fallout of that attack — which disrupted hotel bookings and put hotels on manual operations, resulting in long lines — was largely contained to September. But the SEC last week accused software company SolarWinds Corp.
SWI,
+1.74%
of failing to disclose its purported cybersecurity vulnerabilities, potentially leaving other companies wondering whether they’re vulnerable to similar legal action.

The numbers to watch

The gig economy and delivery demand: Rival ride-hailing platforms Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. report results on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Maplebear Inc.
CART,
+0.94%,
better known as the grocery-delivery platform Instacart, also reports on Wednesday.

Analysts have been kinder to Uber
UBER,
+2.73%,
the larger of the two ride-hailing companies. But Lyft has tried to cut its prices and roll out new services, including one that tries to match women and non-binary riders and drivers. The financials from all three companies will land after strong results from food-delivery platform DoorDash Inc.
DASH,
+5.35%,
which has expanded its services into retail an effort to compete with Instacart and other delivery providers. And they’ll fill in the picture of rider demand following the back-to-school season and a bigger push to get workers back into offices.

Beyond ride-sharing, results from Uber and Instacart will narrow the lens on delivery demand, as some analysts question whether higher prices for basics and the return of student-loan payments might make food delivery more dispensable. Analysts also seem likely to zero on in those companies’ high-margin digital-ad businesses, as more e-commerce platforms try to turn their apps and websites into online billboard space.

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November 5, 2023

Here’s why you might not have to pay a 6% commission next time you sell a home

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Going back decades, if you wanted to buy or sell a stock on the open market, you had to pay a 2% commission to buy and a 2% commission to sell. Then the advent of discount brokerage, led by Charles Schwab Corp.
SCHW,
+1.64%,
made lower commissions available until eventually, with improved technology and efficiency, the entire industry changed to enable the average investor to avoid commissions completely.

But the internet hasn’t done much to reduce the cost of selling a home in the U.S. Sellers typically pay a 6% commission to a real-estate agent to list and sell a home, with the seller’s agent splitting that commission with the buyer’s agent. But all of that may change because of a verdict this week in a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the National Association of Realtors.

Aarthi Swaminathan covers the case, what may happen next and the implications for home sellers and buyers:

Real-estate advice from the Moneyist

MarketWatch illustration

Quentin Fottrell — the Moneyist — works with three readers to answer tricky real-estate questions:

Economic outlook

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may have bolstered the case that the central bank is finished raising interest rates for this economic cycle. The federal-funds rate was left in its target range of 5.25% to 5.50%.

Jon Gray, the president of Blackstone Group, spoke with MarketWatch Editor in Chief Mark DeCambre and said he expected the Fed to succeed in bringing down inflation without pushing the U.S. economy into a deep recession.

Friday employment numbers: Jobs report shows 150,000 new jobs in October as U.S. labor market cools

Bond-market trend switches again

The U.S. Treasury yield curve has been inverted for nearly a year.

FactSet

Normally, longer-term bonds have higher yields than those with short maturities. But the yield curve has been inverted for nearly a year, with 3-month U.S. Treasury bills
BX:TMUBMUSD03M
having higher yields than 10-year Treasury notes
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y.

There has been elevated demand for long-term bonds, as investors have anticipated a recession and a reversal in Federal Reserve interest-rate policy. When interest rates decline, bond prices rise and vice versa.

As you can see on the chart above, the yield curve was narrowing until mid-October. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes were close to 5% on Oct. 19, but they have been falling the past several days as the three-month yield has remained close to 5.5%.

In this week’s ETF Wrap, Christine Idzelis reports on where all the money is flowing in the bond market.

In the Bond Report, Vivien Lou Chen summarizes the action as investors react to the Federal Reserve’s decision not to change its federal-funds-rate target range this week and to other economic news.

For income-seekers looking to avoid income taxes, here’s a deep dive into municipal bonds, with taxable-equivalent yields and a deeper look at those within four high-tax states.

Ford’s good news — in the bond market

Ford Motor Co.’s debt rating has been lifted by S&P to investment-grade.

Getty Images

Ford Motor Co.’s
F,
+4.14%
credit rating was upgraded to an investment-grade rating by Standard & Poor’s on Monday. This takes about $67 billion in bonds out of the high-yield, or “junk,” market, as Ciara Linnane reports.

A stock-market warning based on history

The original Magnificent Seven.

Courtesy Everett Collection

By now you have probably heard the term “Magnificent Seven” used to describe stocks of the tremendous tech-oriented companies that have led this year’s rally for the S&P 500
SPX
: Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-0.52%,
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+1.29%,
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+0.38%,
Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+3.45%,
Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
+1.26%

GOOG,
+1.39%,
Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
+1.20%
and Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+0.66%.
With Tesla’s recent decline, that company is now the ninth-largest holding in the portfolio of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
SPY,
which tracks the benchmark index. Here are the top 10 companies held by SPY (11 stocks, including two common-share classes for Alphabet), with total returns through Thursday:

Company	Ticker	% of SPY portfolio	2023 total return	2022 total return	Total return since end of 2021
Apple Inc.	AAPL, -0.52%	7.2%	37%	-26%	1%
Microsoft Corp.	MSFT, +1.29%	7.1%	46%	-28%	5%
Amazon.com Inc.	AMZN, +0.38%	3.5%	64%	-50%	-17%
Nvidia Corp.	NVDA, +3.45%	3.0%	198%	-50%	48%
Alphabet Inc. Class A	GOOGL, +1.26%	2.1%	44%	-39%	-12%
Meta Platforms Inc. Class A	META, +1.20%	1.9%	158%	-64%	-8%
Alphabet Inc. Class C	GOOG, +1.39%	1.8%	45%	-39%	-11%
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B	BRK.B, +0.80%	1.8%	13%	3%	17%
Tesla Inc.	TSLA, +0.66%	1.7%	77%	-65%	-38%
UnitedHealth Group Inc.	UNH, -0.98%	1.4%	2%	7%	9%
Eli Lilly and Company	LLY, -2.15%	1.3%	60%	34%	115%
Sources: FactSet, State Street (for SPY holdings)

Five of these stocks (including the two Alphabet share classes) are still down from the end of 2021. SPY itself has returned 14% this year, following an 18% decline in 2022. It is still down 7% from the end of 2021.

Mark Hulbert makes the case that a decade from now, the Magnificent Seven are unlikely to be among the largest companies in the stock market.

A different market opportunity: India is seeing a multidecade growth surge. Here’s how you can invest in it.

The MarketWatch 50

The MarketWatch 50 series is back, with articles and video interviews starting this week, including:

PayPal soars after earnings report

PayPal CEO Alex Chriss.

MarketWatch/PayPal

After the market close on Wednesday, PayPal Holdings Inc.
PYPL,
+1.89%
announced quarterly results that came in ahead of analysts’ expectations, and the stock soared 7% on Thursday even though the company lowered its target for improving its operating margin.

In the Ratings Game column, Emily Bary reports on the positive reaction to PayPal’s new CEO, Alex Chriss.

A less enthusiastic earnings reaction: EV-products maker BorgWarner’s stock suffers biggest drop in 15 years after downbeat sales outlook

Consumers drive mixed reactions to earnings results

Apple Inc. reported mixed quarterly results.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Here’s more of the latest corporate financial results and reactions. First the good news:

And now the news that may not be so good:

Harsh verdict for SBF

It might seem that some legal battles never end, but it took only a year from the collapse of FTX for the cryptocurrency exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, to be convicted on all seven federal fraud and money-laundering charges brought against him. The charges were connected to the disappearance of $8 billion from FTX customer accounts.

Here’s more reaction and coverage of the virtual-currency industry:

Want more from MarketWatch? Sign up for this and other newsletters to get the latest news and advice on personal finance and investing.

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November 3, 2023

Orange-juice futures suffer their biggest weekly decline in over 6 years after hitting record

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Orange-juice futures posted a drop of nearly 11% for the week on Friday, the largest such percentage decline since late March 2017, just days after settling at their highest price on record.

“The weather is good and the hurricane season is almost over,” Jack Scoville, vice president of The Price Futures Group and author of the Grains and Softs Report, told MarketWatch on Friday.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. It can impact crops in the region, and Florida is among the top orange growing states. The season started off strongly but was relatively quiet in October.

The speculators in the market tried to take profits and “found out that there was no buying interest under the market, so it went down hard,” said Scoville.

The most-active January contract for frozen concentrated orange juice posted a weekly loss of 10.6% on Friday, the worst weekly performance since the week ended March 31, 2017, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It settled Friday at $3.4925 a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, down 1.4%, for the session, after dropping 5.2% Thursday.

The big mover among the futures contracts is November, said Darin Newsom, Barchart senior market analyst.

That contract was down around 14% from this past Tuesday’s high of $4.3195, he said. The first notice day, the day buyers of futures contracts receive a notice that a seller intends to make delivery of a commodity, was Nov. 1, he said.

Given that, anyone holding long futures who didn’t want to take delivery had to get out of their position — leading to a sharp selloff, Newsom explained. The January contract saw some “spillover selling” from the November contracts.

Prices for frozen orange juice had marked a record high settlement of $4.008 a pound on Oct. 30. They trade a whopping 71% higher year to date, on track for the best year since 2009.

It’s “hard to buy when a market goes to new all-time highs,” said Newsom.

Key reasons for the rally are post-COVID demand for vitamin C, and the worst Florida citrus crop since the 1920s, due to a disease called citrus greening, said James Roemer, publisher of WeatherWealth newsletter.

However, the lack of Florida hurricanes this fall and a potentially large 2024 orange crop in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, are “potentially bearish longer term,” he said.

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November 3, 2023
These are the most expensive ZIP Codes in the U.S. for house shoppers
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Where are home buyers paying the most? Mostly on the coasts, according to a new report.

Based on a ZIP Code–level analysis of closed home-sale prices, PropertyShark, a real-estate data site owned by Yardi Systems, found that, of the top 100 most expensive ZIP Codes in the U.S., 65% were in California.
On the East Coast, New York City had the highest concentration of pricey postal codes for home buyers, the report said.

The analysis of ZIP Codes was based on the actual sale prices of homes, not their asking prices, PropertyShark noted. “Whereas asking prices reflect sellers’ wishes, calculating medians based on sale prices reflects the transactional reality on the ground,” PropertyShark said.

The most expensive ZIP Code in the U.S., 94027, in Atherton, Calif., has been a longtime leader on the list, the report said. The median sale price of a home there was a cool $8.3 million. The Bay Area town, in San Mateo County, is home to some rich and famous people, including NBA star Steph Curry and his wife, Ayesha; tech billionaire Marc Andreessen and his wife, Laura; and others.

Curry and Andreessen have opposed denser and more affordable housing developments in their neighborhoods, earning them criticism as “NIMBYs,” for Not In My Backyard. “Atherton is almost exclusively zoned for single-family homes, with a one-acre minimum lot requirement dating back to the 1920s,” the PropertyShark report stated.

Across the country, New York City had the highest density of expensive ZIP Codes, with eight spread across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

The Hamptons town of Sagaponack (11962), a Long Island enclave popular with celebrities, ranked No. 2 on the list, with a median home price of $8,075,000.

Nationally, the median home price, meaning the price in the exact middle of the price range, was $394,400 as of September, according to the National Association of Realtors.

These are the most expensive ZIP Codes in America as of 2023, according to PropertyShark:

Atherton, Calif. (94027)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $8,300,000

Sagaponack, N.Y. (11962)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $8,075,000

Miami Beach, Fla. (33109)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $5,500,000

Santa Barbara, Calif. (93108)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $5,000,000

Beverly Hills, Calif. (90210)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $4,800,000

Stinson Beach, Calif. (94970)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $4,500,000 (tie)

Water Mill, N.Y. (11976)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $4,500,000 (tie)

Newport Beach, Calif. (92661)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $4,495,000

Santa Monica, Calif. (90402)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $4,489,000

Medina, Wash. (98039)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $4,388,000

Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (92067)

Median home-sale price in 2023: $4,248,000

Read on: This U.S. city has the highest share of superrich residents in the world — and it’s not New York, San Francisco or Seattle
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November 3, 2023
Goldman Sachs leads gainers among the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average; Bank of America up handily

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s stock
GS,
+4.42%
is the biggest gainer among the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.66%
at midday Friday with a rise of 4%. The stock has risen 12.6% so far this week. It’s also on pace for largest percent increase since November 10, 2022, when it rose 4.51%, according Dow Jones Market Data. Meanwhile, Bank of America Corp.’s stock
BAC,
+2.90%
was up about 3% and is on track for a 13% gain this week, which would be its best since it rose by 16.5% in the week ending June 5, 2020.

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November 3, 2023
E.l.f.’s stock jumps 10% on earnings, revenue beat; strong guidance

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E.l.f. Beauty Inc.’s ELF stock initially soared 10% in extended trading Wednesday after the company reported quarterly results that topped analyst revenue and earnings estimates. E.l.f. reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $33.3 million, or 58 cents a share, compared with net earnings of $11.7 million, or 21 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted net income was 82 cents a share. Net sales surged 76% to $215.5 million, compared with $122.3 million a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average net earnings of 53 cents a share on revenue of $197.1 million. The company offered full-year…

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November 1, 2023
Dow logs best three-day stretch since April as Fed leaves interest rates on hold

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U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 capping off its biggest three-day percentage-point gain since March after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell again suggested that rising Treasury yields were likely aiding the central bank’s fight against inflation. This could potentially ease the pressure on the Fed to push interest rates even higher, which helped boost stocks. The S&P 500 SPX finished higher for the third straight day, rising 44.04 points, or 1.1%, on Wednesday to 4,237.84, according to preliminary closing data from FactSet. The index has gained nearly 3% over the last three trading days, its biggest…

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November 1, 2023
There’s a ton worth streaming in November 2023. So as prices rise, here’s how to avoid breaking the bank.

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November offers a false spring for streaming viewers.

After a slow couple of months, there’s suddenly an abundance of top-tier shows on the way, but don’t be fooled — the streaming scene is going to be largely bleak in the coming months, until productions fully ramp up sometime next year following the strikes that have crippled Hollywood.

Meanwhile, streaming costs keep rising (Netflix’s top tier is the first to cross the $20 barrier) and consumers are getting less for their money, with fewer new shows and smaller libraries, while streamers push subscribers toward ad-supported tiers that generate more revenue per user while providing a worse viewing experience. Still, all the ad-supported tiers cost less than $10 a month, meaning it may be time for budget-conscious consumers to suck it up and deal with commercials if they don’t want to break the bank.

Read more: Netflix is raising prices to get you to watch ads, and it will probably work

That’s why it’s even more important to examine which services you’re really willing to pay for. The days of subscribing to six streaming services — even though you might only regularly watch three — are over. But by adding and canceling services month to month, you can save money while still being able to watch your favorite shows (for example, instead of watching a 12-episode show that drops every week and paying for three months, subscribe for just one month once the show nears its end and binge it all at once).

Such a churn strategy takes some planning, but it pays off. Keep in mind that a billing cycle starts when you sign up, not necessarily at the beginning of the month.

Each month, this column offers tips on how to maximize your streaming and your budget, rating the major services as a “play,” “pause” or “stop” — similar to investment analysts’ traditional ratings of buy, hold or sell, and picks the best shows to help you make your monthly decisions.

Here’s a look at what’s coming to the various streaming services in November 2023, and what’s really worth the monthly subscription fee:

Apple TV+ ($9.99 a month)

The price of Apple TV+ has doubled in a little over a year, and in any other month, it’d be easy to argue it has priced itself out of the range of casual viewers. But Apple’s November lineup is so impressive that it’s actually somehow still a good deal.

The alt-history space drama “For All Mankind” (Nov. 10) returns for its fourth season, with an eight-year time jump after Season 3’s shocking finale. The Mars colony is now thriving, but tensions are rising over the mining of mineral-rich asteroids. Toby Kebbell (“Servant”) joins the cast, along with Daniel Stern and Tyner Rushing, who join holdovers Joel Kinnaman, Krys Marshall, Wrenn Schmidt and Coral Pena. It’s a fantastic and frequently thrilling series, and arguably Apple’s best drama.

And a challenger to that title is also coming back. “Slow Horses” (Nov. 29), the darkly funny thriller about a group of washed-up spies, returns for its third season. Gary Oldman stars as perpetually disgruntled spymaster Jackson Lamb, leading his team of misfits as they get dragged into an international conspiracy after one of their own is kidnapped. Based on the novels by Mick Herron, “Slow Horses” is smart and cynical, a terrific twist on traditional spy stories.

Then there’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” (Nov. 17), an action-conspiracy series about a ragtag group trying to expose a secretive organization that knows the truth about Godzilla and other kaiju creatures terrorizing the planet. Kurt Russell stars with his son, Wyatt (who plays his dad in flashbacks), along with Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe and Kiersey Clemons. The series is intended to slide right into the MonsterVerse that includes “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Kong: Skull Island” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” and for anyone who grew up watching monster movies, this could be a lot of fun.

Apple
AAPL,
+1.87%
also has “Fingernails” (Nov. 3), a sci-fi romance movie starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson; “The Buccaneers” (Nov. 8), a “Bridgerton”-esque period drama based on the Edith Wharton novel about a group of rich American girls who hit London in the 1870s looking for suitable husbands; the holiday musical special “Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas” (Nov. 22); and a new version of the tear-jerking children’s classic “The Velveteen Rabbit” (Nov. 22).

Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed “Killers of the Flower Moon” should hit Apple TV+ within the next month or two, after it completes its theatrical run, and Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon,” starring Joaquin Phoenix, his theaters Nov. 22. It, too, will stream on Apple at an as-yet-undisclosed date in the coming months.

There are also new episodes every week of “Lessons in Chemistry” (finale Nov. 24), and “The Morning Show” (season finale Nov. 8). If that’s not enough, you could always catch up on “Foundation,” “Swagger,” “Platonic” or discover “Bad Sisters.”

Who’s Apple TV+ for? It offers a little something for everyone, but not necessarily enough for anyone — although it’s getting there.

Play, pause or stop? Play. Even though its price has soared, Apple is still cheaper than most, and it delivers value this month. (Remember, you can get three free months of Apple TV+ if you buy a new Apple device.)

Hulu ($7.99 a month with ads, or $17.99 with no ads)

After a fallow October, Hulu has a lot more to offer in November, continuing its strong year.

FX’s “A Murder at the End of the World” (Nov. 14) was pushed back from an August release date due to the Hollywood strikes, but it should fit better in a colder season anyway. From Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, the producers of Netflix’s cult favorite sci-fi series “The OA,” the limited series is an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set at a billionaire’s secluded, snowbound retreat in Iceland. Emma Corrin (“The Crown”) stars as an amateur detective while Clive Owen (“Children of Men”) plays the mysterious tycoon.

A wintry setting also plays a key role in the fifth season of FX’s “Fargo” (Nov. 22), the latest installment in Noah Hawley’s noirish crime anthology. Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso”) plays a seemingly ordinary Midwestern housewife who’s not at all what she appears to be. She’s joined by an all-star cast that includes Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lamorne Morris and Dave Foley. Each season of “Fargo” is a quirky, violent delight, and this one looks no different.

Also: Disney officially plans to buy remaining Hulu stake from Comcast

Just to make things confusing, while both “A Murder at the End of the World” and “Fargo” are FX series, “Murder” will stream exclusively on Hulu, while “Fargo” episodes will first air on FX then stream a day later.

In an interesting experiment, director Baz Luhrmann has recut his 2008 romantic drama “Australia,” starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and turned it into a six-episode miniseries — renamed “Faraway Downs” (Nov. 26) — using extra footage shot during the original filming. The movie flopped in theaters, but Luhrmann says it should work better as a miniseries, saying “episodic storytelling has been reinvigorated by the streaming world.”

For more: Here’s what’s new on Hulu in November 2023 — and what’s leaving

Hulu also has “Black Cake” (Nov. 1), a generations-spanning family drama based on the bestselling novel by Charmaine Wilkerson; “Quiz Lady” (Nov. 3), a comedy movie about estranged sisters, starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh; and a handful of sports documentaries, including “The League” (Nov. 9), about Negro League baseball, and “Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story” (Nov. 15), hosted by Keanu Reeves.

Fresh off October’s addition of “Moonlighting,” Hulu is adding all eight seasons of another 1980s classic, “L.A. Law” (Nov. 3), along with a ton of holiday fare, including “Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights” and “Miracle on 34th Street” (both Nov. 1), and “Elf” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (both Nov. 23).

And don’t forget the season finales of “Welcome to Wrexham” (Nov. 15) and “Goosebumps” (Nov. 17), as well as next-day streams of network shows such as “The Golden Bachelor” and “Bob’s Burgers.”

Who’s Hulu for? TV lovers. There’s a deep library for those who want older TV series and next-day streaming of many current network and cable shows.

Play, pause or stop? Pause and think it over. If you’re on the ad-supported plan, it’s well worth it. But for the pricey, $18 ad-free plan, you may want to wait until December and see how some of these new series pan out.

Netflix ($6.99 a month for basic with ads, $15.49 standard with no ads, $22.99 premium with no ads)

Netflix just raised some prices again, but for most customers, it’s still a good value.

The critically acclaimed royal-family drama “The Crown” (Nov. 16) is back for the first half of its sixth and final season (four episodes drop this month, with the final six coming in December). Events pick up in 1997 after the marriage of Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) ends, as Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) reflects on her legacy. There’s already controversy over how it’ll handle Diana’s tragic death.

Read more: Here’s what’s new on Netflix in November 2023 — and what’s leaving

Netflix
NFLX,
+2.06%
also has “The Killer” (Nov. 10) a “slick but conventional” thriller movie from director David Fincher, starring Michael Fassbender as a hit man on the run; “Squid Game: The Challenge” (Nov. 22), a reality competition show putting 456 players through challenges inspired by the hit Korean drama (minus the murders, presumably); “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” (Nov. 17), an anime version of the graphic novels and cult-favorite movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (which is also coming Nov. 1); “All the Light We Cannot See” (Nov. 2), a critically panned miniseries about a blind French girl and a German soldier in the final days of WWII, starring Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hofmann and Mark Ruffalo; Season 5, Part 2 of the popular small-town romantic drama “Virgin River” (Nov. 30); and “The Netflix Cup: Swing to Survive” (Nov. 14), Netflix’s first livestreamed sporting event, with teams of Formula 1 drivers and PGA stars in a match-play golf tournament from Las Vegas.

There are also fresh episodes of “The Great British Baking Show” every Friday until its season finale Dec. 1.

Who’s Netflix for? Fans of buzz-worthy original shows and movies.

Play, pause or stop? Pause. “The Crown” and “The Great British Baking Show” are the top draws, but aside from those, there’s not a lot else to move the needle this month. However, if you can live with commercials, you can find value at $7.

Paramount+ ($5.99 a month with ads, $11.99 a month with Showtime and no ads)

Paramount+ has some interesting stuff in November. But is it enough to justify a subscription?

“Lawmen: Bass Reeves” (Nov. 5), joins the streaming service’s extensive slate of shows produced by Taylor Sheridan, telling the story of one of the Wild West’s most overlooked real-life heroes: Bass Reeves (played by David Oyelowo), who was the first Black U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi and overcame countless hurdles in enforcing the law in the era of Reconstruction. A marksman with something like 3,000 arrests to his name, Reeves was purportedly the inspiration for the story of the Lone Ranger. Say what you will about Sheridan’s formulaic shows, but he knows how to make a good Western. This should be worth a watch.

There’s also “The Curse“ (Nov. 10), an intriguing new Showtime series starring Nathan Fielder (“Nathan for You”) and Oscar-winner Emma Stone that puts a dark twist to an HGTV-like home-improvement show; and “Good Burger 2” (Nov. 22), a sequel to the 1997 cult-classic fast-food comedy starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell.

On the sports side, Paramount has NFL football every Sunday, Big Ten and SEC college football every Saturday, and a full slate of UEFA Champions League soccer.

Who’s Paramount+ for? Gen X cord-cutters who miss live sports and familiar Paramount Global
PARA,
-0.74%
broadcast and cable shows.

Play, pause or stop? Pause. There’s decent value with a couple of promising new shows, especially when factoring in Paramount’s live sports and vast library of movies and network shows.

Max ($9.99 a month with ads, $15.99 with no ads, or $19.99 ‘Ultimate’ with no ads)

It’s a very skippable month for Max.

The Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD,
+1.41%
streaming service only has a handful of new originals to offer, including Season 2 of Issa Rae’s hip-hop comedy “Rap Sh!t” (Nov. 19), as Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion) come to a crossroads on their road to fame; Season 2 of the biographical drama “Julia” (Nov. 16), starring Sarah Lancashire as iconic chef Julia Child as she and her husband return from France and face new challenges; “Bookie” (Nov. 30), a new comedy from Chuck Lorre (“Big Bang Theory”) and Nick Bakay about an L.A. bookie looking for new angles as the potential legalization of sports gambling threatens to upend his shady business; and Rob Reiner’s documentary “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” (Nov. 11), delving into the life of the comedy legend.

Also: Here’s everything coming to Max in November 2023 — and what’s leaving

There are also a ton of holiday-themed shows from Food Network, HGTV and OWN; live sports on its free (for now) Bleacher Report tier that includes NBA and NHL games, college basketball and U.S. men’s soccer (Nov. 16 and 20); and new episodes of “The Gilded Age” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

Who’s Max for? HBO fans and movie lovers. And now, unscripted TV fans too, with a slew of Discovery shows.

Play, pause or stop? Stop. Max still has a great library, but the new offerings fall short. Even the ad tier isn’t worth it — try again another month.

Amazon’s Prime Video ($14.99 a month, or $8.99 without Prime membership)

“The Boys” spinoff “Gen V” ends its first season on Nov. 3, but fans of ultra-violent superheroes will be able to slide right into Season 2 of the hit animated series “Invincible” (Nov. 3), which returns to Prime Video after a two-and-a-half-year layoff. Based on the graphic novels by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, the very adult series picks up with Mark (Steven Yeun) still reeling from the revelations about his superhero father (J.K. Simmons) at the end of Season 1, while a new villain (voiced by Sterling K. Brown) appears on the scene. Annoyingly, Season 2 will be split in two, with four episodes in November and another four coming in early 2024.

More: What’s new on Amazon’s Prime Video and Freevee in November 2023

Amazon’s
AMZN,
+2.94%
streaming service also has “007: Road to a Million” (Nov. 10), an “Amazing Race”-like competition series hosted by Brian Cox where nine teams of two endure James Bond-inspired challenges around the globe to try to win a big cash prize, and “Twin Love” (Nov. 17), a reality dating show involving 10 sets of identical twins split into two houses.

Who’s Prime Video for? Movie lovers, TV-series fans who value quality over quantity.

Play, pause or stop? Stop. There’s no a compelling reason to start a relatively pricey subscription now. That even goes for “Invincible” fans, who would be better off waiting until the second half drops and bingeing when all episodes are available. Splitting up eight episodes is ridiculous.

Disney+ ($7.99 a month with ads, $13.99 with no ads)

Tim Allen returns for Season 2 of “The Santa Clauses” (Nov. 8), as the jolly one continues his search for a successor. Eric Stonestreet joins the cast as the exiled “Mad Santa,” along with Gabriel Iglesias as Kris Kringle and Tracey Morgan as the Easter Bunny (because, of course!).

Meanwhile, Lil Rel Howry, Ludacris and Oscar Nunez star in the new family comedy movie “Dashing Through the Snow” (Nov. 17), and Danny Glover will play Santa in the Disney Channel original film “The Naughty Nine” (Nov. 23).

In non-holiday fare, Disney has three upcoming Doctor Who specials celebrating the iconic sci-fi series’ 60th anniversary. The first, “Doctor Who: The Star Beast” (Nov. 25), reunites David Tennant and Catherine Tate, as the Doctor and Donna Noble battle the villainous Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), with the other two specials coming in December, when the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa of “Sex Education”) will be introduced.

There’s also 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (Nov. 3), and new episodes of “Loki” (finale Nov. 9), “Goosebumps” (finale Nov. 17) and “Dancing With the Stars.”

Who’s Disney+ for? Families with kids, hardcore “Star Wars” and Marvel fans. For people not in those groups, Disney’s
DIS,
-0.64%
library can be lacking.

Play, pause or stop? Stop. After a recent price hike, there’s just not enough to justify a subscription (unless your kids will absolutely melt down without it).

Peacock ($5.99 a month with ads, or $11.99 with no ads)

It’s a pretty bleak month for Peacock originals, with only the reality dating spinoff “Love Island Games” (Nov. 1); “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” (Nov. 17), the first movie from the “SNL” comedy trio; and Season 2 of the Paris Hilton reality series “Paris in Love” (Nov. 30).

It’s a bit brighter on the sports side, with Big Ten college basketball starting Nov. 6, Big Ten college football every Saturday, NFL Sunday Night Football and a full slate of English Premier League soccer, golf, motorsports and winter sports.

And on Thanksgiving (Nov. 23), Peacock will stream the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the National Dog Show and an NFL game, as the 49ers play the Seahawks.

Who’s Peacock for? Live sports and next-day shows from Comcast’s
CMCSA,
+1.28%
NBCUniversal are the main draw, but there’s a good library of shows and movies.

Play, pause or stop? Stop. The live-sports offerings are the only lure.

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November 1, 2023
You can save up to $23,000 in your 401(k) next year, IRS says

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Retirement savers can tuck away slightly more in 2024 than in 2023, but this year’s contribution increases are more modest than last year’s, according to new inflation-related adjustments released by the IRS.

People who are building up their 401(k) accounts will be able to contribute a maximum of $23,000, a more than 2% increase from the $22,500 maximum for 2023.

IRA contribution limits will climb to $7,000 for 2024, a 7.6% increase over the $6,500 limit in 2023.

When the IRS announced its adjustments for 2023, 401(k) savers got a big increase of nearly 10% year over year, and the IRA contribution limit went up more than 8%.

The 2024 adjustments reflect an economy where inflation rates, although cooling, are still warm.

For 2024, the catch-up amount for workers 50 and older is holding at a maximum of $1,000 on IRA contributions and of $7,500 for people with 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans, the IRS said.

The IRS numbers set a limit on how much people can set aside each year in 401(k) accounts, but data suggest many people fall far short of those maximums.

In 2022, people with retirement accounts through Vanguard had an average account balance of $112,572. The median account balance was $27,376, the wealth-management giant reported.

The new retirement-account contribution limits are part of the tax code’s yearly changes to account for inflation.

Taxpayers are still awaiting the IRS adjustments for tax brackets, standard-deduction amounts and other provisions for tax year 2024.

The tax agency adjusted the ranges on income-tax brackets last year by 7%.

Roth IRA rules and the Saver’s Credit

The numbers on 401(K) and IRA contributions were just one part of the IRS announcement Wednesday.

The tax agency also lifted the income thresholds for people making Roth IRA contributions. Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax dollars, so they aren’t taxed when account holders pull out the money.

Read also: If saving $23,000 in your 401(k) next year isn’t enough, you can double that (or more) with the right strategy — and it’s legal

But Roth IRA contributions hinge on household income. In 2024, individuals and people filing as head of household who make between $146,00 and $161,000 must limit their Roth IRA contributions. People with incomes above $161,000 won’t be able to contribute to a Roth IRA.

That’s up from a 2023 phase-out range of $138,000 to $153,000.

For married couples filing jointly, the phase-out range climbs to $230,000 – $240,000. That’s an increase from this year’s range of $218,000 to $228,000.

Other retirement tax rules are also slated for 2024 updates.

For example, there’s the “saver’s credit” which is designed to help low- and moderate-income households that are finding a way to put aside money for retirement. It pays up to $1,000 for individuals and up to $2,000 for married couples. The amount depends on income and contribution amounts.

For 2024, married couples saving for retirement are eligible for the credit if their income stays under $76,500, up from $73,000. The income maximum is $38,250 for individuals, up from $36,500.

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November 1, 2023
Six Flags, Cedar Fair near merger: report

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Shares of Six Flags Entertainment Corp.
SIX,
+6.48%
and Cedar Fair Entertainment Co.
FUN,
-1.36%
are rising following a report in the Wall Street Journal that the regional theme-park operators could announce a merger as soon as this week. Six’s stock is up 1.5% on Wednesday, while shares of Cedar Fair have climbed 5.6%. Cedar’s properties include Great America in Santa Clara, Calif., Kings Island in Cincinnati, and Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto.

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November 1, 2023
U.S. construction spending rises for the ninth month in a row in September

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Construction spending rose in September, as companies and the government continued to ramp up projects across the U.S.

Spending on construction projects rose 0.4% in September to nearly $2 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The…

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November 1, 2023
Foreign passport holders leaving Gaza for first time since war began

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Dozens of foreign passport holders could be seen entering the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt on Wednesday. It appeared to be the first time foreign passport holders have been allowed to leave the besieged territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war more than three weeks ago.

Early Wednesday, providers Paltel and Jawwal reported a “complete disruption” of communications and internet services in Gaza, the second major cut in five days. Humanitarian aid agencies have warned that such blackouts severely disrupt their…

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November 1, 2023
Who is having the most influence over your money in 2023? Meet the MarketWatch 50.

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What do Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Shawn Fain and Lina Khan have in common? On the surface, it might not seem like much — one is an impetuous tech-bro genius, another is a buy-and-hold nonagenarian investor, and the other two are a tough union boss and a business-busting regulator.

But each of them are having a serious impact on your money. They all appear on this year’s MarketWatch 50 list of the most influential people in markets. The MarketWatch 50 is our tally of the investors, CEOs, policymakers, AI players and financial…

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October 31, 2023
Here’s why Zillow, Redfin and other real-estate stocks tanked after a jury ruling

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Shares of real-estate names plunged Tuesday following a jury ruling that has the potential to shake up the way people purchase homes.

A Missouri jury earlier Tuesday deemed that the National Association of Realtors, HomeServices of America and Keller Williams colluded to inflate or maintain high commission rates. Jefferies analyst John Conaltuoni said in a note to clients that a judge could issue an injunction preventing commission sharing on MLSs, or multiple listing services, which would hurt the buyer-agent business.

See more: A Missouri jury goes after the real-estate industry’s commission structure. Here’s what that could mean for homeowners.

Shares of Opendoor Technologies Inc.
OPEN,
-9.09%
plunged 9% on Tuesday, while shares of Zillow Group Inc.
ZG,
-6.87%

Z,
-6.98%
fell 7%, shares of Redfin Corp.
RDFN,
-5.67%
dropped 6% and shares of RE/MAX Holdings Inc.
RMAX,
-4.36%
declined 4%.

Conaltuoni thinks the recent ruling could bring big changes to the Participation Rule, which is an NAR requirement for seller agents to disclose the compensation being offered to buyer agents when they list through an MLS. The Participation Rule could soon get banned or turn optional, in his view.

Such a ban “would cause negotiations about buyer agent commissions to occur when an offer is presented, since there would no longer be an avenue to communicate splits up front,” he wrote. “This would eliminate the seller’s incentive to compensate buyer agents, which would force them to seek compensation directly. Shifting the burden of payment to buyers would likely meaningfully reduce their use of agents given most already struggle to cover closing costs.”

Conaltuoni further commented that were the rule to become optional, the “status quo” likely would continue.

Read: Why aren’t homeowners selling their homes? It’s not just the ‘lock-in effect’

What would these developments mean for Zillow, which reports earnings Wednesday afternoon? He flagged that nearly two-thirds of the company’s revenue comes from its Premier Agent business, which itself is primarily made up of revenue from buyer agents. “[A] reduction in their usage would force [Zillow] to pivot to offering products for seller agents and create near-term headwinds to revenue,” he wrote, while cutting his price target on Zillow’s stock to $48 from $60.

Bernstein’s Nikhil Devnani wrote that Zillow “is NOT part of this case and not directly impacted by the ruling,” but there’s the potential for repercussions down the line.

“Premier Agent is built around buyer commissions,” Devnani said. “And a reduction to commission rates (which could happen if cooperative compensation were outright banned in the worst case scenario) would create challenges for industry revenue growth, in our view. Maintaining the current structure with more transparency would have less impact we believe. It would need a stronger decoupling of who pays for buyer and seller agents.”

While Redfin shares dropped Tuesday along with other names, Chief Executive Glenn Kelman put out a blog post titled: “Change Comes to the Real Estate Industry.”

“The judge may take days or weeks to decide what structural changes the jury’s verdict will entail,” he wrote, and appeals could take years.

But traditional brokers “will undoubtedly now train their agents to welcome conversations about fees, just as Redfin has been doing for years, especially when advising a seller on what fee to offer to buyers’ agents,” he continued. “Rather than saying that a fee for the buyers’ agent of 2% or 3% is customary or recommended, agents will say that a buyers’ agent fee, if one is offered at all, is entirely up to the seller. This is as it should be.”

RBC Capital Markets analyst Brad Erickson wrote after the ruling that just over half of Redfin transactions come from the buyside. Its stock and Zillow’s “partially reflected these risks coming in,” in his view.

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October 31, 2023
AI could spark the next financial crisis, SEC Chair Gary Gensler says

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Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has plenty to worry about as he seeks to bring order and fairness to America’s $100 trillion capital markets, and there are few issues that cause him more concern than the spread of artificial-intelligence technology.

In an exclusive interview with MarketWatch, the regulator argued that generative AI technologies in the vein of ChatGPT have the potential to revolutionize the way we invest by leveraging large data sets to “predict things that were unimaginable even 10 years ago,” but that these new powers will come with great risks.

“A growing issue is that [AI] could lead to a risk in the whole system,” Gensler said. “As many financial actors rely on one or just two or three models in the middle … you create a monoculture, you create herding.”

Gary Gensler: AI could pose ‘a risk in the whole system.’

This herding effect can be dangerous if there is a flaw in the model that might reverberate through markets during a time of stress, causing abrupt and unpredictable price changes in markets. Gensler pointed to the examples of cloud computing and search engines as markets for tech products that have quickly become dominated by one or two major players, and he said he worries about similar concentration in the market for AI technology.

The regulator said this issue is especially difficult because of the fragmented nature of the U.S. regulatory apparatus, which relies on the SEC to oversee securities markets while other agencies have responsibility for banks or commodity markets.

“This is more of a cross-entity issue,” Gensler said. “That’s the challenge for these new technologies.”

As SEC chair, Gensler has escalated his regulatory agency’s crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry in 2023 by launching lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, the two largest digital asset exchanges in the world by trading volume. The SEC alleges the two companies are operating unregistered securities exchanges in the U.S., but the companies say they are not running afoul of securities laws.

Gensler is simultaneously pushing forward the most fundamental market-structure reform measures in a generation. Gensler lands on The MarketWatch 50 list of the most influential people in markets.

But AI is another issue that Gensler is starting to ring alarm bells over. There’s a little bit of irony because the promise of AI has largely been responsible for the S&P 500’s
SPX
gains in 2023. The SEC chair said that his agency is already contemplating new rules to regulate artificial intelligence. For example, the SEC proposed a rule this summer to address conflicts of interest associated with stock brokers and investment advisors that leverage algorithms to predict and guide investor decisions through their smartphone applications or web interfaces.

The industry is pushing back on the proposal, arguing that existing rules are sufficient to prevent harm to investors and that a new rule would prevent brokers from using technology to create a better experience for clients.

Gensler said that the SEC benefits from such feedback, but still believes that regulators must be vigilant about the impact of these so-called predictive analytical tools. “If they do that to suggest a certain movie on a streaming app, okay,” he said. “But if they’re doing that about your financial help … we should address those conflicts.”

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October 31, 2023
Carlsberg CEO says the Putin regime stole brewery operations in Russia

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“There is no way around the fact that they have stolen our business in Russia, and we are not going to help them make that look legitimate.”

That’s new Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Anderson, according to a Reuters account of a journalist call on Tuesday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin this summer ordered the seizure of Carlsberg’s stake in its Baltika subsidiary. Earlier this month, Carlsberg ended license agreements that allow for its beers to be produced in the country.

According to the presidential decree, Carlsberg retains title to the shares in Baltika Breweries but no longer has any control or influence over the company.

From the archive (March 2022): Carlsberg and Heineken both say they will exit the Russian market

Carlsberg reported a 3% decline in organic volume growth, as a 6.3% slide in Central and Eastern Europe and a 5.2% decline in Western Europe was partly offset by a 1.5% rise in Asia.

The brewer said two-thirds of the volume decline was due to bad weather and another one-third to consumer sentiment.

Organic revenue, however, rose by 5.8%, on price hikes. It kept its operating-profit guidance for the year unchanged at 4% to 7% growth, and launched a new stock-buyback program valued at 1 billion Danish crowns.

Carlsberg said comparisons in the fourth quarter will be positive in China, in light of the year-ago lockdown, but the weak macro environment in Southeast Asia will continue to impact markets.

Carlsberg shares
CARL.B,
-0.83%
were steady on Tuesday but have dropped 8% this year.

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October 31, 2023