Tag: Business/Consumer Services

HELOCs are back. Cash-strapped borrowers are tapping into a $33 trillion pile of home equity.

[ad_1]

Goodbye pandemic refi cash-outs. Hello HELOCs?

Home-equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and second-lien mortgages have been staging a notable comeback as U.S. homeowners look for liquidity and ways to monetize the pandemic surge in home prices, according to BofA Global.

It used to be that borrowers sitting on an estimated $33 trillion pile of equity built up in their homes could simply refinance and pull out cash, until the Federal Reserve’s rapid rate hikes began squelching the option.

Now, with mortgage rates above 6%, and the Fed penciling in two more rate hikes in 2023, cash-strapped homeowners have been seeking out alternatives to extract cash from their properties.

While cash-out refinances tumbled 83% in the fourth quarter of 2022 from a year before, HELOCs rose 7% and home-equity loans grew 31%, according to the latest TransUnion data.

“Borrower demand remains high, particularly given household budgets have been pressured by rising food and energy costs,” a BofA Global credit strategy team led by Pratik Gupta’s, wrote in a weekly client note.

Risky loans to subprime borrowers and home equity products helped precipitate the 2007-2008 global financial crisis and the era’s wave of devastating home foreclosures.

At the time, households had more than $1.2 trillion of home equity revolving and available credit (see chart), whereas the figure was closer to $900 billion in the first quarter of this year.

Home equity products are making a big comeback as households seek liquidity

BofA Global, New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax

The pandemic saw home prices surge, giving a big boost to home equity levels. The Urban Institute pegged home equity in the U.S. at $33 trillion as of May, up from a post-2008 peak of about $15 trillion.

BofA analysts argued this time home equity products look different, with roughly $17 trillion of tappable equity across 117 million U.S. homeowners, and most borrowers having high credit scores and low rates.

“The vast majority of that — $14 trillion — is from the cohort of homeowners who own their homes free & clear,” Gupta’s team wrote.

Another $1.6 trillion of equity could be available from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae borrowers, according to his team, which pegged an estimated 94% of all outstanding U.S. first-lien home mortgages now below 4% rates.

Major banks own the bulk of home equity balances (see chart), led by Bank of America Corp.
BAC,
+1.23%,
PNC Bank
PNC,
+0.57%,
Wells Fargo,
WFC,
-0.05%,
JPMorgan Chase
JPM,
+0.24%
and Citizens
CFG,
+0.35%,
according to the team, which notes several other major banks appear to have hit pause on their programs.

A smaller portion of HELOCs and second-lien mortgages have been securitized, or packaged up and sold as bond deals, while nonbank lenders have been offering the products as well.

Stocks closed lower Monday, taking a pause from a recent rally, as investors monitored weekend tumult in Russia. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.04%
was less than 0.1% lower, while the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.45%
was off 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.16%
fell 1.2%, according to FactSet.

Related: The economy was supposed to cave in by now. It hasn’t — and GDP is set to rise again.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 26, 2023
Nvidia Stock Is Down. Blame Tesla.
[ad_1]
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/nvidia-stock-price-ai-tesla-5af5041c
June 26, 2023 2:53 pm ET

Order Reprints

Print Article

Shares of newly minted $1 trillion company

Nvidia

were taking it on the chin Monday, and investors searching for a reason should look to

Tesla
[ad_2]

Source link
June 26, 2023
‘The war on remote work is not over.’ But one group in particular is heading back to the office.

[ad_1]

As the fight between bosses and workers over returning to the office keeps entering new rounds, new data show how much in-office attendance ramped up last year — especially for white-collar workers with high levels of education.

But even still, the return to the office has been two different stories for men and women. From 2021 to 2022, men spent more time at the workplace while women spent the same amount of time working from home year-over-year.

Last year, 34% of workers said they worked from home at least part of the time, according to the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of how Americans spend their time.

That was down from the 38% of employed people who said the same in 2021 — and a deeper look into Thursday’s data reveals an even more pronounced, but uneven, reduction in the number of people who are working remotely.

More than one quarter of men in 2022 said they spend at least some of their working time at home, while 41% of women said they had work-from-home in their job schedule. One year earlier, it was a different story for men, but not for women. Over one-third of men, 35%, said working from home was part of their routine while 42% of women said the same.

It may be a reminder of the juggle that women face between their personal and professional lives. For example, in homes with children under age 6, women spent just over an hour each day caring for their children while men in those households spent half that amount. That breakdown was unchanged between 2022 and 2021, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the return-to-office trend accelerated for more educated workers from 2021 to 2022. In 2021, 60% of people with at least a bachelor’s degree said they did some of their work from home. In 2022, the share fell to 54% doing some work from home.

When the pandemic shut down offices and other workplaces, people with higher levels of education often had greater chances of being able to stay home while they worked.

That dynamic is still at play now, although the differences between groups are becoming less stark. Last year and in 2021, the share of people with no college degree who said they worked from home at least some of the time stayed below 20%.

It’s unclear what was driving highly-educated workers to spend more time in the office between 2021 and 2022, said Stephan Meier, a Columbia Business School professor who chairs the school’s management division. Some of it could be attributed to return-to-office policies, but it might also be due to growing comfort with vaccination and public-health measures as the pandemic continued, he said.

“What I would care about is who goes to the office and who doesn’t want to go to the office,” he said.

The overall change in numbers is not “a major shift,” said Meier, who teaches students and executives about the future of work. “What those numbers show to me is that the war on remote work is not over.”

The year-over-year decline fits with the trends that Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, is seeing in his own research analyzing where people say they are working these days. Even if there’s less remote work happening, Bloom said, his research shows the “rate of decline is itself declining.”

Bloom thinks the rate of remote work may bottom out next year. “I predict longer-run, from 2025 onwards, this will start to rise again as remote-work technology — hardware, software, [virtual reality, augmented reality], etc. — gets better and continues the long-run rise of [working from home].”

Between May and December 2020, Bureau of Labor Statistics research showed, 42% of employed people said they spent least some of their time working from home as COVID-19 upended daily life.

As a whole, the BLS survey on how Americans use their time paints a picture of a slow return to the office — but not necessarily a return to the way things were before COVID-19.

Before the pandemic, 24% of workers said they spent some of their time working from home, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This year, office foot traffic has edged higher, but the rise is incremental and uneven. Earlier in June, average weekly office occupancy surpassed 50% for the first time in three months, according to an ongoing gauge from Kastle Systems, a security-technology provider.

One week later, the company’s barometer of average occupancy across 10 major cities dropped back below 50%. In the data from early June, Tuesdays tended to be the busiest days for offices, and Fridays were the slowest.

Meier said he wouldn’t be surprised if next year’s time-use survey reveals even less time spent working from home. But this is a transitional moment in which businesses are figuring out the particular version of hybrid work duties and office setups that work for them, he said.

“Personally, I do think there is something magical about being in person,” Meier said. “Does it need to be five days a week? Absolutely not.”

See also: Salesforce is trying a ‘cute gimmick’ to get workers back to the office, but it may fall flat

[ad_2]

Source link

June 23, 2023
U.S. economy running close to 2% growth rate in second quarter, S&P says

[ad_1]

This version corrects the manufacturing PMI data which fell to a six-month low of 46.3 in June from 48.4 in the prior month.

The numbers: The S&P Global “flash” U.S. service sector activity index fell to a 54.1 in June from 54.9 in the prior month, a two-month low.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal has forecast a reading of 53.3.

The S&P Global “flash” U.S. manufacturing sector index, meanwhile, slid to a six-month low of 46.3 from 48.4 in May. Economists had expected a 49 reading.

Readings above 50 signifies expansion; below that, contraction.

Key details: In the services sector, new orders increased at a strong rate in June. The pace of expansion was close to May’s 13-month high.

On the other hand, manufacturers recorded the fastest rate of contraction in new orders since last December. They linked the drop to muted consumer confidence. Foreign client demand was also subdued.

Inflation was seen as moderating. The overall rate of selling prices for goods and services dropped to the lowest level since late 2020.

Big picture: The S&P PMIs try to look ahead at the health of the economy, a critical question with even Federal Reserve officials saying that the outlook for the U.S. is hidden in a fog.

A composite output index from S&P showed the fifth straight month of increases in private sector activity.

What S&P Global said: “The overall rate of expansion of business activity in the
US remained robust in June, consistent with GDP rising at a rate of 1.7% to put second quarter growth in the region of 2%,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global.

Market reaction: Stocks
DJIA,
-0.65%

SPX,
-0.77%
opened lower on Friday on talk of more interest rate hikes from global central banks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
3.741%
fell to 3.72%.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 23, 2023
Why top pick Victor Wembanyama could be worth over $80 million a year to the Spurs

[ad_1]

That’s how Victor Wembanyama introduced himself the day before the NBA draft, when he conducted his first news conference before NBA media. But to talent evaluators, Wembanyama has already emerged as one of the top NBA prospects of a generation with his dominant play for a French professional team this season, and his tantalizing upside on the basketball court.

The 19-year-old, 7-foot-5 Frenchmen — who goes by “Wemby” — was selected with the first pick in the NBA Draft on Thursday night by the San Antonio Spurs, and the team could be set for a huge financial windfall from Wembanyama’s arrival.

The Spurs could see an increase of roughly $8 million-$10 million in season ticket sales, an added $5 million-$10 million in incremental ticket revenue from higher and dynamic pricing, and another $5 million-$10 million in corporate sponsorships, according to Dr. Patrick Rishe, the director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.

“All told, the impact on team revenues in 2023-24 will likely be somewhere in the $20-$50 million range,” Rishe said, while adding that the Spurs may also be able to leverage Wembanyama’s arrival when negotiating its next local TV contract.

See also: Victor Wembanyama: 5 things to know about the generational NBA prospect

Another economics expert thinks Wembanyama’s financial impact on the Spurs could be even higher.

“$80 million a year to the Spurs for the next few years, that was roughly equal to the increase in revenues that we saw when LeBron James moved back from Miami to Cleveland,” Victor Matheson, economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross, told MarketWatch.

NBA first-round draft picks like Wembanyama sign a four-year contract upon entering the league. After that, the team that drafted the player has a significant edge in retaining him on his next contract because they are allowed to give him larger pay raises than any other club. Because of this, young players who turn into superstars rarely leave the teams that drafted them for the first seven years of their career, meaning Wembanyama could pay dividends to the Spurs in the hundreds of millions of dollars if he stays with the team.

See also: LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan: Who is the GOAT when it comes to net worth?

While the Spurs are not for sale, some think Wembanyama’s presence alone will increase that value of the team, which was roughly $2 billion as of 2022 (or 20th in the NBA).

“I suspect that just the cachet of having this player on your team would be the sort of thing that would entice an owner potentially to pay more for the team, because owners in sports aren’t just about dollars and cents, they’re about dollars and cents, and the prestige and the ego that go along with owning an NBA franchise,” said Matheson.

The NBA has complex revenue sharing agreements among teams to help level the financial playing field between the small-market and big-market teams. Because of this agreement, not every dollar Wembanyama makes for the Spurs goes directly to the team.

So it’s clear that Wembanyama could provide a major financial boost for the Spurs. But his immediate impact on the NBA overall might seem small, considering the league made over $10 billion last year, according to Statista. But another area where Wembanyama could help the NBA in a huge way is by unlocking a new audience for NBA games: France.

“A guy like him can certainly open up new markets for you. So obviously, we have had top players from France before like Tony Parker, but this might be maybe a level beyond that,” Matheson said. “And if you could open up a 60 million person country, and all of a sudden make the NBA must-see TV in Paris and not just in the United States, that’s where you can really generate a lot.”

Matheson compared Wembanyama’s arrival to that of China’s Yao Ming coming into the NBA, and Japan’s baseball star Ichiro Suzuki’s arrival in the MLB, which both opened up massive international markets that those leagues didn’t already have a big presence in.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that drafting Wembanyama could add as much as $500 million to the value of an NBA franchise.

But some sports industry experts see Wembanyama’s impact as more muted, noting the possibility that he maybe doesn’t live up to the incredible hype, as well as the limitations of San Antonio’s smaller market size compared to cities like New York.

“This could be a significant turning point for the fortunes of the Spurs, both on and off the court, but it is worth remembering that players are different ‘assets’ than, say, arenas,” Michael Leeds, professor of economics and director of graduate studies at Temple University, told MarketWatch. “There is a lot of uncertainty among even top picks.”

He recalled how Sam Bowie was chosen ahead of Michael Jordan during the 1984 draft, yet Jordan became a superstar, while Bowie did not have much of a basketball career. “A player’s career can be derailed for a lot of reasons,” Leeds added. “I do not think that Wembanyama will have that much of an immediate impact on the financial fortunes of the Spurs.”

See also: Here’s how much Victor Wembanyama and other 2023 NBA draft picks will earn on their rookie contracts

The Spurs are also hurt by their market size in San Antonio, which some say limits their financial upside compared to a bigger market like New York or Los Angeles. San Antonio is the 24th biggest TV market (out of 30) among NBA teams, according to Sports Media Watch.

“The San Antonio market is small and has demographics that generally don’t support the NBA,” Emory University marketing professor Michael Lewis told MarketWatch. “There are markets that could benefit greatly from a generational talent, but the Spurs seem unlikely.”

“It helps the franchise but over the long run players move from place to place,” added Sal Galatioto, the president of Galatioto Sports Partners, who has facilitated over 30 sales of professional sports teams — including the sale of the Golden State Warriors in 2010. “Players get hurt. Players aren’t as good as you think they are.”

Galatioto cited the recent sale of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets at a $3 billion valuation as evidence that franchise appraisals are getting higher, and not much of that increase is based on what happens on the court.

“When was the last time Charlotte won anything?” he asked.

Read on: NBA All-Star Chris Paul on what he looks for in an investment, competing with LeBron James, and his favorite possession

[ad_2]

Source link

June 22, 2023
OceanGate believes all 5 passengers on Titanic exploration sub ‘have sadly been lost’

[ad_1]

All five passengers on the missing submersible that has captured the world’s attention over the past week are believed to “have sadly been lost,” the tour company revealed on Thursday.

OceanGate Expeditions released a statement Thursday afternoon that the Titan submersible’s pilot and the tour company’s chief executive, Stockton Rush, along with passengers including British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, British billionaire businessman Hamish Harding, and Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet have been killed.

Read more: Hamish Harding, Stockton Rush and Dawood father and son presumed dead after missing Titanic exploration sub debris found

“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” OceanGate said in a statement.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”

The company did not release specifics on what led to the “loss of life,” but Rear Adm. John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard revealed during a press conference Thursday afternoon that the debris found in the search area of the missing submersible was consistent with “catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” presumably killing all five people on board.

Also see: Secret Navy listening system detected Titan’s implosion Sunday: report

“Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families,” said Mauger, who has been leading the search. “On behalf of the United States Coast Guard, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.”

The submersible Titan was launched from a hired Canadian research icebreaker, Polar Prince, on Sunday morning to visit the Titanic wreckage site located in a remote area of the North Atlantic. The diving vessel went missing that same morning and was unable to communicate with the surface roughly an hour and 45 minutes after it began its descent, the Coast Guard said. This has spurred a search-and-rescue operation in the ensuing days that amounted to a race against the clock, as the Titan’s estimated 96-hour oxygen supply was expected to run out early Thursday.

See also: U.S. Coast Guard reports identification of a debris field in search area for missing Titan submersible

Plenty of questions remain, including how, why and when this implosion may have happened. Mauger said that it’s still “too early to tell,” as this is “an incredibly complex operating environment on the seafloor over two miles beneath the surface.” But a top-secret U.S. Navy listening system may have detected the implosion of the Titan shortly after its disappearance on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Associated Press contributed.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 22, 2023
Tesla, Nvidia, Spirit Aerosystems, KB Home, Accenture, and More Market Movers

[ad_1]

Stock futures were falling following three straight days of losses for Wall Street. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell again will be delivering testimony before Congress. His comments on Wednesday that the central bank likely would be raising rates further this year pushed markets lower.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 22, 2023
Alibaba, Dice, Arcellx, Avis, PayPal, and More Stock Market Movers
[ad_1]
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-fb3791aa
Updated June 20, 2023 9:56 am ET / Original June 20, 2023 4:49 am ET

Order Reprints

Print Article
[ad_2]

Source link
June 20, 2023
U.S. stock futures slip after three-day break
[ad_1]
U.S. stock index futures slipped lower Tuesday after a three-day break, with Chinese equities wilting on disappointment over the monetary stimulus efforts in the world’s number-two economy.

What’s happening
- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
  YM00,
  -0.31%
  fell 109 points, or 0.3%, to 34,495.
- S&P 500 futures
  ES00,
  -0.26%
  dropped 11 points, or 0.2%, to 4,442.
- Nasdaq 100 futures
  NQ00,
  -0.16%
  decreased 28 points, or 0.1%, to 15,239.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.32%
fell 109 points, or 0.32%, to 34299, the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.37%
declined 16 points, or 0.37%, to 4410, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-0.68%
dropped 93 points, or 0.68%, to 13690.
What’s driving markets

Investors were in a cautious mood following the U.S. long weekend in honor of the Juneteenth federal holiday, but that’s after a strong run. The S&P 500 gained 2.6% last week, its fifth week in a row of gains, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite took its winning run to eight weeks.

Mike Wilson, Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. equity strategist, said both retail and institutional investor sentiment are at their highest levels in over two years.

“We note that the consensus is right about 80% of the time, which means such shifts in sentiment and positioning can often be right as the collective intelligence of the market knows best,” he said. “However, given our fundamental view on growth, we find it hard to get on board with the current excitement and narrative supporting it. In other words, if second half growth re-accelerates as expected, then the bullish narrative being used to support equity prices will be proven correct.”

One event that investors have to weigh is the resumption this fall of student loan payments, and what that may mean for consumers’ disposable income. Student loan payments have been paused since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

China cut its 1- and 5-year lending rates by 10 basis points, which investors viewed to be modest, particularly after a Friday state council meeting didn’t result in other concrete measures. According to Societe Generale, there were expectations the 5-year rate, the benchmark for mortgages, would be cut by 15 basis points.

The Hang Seng
HSI,
-1.54%
fell 1.5% in Hong Kong.

Alibaba
BABA,
-0.11%,
the Chinese internet giant, also was in the spotlight after announcing that its CEO and chairman will step down to focus on the cloud division, with Brooklyn Nets owner Joseph Tsai becoming chairman.

Tuesday’s economic data include housing starts data, which showed a 21.7% rise in May after a revised 2.9% drop in April. Building permits also climbed 5.2% in May.

A panel later Tuesday will include both New York Federal Reserve President John Williams and Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr. On Wednesday Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to deliver semi-annual congressional testimony.

Companies in focus

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
BABA,
-0.11%
shares fell 2.1% in premarket trading after the Chinese e-commerce said Daniel Zhang will step down from chairman and chief executive officer roles. He will stay on to lead the cloud business, due to be spun off.

Nio Inc.
NIO,
-3.98%,
the Chinese EV maker, fell more than 2% , as U.S.-listed stocks played catchup with two days of weakness for China markets. Goldman Sachs cut its growth forecasts for the country and the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday announced cuts in lending rates, the extent of which which disappointed some.

WeWork Inc.
WE,
+13.16%
tumbled 5% as shareholders voted overwhelmingly for a reverse stock split, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday.

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.
SPCE,
+16.50%
shares are more than 1.5% higher in the premarket, continuing a rally from last week. The space travel company is preparing for its first commercial flight later this month.
[ad_2]

Source link
June 20, 2023
Siemens to Boost Manufacturing Capacity With $2.17 Bln Investments

[ad_1]

Siemens set out plans to invest 2 billion euros ($2.17 billion) to boost manufacturing capacity this year, pledging to develop a high-tech plant in Singapore and expand its digital factory in Chengdu, China, to tap growth opportunities in digitalization and automation.

The German industrial conglomerate said Thursday that it would pour around EUR200 million into its new Singapore facility, creating more than 400 jobs. The company will also invest EUR140 million to expand its digital factory in Chengdu, adding another 400 jobs.

…

[ad_2]

Source link

June 14, 2023
Jump in cloud revenue lifts Oracle’s results, and stock gains after hours

[ad_1]

Shares of Oracle Corp. rose after hours Monday after the IT and cloud infrastructure provider reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that topped expectations, helped by a jump in cloud revenue that executives said positioned the company well for the year to come.

The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $3.32 billion, or $1.19 a share, compared with $3.19 billion, or $1.16 a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 17% to $13.84 billion, compared with $11.84 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding stock-based compensation, amortization and other charges, Oracle earned $1.67 a share, compared with $1.54 a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected Oracle to report adjusted earnings per share of $1.58, on revenue of $13.74 billion.

Oracle also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 40 cents a share. Revenue from Oracle’s cloud software and infrastructure services rose 54% during the quarter.

“So, both of our two strategic cloud businesses are getting bigger — and growing faster,” Chief Executive Safra Catz said in a statement. “That bodes well for another strong year in FY24.”

Oracle shares
ORCL,
+5.99%
were up 4.8% after hours on Monday. The stock closed regular trading up 5.8% to $116.43, putting it at a record high.

Prior to the results, analysts were focused on Oracle’s cloud business — which has faced concerns about tighter tech budgets in IT departments as inflation raises concerns about the economy — as well as its AI potential, which has catapulted shares of other tech companies higher. More executives inside and outside of tech, hoping for a similar pop from investors, have been talking about AI on earnings calls more this year.

Earlier on Monday, Wolfe Research upgraded Oracle, saying its cloud business could double its market share by 2025 “on the backs of architectural advantages, partnerships” and generative AI.

UBS analysts also said they expected Oracle to highlight its cloud-AI partnership with chip maker Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+1.84%,
which analysts say is set to benefit from more AI development. Those expectations were confirmed on Monday, when Oracle management name-checked Nvidia in its earnings release.

“Nvidia themselves are using our clusters, including one with more than 4,000 GPUs, for their AI infrastructure,” Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder and chief technology officer, said in the release.

Shares of Oracle have marched 81.7% higher over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 Index
SPX,
+0.93%
has risen 15.7% over that period.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 12, 2023
Here’s where inflation is hurting Americans the most

[ad_1]

Inflation in the U.S. has slowed from a 40-year peak of 9% last year, but prices are still rising rapidly and putting great stress on household budgets.

Topping the list is rent — the single biggest expense for people who don’t own homes. Putting food on the table, caring for young children and owning a car have also become a lot more expensive.

See the accompanying table to view where inflation is hurting Americans the most.

The cost of groceries isn’t rising as fast as it was last year, but putting food on the table is much more expensive now compared to a few years ago.

frederic j. brown/AFP/Getty Images

The latest consumer price index, due Tuesday, is likely to show a further slowdown in inflation. Yet the cost of many goods and services remains stubbornly high and isn’t coming down as fast as the Federal Reserve would like.

The Fed will meet Wednesday to weigh whether to raise interest rates for the 11th straight time since the spring of 2022. Wall Street widely expects the central bank will pause or skip a rate hike this month to see how much its prior increases are cooling off the economy.

The rate of inflation, based on the CPI, has decelerated to a yearly pace of 4.9% as of April.

The core rate that excludes food and energy has tapered off to 5.5% yearly pace from a peak of 6.6% last fall.

The bad news for the Fed is that core inflation, viewed as a more accurate predictor of future inflation trends, has gotten stuck at an uncomfortably high level.

The core rate has been flat at 5.5% to 5.6% since the start of the year, leaving it well above the central bank’s long-run target of 2% inflation.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 12, 2023
How a hawkish Fed could kill a baby bull-market rally in U.S. stocks

[ad_1]

It is the notion that the Federal Reserve could deliver a hawkish jolt to markets even if it refrains from raising rates when its two-day policy meeting ends on Wednesday.

There are concerns that such an outcome could spark a turnaround in U.S. stocks, especially if an uncomfortably strong reading on May inflation — due this coming Tuesday just as the Fed’s policy meeting is slated to begin — pushes the central bank toward something even more extreme, like delivering a rate increase on Wednesday despite intimating that it plans to abstain.

The May consumer-price index is forecast to rise 4.0% for the year, down from a rise of 4.9%, while the core index, excluding food and energy prices, is seen easing to a rise of 5.3% from 5.5%.

On the other hand, signs that the economy has weakened and inflation has continued to fade would help the Fed to justify skipping a rate increase in June — as several senior officials have suggested it will — while signaling that a potential hike at its following meeting in July could be the final increase for the cycle.

“Softening U.S. data should support calls that a June skip could eventually turn into a July pause. Next week, most of the data is expected to remain weak or little changed: retail sales could be flat m/m, the Fed regional surveys should remain in negative territory, and consumer sentiment will waver,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA, in emailed commentary.

See: The Fed’s crystal ball on inflation appears off the mark again. Here’s comes another fix.

Wednesday’s meeting comes at a critical time for the market. U.S. stocks have powered ahead for more than six months, with the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.11%
having risen more than 20% off its Oct. 12 closing low, according to FactSet. Just this past week, the index exited bear-market territory for the first time in a year.

The index is up 12% so far in 2023, reversing some of its 19.4% decline from 2022, its biggest calendar-year drop since 2008, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

So far this year, highflying tech stocks have helped to paper over weakness in other areas of the market. This has started to change over the past two weeks, as small-cap and value-stocks have lurched suddenly higher, but there are fears that the Fed could hurt the most interest-rate sensitive technology names if Chairman Jerome Powell hints at rates rising higher than investors presently anticipate.

The so-called “Megacap eight” stocks — a group that includes both classes of Alphabet Inc. stock
GOOG,
+0.16%

GOOGL,
+0.07%,
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.47%,
Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+4.06%,
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.47%,
Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
+2.60%,
Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
+0.68%,
Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
+0.14%
— have driven nearly all of the S&P 500’s gains this year, according to Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, who included his analysis in a note to clients.

But since the beginning of June, the Russell 2000
RUT,
-0.80%,
a gauge of small-cap stocks in the U.S., has risen more than 6.6%, according to FactSet data. The Russell 1000 Value Index
RLV,
-0.15%
has also gained nearly 3.7% in that time. During this period, both have outperformed the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.16%,
although the Nasdaq remains the market leader, having risen 26.7% since Jan. 1.

Concerns about the Fed’s plans intensified this week after the Bank of Canada delivered a surprise interest-rate hike, ending a four-month pause. The BOC’s decision followed a similar move by the Reserve Bank of Australia, and partly as a result, U.S. Treasury yields rose and tech-heavy stocks tumbled, with the Nasdaq logging its biggest drop since April 25, according to FactSet.

While small-caps held up amid the chaos, the reaction stoked fears that something similar might be in store for markets when the Fed delivers its latest decision on interest rates Wednesday.

Consequences of a ‘hawkish pause’

Stocks could be in for more turbulence if the Fed signals it plans to follow the BOC and RBA with a hawkish surprise of its own. And it wouldn’t necessarily need to hike rates to pull this off, market strategists said.

Emerging signs of complacency in the market could complicate its reaction. That the Cboe Volatility Index has fallen back below 15
VIX,
+1.32%
for the first time since before the arrival of COVID-19 is one such sign that investors aren’t worried enough about a potential selloff, said Miller Tabak + Co.’s Chief Market Strategist Matt Maley.

Another analyst likened the potential fallout from a hawkish Fed to the bad old days of 2022.

“If the Fed signals that rates will be going up again, the market playbook could read more like 2022 than what we have seen so far in 2023,” said Will Rhind, the founder and CEO of GraniteShares, during a phone interview with MarketWatch.

Perhaps the biggest wild card is Tuesday’s inflation report. If the numbers come in hot, Powell and his peers could face pressure to hike rates without priming the market first.

For this reason, Rhind believes investors are underestimating the likelihood of a hike next week, even as Fed funds futures currently see a roughly 70% probability that the central bank will stand pat, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.

And Rhind isn’t the only one. Leslie Falconio, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, says the Tuesday inflation report could be a make-or-break moment for markets, summing up fears expressed elsewhere on Wall Street in a recent note to clients.

“We believe another rate increase is on the table, and that the CPI release on 13 June, a day before the Fed decision, will be decisive. In our view, another hike won’t have a material impact on the pace of economic growth,” Falconio said.

What should investors watch out for?

Assuming the Fed does forego a hike in June, there are a few key tells that investors should watch for to determine whether a “hawkish pause” is under way.

Perhaps the most important will be how the Fed handles changes to its closely watched “dot plot.” A modestly higher median dot would send an unmistakable signal to the market that the Fed will continue with its campaign of tightening monetary policy, perhaps to the detriment of the market, said Patrick Saner, head of macro strategy at the Swiss Re Institute.

“If the Fed skips but wanted to avoid the impression of the hiking cycle being done, it would need to include a revision of the dot plot. They could justify that with a more resilient GDP forecast and a higher inflation outlook. So I think it is the dots and then the statement that will be in focus,” Saner said during a phone interview with MarketWatch.

Beyond that, whatever the Fed does or says will likely be viewed through the lens of economic data that is due out next week. In addition to the Tuesday inflation report, a report on May retail sales is due out Thursday, and a on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan will land on Friday. All these data points could influence investors’ impressions of the state of the U.S. economy, and their expectations for how the Fed will behave as a result.

See also: Puzzled by the ebb and flow of recession worries? Then the MarketWatch weekly recession worry gauge is for you.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 11, 2023
U.S. jobless claims leap to nearly two-year high of 261,000

[ad_1]

The numbers: The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits in early June jumped to a nearly two-year high of 261,000, but most of the increase took place in just two states: Ohio and California.

New jobless claims in the seven days ended June 3 climbed by 28,000 from the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The figures are seasonally adjusted.

Layoffs rose early in the year and pushed jobless claims above 200,000, but until this week, Jobless claims has barely changed since the spring and indicated that layoffs remained low.

Key details: Of the 53 U.S. states and territories that report jobless claims, 27 showed an increase last week. The other 26 posted a decline.

Most of the increase was in California and Ohio. Minnesota also saw a sizable increase.

Actual or unadjusted claims surged by 6,345 in Ohio to 16,717 — an unusually large gain.

And they rose by 5,173 to 48,750 in California, the state with by far the largest number of jobless claims. That could reflect tech-related layoffs.

Yet lots of states, including California, have suffered from a flood of fraudulent claims since the pandemic. Massive fraud in Massachusetts, for instanced, skewed the national jobless claims totals from March through May.

Before seasonal adjustments, new U.S. jobless claims were a much smaller 219,391 last week. That was up from 208,856 in the prior week.

The Memorial Day holiday may have also influenced new filings. Some people either delay or accelerate their claims applications around a holiday.

The number of people collecting unemployment benefits in the U.S., meanwhile, fell by 37,000 to 1.76 million.

A gradual increase in these so-called continuing claims over the past year suggests it’s taking longer for people who lose their jobs to find new ones.

Big picture: Unemployment claims typically begin to rise when the economy is deteriorating and a recession is approaching. The latest increase could be a red flag, but it will take a series of higher readings to cement the case.

Still, the increase in claims could give the Federal Reserve more reason to “skip” another increase in U.S. interest rates when senior officials meet next week.

Wall Street widely expects the Fed to stay put to give it more time to evaluate the economy and gauge how quickly inflation is slowing after a series of rate hikes over the past year. The Fed hopes the labor market will cool off further and reduce the upward pressure on wages.

Looking ahead: “The latest reading reflects a holiday-shortened week, which ought to raise suspicions that the big move was more noise than signal,” said chief economist Stephen Stanley of Santander Capital Markets. “I am eager to see next week’s reading before I draw any conclusions.”

“Rising initial jobless claims is a classic leading indicator of a recession, but a one-week jump is too little data to call a trend,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.44%
and S&P 500
SPX,
+0.40%
were narrowly mixed in Thursday trades.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 8, 2023
Apple’s new Vision Pro headset will cost $3,499, arrive in 2024

[ad_1]

Apple Inc. officially showed off its mixed-reality headset Monday, with the new Vision Pro device supporting 3-D content and featuring a price tag of $3,499.

The Vision Pro, Apple’s
AAPL,
-0.76%
first major new product category in eight years, will be available early next year and feature the ability for users to control the device with their hands, eyes and voice, a distinguishing feature of the headset in the current market. Chief Executive Tim Cook previewed the widely anticipated device during the keynote address of Apple’s WWDC developer event Monday.

See also: Here are all the new software features coming to Apple’s iPhone this year

Apple had been rumored for years to be developing a mixed-reality headset, which merges immersive augmented reality with real-life surroundings. Cook has long been excited about AR technology, and Monday’s event gave a sense for how he sees the theme playing into the business going forward as he announced WWDC’s “one more thing.”

“It’s the first Apple product you look through and not at,” he said, adding that Vision Pro represents “spatial computing” and brings “a new dimension to powerful personal technology.”

Users will be “no longer limited by a display,” Cook claimed.

See also: Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why consumers would want a mixed-reality headset

One key feature of the Vision Pro is the ability to see apps overlaid across real-world surroundings. Users will be able to determine how immersed they want to be by tweaking settings on a digital crown.

The device will also allow users to rely only on their eyes, hands and voice to control content. Users can flick to scroll through options and tap their fingers together to select something with gestures that Apple says are subtle. Apple showed off how users will be able to arrange apps like FaceTime and Safari and then turn to the side to switch from one app to another. Their eyes will still be visible to people engaging with them in the real world.

The company highlighted panoramic photos and noted that users will be able to capture “spatial” 3-D videos and photos using the headset. Apple teased that people would be able to make the surroundings of a plane disappear if they opted to watch 3-D video while flying.

Robert Iger, Walt Disney Co.’s
DIS,
+0.25%
CEO, appeared onstage to call the launch a “momentous event” that could help make Disney’s vision “a reality” through the advent of deeply immersive and personal stories. The Disney+ app will be available “on day one” through Vision Pro.

Apple explained that users can either plug the Vision Pro in or use an external battery that will provide roughly two hours of use. The display has “more panels than a 4K TV for each eye.” The Vision Pro relies on Apple’s custom processing, including a new R1 chip that the company says helps reduce latency issues, which have plagued other devices.

Users will be able to set up digital personas as part of the new visionOS operating system for the device.

With the Vision Pro, Apple is wading into a market for augmented- and virtual-reality devices that has been underwhelming thus far as products from Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
-0.45%
and others have failed to pick up meaningful traction with consumers. VR devices dominate the market, according to third-party data from IDC, but overall shipments plunged more than 50% in the latest quarter amid economic pressures and a general cooling of interest.

Read: Apple debuts new 15-inch MacBook Air for $1,299, adds new Mac Pro and Studio PCs

While Apple is sitting on a number of multibillion-dollar businesses now, the company’s current big moneymakers weren’t seen as slam dunks when they launched. Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani noted that critics dinged the early iPhone for a lack of third-party apps and keyboard and pointed to fading interest in watch-wearing more generally at the time the Apple Watch debuted.

Whether Apple can succeed again in making a once-questioned product category mainstream remains to be seen with the Vision Pro. The company could sell over 10 million units in the first five years, according to Daryanani, but that would make the device Apple’s slowest to ramp in the 21st century.

See more: Apple could be cooking up 3 more $10 billion-plus businesses, one analyst says

[ad_2]

Source link

June 5, 2023
Mike Pence classified-documents investigation closed by Justice Department with no criminal charges

[ad_1]

NEW YORK (AP) — The Department of Justice has informed former Vice President Mike Pence ‘s legal team that it will not pursue criminal charges related to the discovery of classified documents at his Indiana home.

The department sent a letter to Pence’s attorney on Thursday informing him that, after an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, no criminal charges will be sought.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 2, 2023
The debt ceiling deal: This clause is bad for Social Security

[ad_1]

If there were no tax cheats in America, there would be no Social Security crisis. Benefits could be paid, and payroll taxes kept the same, for the next 75 years.

That’s not me talking. That’s math. It comes from the number crunchers at the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

And it explains why those of us who support Social Security should be pounding the table in outrage over one clause of the Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal: The part where the president has to retreat from his crackdown on tax cheats just so McCarthy and the House Republicans would agree to prevent America defaulting on its debts.

It’s just two years since the administration got into law an extra $80 billion for the IRS to beef up enforcement. That was supposed to include hiring an estimated 87,000 IRS agents.

OK, so nobody likes paying taxes and nobody likes the IRS. Cue the inevitable critiques of an IRS tax “army,” and so on. But this isn’t about whether taxes should be higher or lower. It’s about whether everyone should pay the taxes that they owe.

After all, if we’re going to cut taxes, shouldn’t they apply to those of us who obey the laws as well as those who don’t? Or do we just support the “Tax Cuts for Criminals” Act?

Why would any voter rally around a platform of “I stand with tax cheats?”

The Congressional Budget Office calculated that the extra funding for the IRS would have reduced the deficit, because it would more than pay for itself. But it’s now been cut by an estimated $21 billion out of $80 billion.

If this seems abstract, consider the context and how it affects you and your retirement — and the retirements of everyone you know.

Social Security is now running at an $80 billion annual deficit. That’s the amount benefits are expected to exceed payroll taxes this year. (So say the Social Security Administration’s trustees.)

Next year, that deficit is expected to top $150 billion. By 2026, we’re looking at $200 billion and rising. The trust fund will run out of cash by 2034, and without extra payroll taxes will have to slash benefits by a fifth or more.

Over the next 75 years, says the Congressional Budget Office, the entire funding gap for the program will average about 1.7% of gross domestic product per year.

Meanwhile, how much are tax cheats stealing from the rest of us? A multiple of that.

According to the most recent estimates from the IRS, tax cheats steal about $470 billion a year. And that figure is four years out of date, relating to 2019. That’s the figure after enforcement measures.

Oh, and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says that’s a lowball number.

But it still worked out at around 12% of all the taxes people were supposed to pay (including payroll taxes). And around 2.3% of GDP.

Over the next 10 years, based on similar ratios to GDP, that would come to another $3.3 billion.

Sure, Social Security’s trust fund is theoretically separate from the rest of Uncle Sam’s finances. But that’s an accounting issue: A distinction without a difference.

Social Security is America’s retirement plan. Few could retire in dignity without it. Yet it is facing a fiscal crisis. By 2034, without changes, the program will be forced to cut benefits — drastically.

Some people want to cut benefits. Others want to raise the retirement age, which also means cutting benefits. Others want to raise taxes on benefits — which also means cutting benefits. Others want to hike payroll taxes, either on all of us or (initially) only on very high earners.

At last — just 40 or so years out of date — some are starting to talk about investing some of the trust fund like nearly every other pension plan in the world, in high-returning stocks instead of just low-returning Treasury bonds.

(It is hard for me to believe that it’s now almost 16 years since I first wrote about this ridiculously obvious fix And, yes, I’ve been boring readers on the subject ever since, including here and most recently here, and, no, I have no plans to stop.)

But if investing some of the trust fund in stocks is a no-brainer, so, too, is insisting everyone obey the law and pay the taxes they actually owe each year. I mean, shouldn’t we do that before we think about raising taxes even further on those who abide by the law?

How could anyone object? Any party that believes in law and order would support enforcing, er, law and order on tax evasion. And any party of fiscal conservatism would support measures, like tax enforcement, to narrow the deficit.

And, actually, any party that truly supported lower taxes for all would be tough on tax evasion: It is precisely this $500 billion in evasion by a small, scofflaw minority that forces the rest of us to pay more. We have, quite literally, a tax on obeying the law.

One of the many arguments in favor of taxing assets or wealth, instead of just income, is that enforcement would be easier and evasion much harder.

Washington, D.C., seems to be a place where people come up with complex proposals just so they can avoid the simple, fair ones.

[ad_2]

Source link

May 30, 2023
U.S. consumer sentiment rebounds slightly in late May, but worries persist

[ad_1]

The numbers: The final reading of a consumer-sentiment survey in May rebounded slightly to 59.2, but Americans remained worried about the future of the economy, especially against the backdrop of another fight in Washington over the debt ceiling.

The index, produced by the University of Michigan, registered a six-month low of 57.7 earlier in May. The index sank from 62 in April.

The consumer-sentiment survey reveals how consumers feel about their own finances as well as the broader economy.

Americans are worried about the possibility of recession and threat posed by a stalemate in talks between Democrats and Republicans on raising the U.S. debt limit. A similar impasse in 2011 also hurt consumer sentiment.

Sentiment is far below a recent peak of 88.3 in 2021 and a prepandemic high of 101. The index dropped to an all-time low of 50 last summer.

Key details: A gauge that measures what consumers think about the current state of the economy edged up to 64.9 from an initial 64.5 in May.

A measure that asks about expectations for the next six months also partly recovered to 55.4 from a preliminary 53.4 in May.

Both indexes are still quite low, however.

Inflation expectations haven’t changed much. Americans also think inflation will average just above 3% annually in the next five years.

Big picture: Higher borrowing costs have depressed purchases of houses and many other big-ticket items and put the brakes on U.S. growth. Yet even though the economy is more fragile now, there’s still no sign of a pending recession.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+1.00%
and S&P 500
SPX,
+1.30%
rose in Friday trades.

[ad_2]

Source link

May 26, 2023
Amazon Was the Rare AI and Cloud Play Left Out of the Nvidia Bump. Here’s Why.
[ad_1]
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/amazon-misses-rally-8a6e2511
Updated May 25, 2023 6:10 pm ET / Original May 25, 2023 5:55 pm ET

Order Reprints

Print Article
[ad_2]

Source link
May 25, 2023
Gas will be much cheaper this Memorial Day Weekend. Now, for all the bad news.

[ad_1]

Traveling this Memorial Day Weekend? Put some deep breaths on your checklist.

Americans should brace for jammed highways and long airport lines with more people projected to drive and fly this holiday weekend compared to last year, experts say.

Gas is $1 cheaper than it was at the same point last year and airline passengers aren’t flinching from pricey tickets, still powered by the pent-up demand to see family and friends as the pandemic recedes.

“The roads are going to be pretty packed,” said AAA spokeswoman Aixa Diaz. “The bottom line is, the later you wait in the day, the worse it is — unless you drive at night.”

“If there ever was a time you wanted to get to the airport early, it’s this one,” she added.

“Whether driving or flying, pack your patience and prepare for heavy traffic on the road and at the airport,” said Erika Richter, spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel Advisors.

“AAA is projecting that 37.1 million people will be driving at least 50 miles this upcoming weekend. That’s 2 million more people traveling by automobile compared to last year.”

AAA is projecting that 37.1 million people will be driving at least 50 miles this upcoming weekend. That’s 2 million more people traveling by automobile compared to last year.

They’ll be driving on cheaper gas. Nationally, a gallon of gas averaged $3.57 on Thursday, down from $4.59 one year ago, AAA said.

Read also: Why this falling fuel price is stoking recession fears even as prime gas-demand season nears

Meanwhile, nearly 3.4 million airline passengers are projected to fly this weekend, according to AAA. That would surpass pre-pandemic levels, when 3.2 million people flew over the Memorial Day Weekend in 2019.

All together, 42.3 million people are expected to travel this weekend via cars, planes, buses, trains, according to AAA estimates. That’s higher than the 39.6 million who traveled last Memorial Day Weekend, and just under 2019 levels.

Three major airlines, American Airlines
AAL,
+4.20%,
United
UAL,
+1.76%
and Delta Air Lines
DAL,
+2.35%,
are expected to handle nearly 60% of the flights, according to a Thursday note from TD Cowen.

Like others, analysts at TD Cowen, a division of TD Securities, say it’s going to be a brisk summer travel season.

“We continue to see strong demand for air travel, with this summer’s focus on international [travel]. Remember, the U.S. government did not eliminate testing until mid-June last year, after most people planned their vacations,” they wrote.

Related: Is it possible to book a cheap summer flight? Here are 5 tricks to save money.

When to expect the worst?

Friday is the day when roads and airports are going to be the busiest.

On the roads, congestion is going to peak that day from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., according to INRIX, a traffic-data analytics firm.

Inside airports, approximately 2.6 million people will pass through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints that day, the agency said.

During last year’s Memorial Day Weekend, 2.38 million people passed through TSA checkpoints, the agency’s data showed.

Teens, aged 13-17, can now go with TSA PreCheck-enrolled parents and guardians, when they are on the same reservation and when the TSA PreCheck indicator shows on the child’s pass. Children ages 12 and under can still walk through checkpoints with their enrolled parents or guardians.

Once getting on the plane, don’t count on having a nearby spare seat. Seating capacity is currently slated to be 17% higher than last Memorial Day Weekend, according to the travel app Hopper.com.

This weekend, last-minute tickets are averaging $273, and that’s around $100 less than ticket-price averages at the same point last year and slightly cheaper than 2019 levels, Hopper.com’s data said. International travel is a different story. Fares to Europe, for example, are more than 50% higher than last year, according to Hopper.com.

What happens after Friday?

On the roads, there’s little extra traffic expected on Saturday and Sunday, according to projections from INRIX, a transportation analytics company. On Monday, the worst traveling time is 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. The window for less traffic that day is before 10 a.m., INRIX noted.

As for flights, Richter said airlines and operators “are obligated to share the latest information if it impacts your travel.”

Downloading smartphone apps for your airline, activating the notifications and opting for text and email alerts will also help keep you abreast of any last-minute changes, she said.

Through March, less than 2% of scheduled domestic flights have been canceled, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday. That’s below last year’s 2.7% cancellation average and the 4.1% rate for the first three months of 2022, the department noted.

A Transportation Department dashboard shows which airline carriers have committed to passenger-friendly accommodations when delays and cancellations occur. For example, some — but not all — airlines will rebook your flight with a partner airline at no additional cost.

But Richter said the volume and potentials for travel snags this Memorial Day Weekend could be a preview for the months to come. “Travel delays will be inevitable this summer, so make sure you are planning ahead,” she said.

[ad_2]

Source link

May 25, 2023