ReportWire

Tag: Investment strategy

  • Trump threatens to sue JPMorgan Chase for ‘debanking’ him

    [ad_1]

    Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorganChase, speaks during the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, U.S. December 6, 2025.

    Jonathan Alcorn | Reuters

    President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to sue JPMorgan Chase over allegedly “debanking” him following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

    “I’ll be suing JPMorgan Chase over the next two weeks for incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKING me after the January 6th Protest, a protest that turned out to be correct for those doing the protesting,” Trump said in a social media post. “The Election was RIGGED!”

    “While we won’t get specific about a client, we don’t close accounts because of political beliefs,” said JPMorgan spokesperson Trish Wexler. “We appreciate that this Administration has moved to address political debanking and we support those efforts.”

    In August, Trump signed an executive order requiring banks to ensure they are not refusing financial services to clients based on religious or political beliefs, a practice known as “debanking.”

    Trump claimed without evidence in an August CNBC interview that he was personally discriminated against by banks. He said JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America refused to take his deposits following his first term in office.

    At the time, JPMorgan said it does not close accounts for political reasons, while Bank of America said it doesn’t comment on client matters. BofA also said it would welcome clearer rules from regulators on how to conduct its activities.

    Trump and his family have a history of railing against financial institutions for allegedly refusing to work with them on the basis of their political orientation.

    Last year, Donald Trump Jr. said his family had difficulty accessing big bank services — a situation that allegedly prompted the Trumps to enter the cryptocurrency industry.

    “So, [my family] got into crypto, not because it was like, ‘hey, this is the next cool thing,’ we got into it out of necessity,” Trump Jr. told CNBC in an interview last June.

    JPMorgan shares are down about 5% over the past week, even after the bank on Tuesday topped expectations for its fourth-quarter earnings and revenue. The shares, and others in the banking sector, fell in response to Trump’s demand to cap credit card rates at 10%, giving financial firms until Jan. 20 to comply.

    Trump’s legal threat against JPMorgan comes as the president, in the same Truth Social post, denied a Journal report on Wednesday that said the president had offered JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon the position of Federal Reserve chairman months ago during a meeting at the White House.

    Dimon took the proposition as a joke, according to the Journal report.

    In his post, Trump denied the report, underscoring his reservations about Dimon and JPMorgan.

    “This statement is totally untrue, there was never such an offer,” he wrote. “Why wouldn’t The Wall Street Journal call me to ask whether or not such an offer was made? I would have very quickly told them, “NO,” and that would have been the end of the story.”

    JPMorgan’s Wexler said the “offer” reported by the Journal was a miscommunication. “I should have been more vigilant in correcting that word while attempting to dispute the WSJ’s anonymous sources,” she said.

    The Journal did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.

    Current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s term ends on May 15.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Meet the self-made billionaire who bought a nearly bankrupt company off Warren Buffett for $1,000 and turned it into a $98 billion giant | Fortune

    [ad_1]

    A small investment made at the right moment has the power to launch ordinary people to millionaire status. All it took was $1,000 and an out-there idea for Jeffrey Sprecher, the founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, to set his business on a path to becoming a $98 billion behemoth.

    “I had this idea that you should be able to trade electric power, buy and sell electric power, on an exchange,” Sprecher recalled recently at the Rotary Club Of Atlanta. But there was a huge caveat: He “had no idea how to do that. I’d never worked on Wall Street, I never traded.” 

    At the time, Sprecher had heard that Continental Power Exchange—owned by Warren Buffett’s electric utility company, MidAmerican Energy—was about to go bankrupt. Despite Buffett’s business pumping $35 million into it, the company was still struggling. And so Sprecher saw this as an opportune moment to swoop in and pursue his entrepreneurial vision. 

    “I bought the company for a dollar a share, and there were a thousand shares. So I bought it for $1,000, and I used that as the basis to build Intercontinental Exchange.”

    Thanks to his quick thinking and business savvy, Sprecher now boasts a net worth of $1.3 billion. But the journey to the top was not very glamorous. 

    Living in a 500-ft studio and driving a used car while scaling the business 

    That measly $1,000 investment made back in 1997 served as the launchpad for Intercontinental Exchange, founded just three years later. A small team of nine employees set off to build the technology in 2000; setting up shop in Atlanta, Georgia, Sprecher and his staffers went all-in on building the business up from its former demise. 

    It was all hands on deck, and even as the founder and CEO, Sprecher was doing the menial labor to keep everything in order. With money being tight, the entrepreneur lived in a small apartment and drove a used car to the office to keep Intercontinental Energy afloat.

    “I bought a 500-foot, one room studio apartment in Midtown…I bought a used car that I kept and I’d go into the office from time to time,” Sprecher explained, adding that he “took the trash out, shut the lights out, answered the phone, bought the staplers and the paper for the photocopier. That was the way the company started.”

    Nearly 26 years later, the company boasts a market cap of $98 billion and a team of more than 12,000 employees—and has proudly owned the NYSE for over a decade. 

    Entrepreneurs who made a key investment at the right moment

    Some of the wealthiest entrepreneurs made their billions by spotting the perfect window to invest small and earn big. 

    Take Kenn Ricci as an example: the serial American aviation businessman and chairman of private jet company Flexjet is a billionaire thanks to his intuition to buy a struggling business four decades ago. After being put on leave from his first pilot job out of the Air Force, he turned a sticky situation into a 10-figure fortune.

    “I worked for [airline] Northwest Orient for a brief period of time. I get furloughed. Unemployed, back living with my parents,” Ricci told the Wall Street Journal in a 2025 interview, reminiscing on how he made his first $1 million.

    But instead of throwing in the towel, he spotted a golden opportunity. Ricci took a contract pilot job at Professional Flight Crews, and one of the companies he flew for was private aviation company Corporate Wings. The budding businessman was intrigued when its owners put the business up for sale at $27,500 in 1981—and jumped on the opportunity to buy it. By the early 1990s, the business was pulling in $3 million a year.

    But people don’t need to buy and scale a company to make a worthwhile investment; millennial investing wiz Martin Mignot became a self-made millionaire thanks to his ability to spot unicorn companies before they make it big. One of his biggest wins was an early investment in Deliveroo—back when the business was just a small, London-based operation. 

    “They had eight employees. They were in three London boroughs. Overall, they had a few 1000 users to date, so it was very, very early,” Mignot told Fortune last year. “They didn’t have an app. Their first website was pretty terrible and ugly, if I’m frank, but the delivery experience was incredible.”

    Lo and behold, Deliveroo grew to become a $3.5 billion company with millions of global customers. And as a partner at Index Ventures, Mignot is part of a team reaping billion-dollar rewards from forward-thinking investments in tech businesses including Figma, Scale AI, and Wiz. Aside from his day job, Mignot has also strategically put money towards iconic European start-ups including Revolut, Trainline and Personio. Before he was even 30, he solidified himself as a notable investor—and advised others that “It’s about owning equity, that is the key.”

    [ad_2]

    Emma Burleigh

    Source link

  • Logan Paul auctions off $5.3 million Pokémon card, pushing for young people to invest more in nontraditional assets: ‘Don’t be afraid to take a risk’ | Fortune

    [ad_1]

    We’ve all heard the traditional advice that the best investments are those made in the stock market, saving in a 401(k), and buying a house. But younger generations have started touting nontraditional investments like buying a Birkin bag or other collectibles as a surefire way to bring in extra bucks. 

    Influencer and WWE wrestler Logan Paul recently said going beyond normal investments can be worth it.

    “If you’re young, there are ways to spend and invest your money in ways that might mean more to you than in a traditional conservative environment like the stock market,” he said on Fox Business’s “The Big Money Show” on Tuesday.

    And Paul has certainly gone down the nontraditional path for investing: He recently put up a rare Pokémon card for auction that he bought in 2022 for $5.3 million. The former WWE United States Champion actually used to wear the card—which he says is “the rarest card in the world” and the “Holy Grail”—around his neck during competitions. The card is a PSA-graded 10 Pikachu Illustrator, and only a few dozen copies exist worldwide. But Paul’s card is the only one to receive a 10/10 grade from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). 

    Paul said he plans to auction the card in early 2026 and estimates it will sell for between $7 million and $12 million, which would bank him about $2 million to $7 million. He also argued collectibles like Pokémon cards have “outperformed” the stock market during the last two decades. 

    “If you have the money, don’t be afraid to take a risk, especially if you’re young,” Paul said. 

    Are collectibles really a good investment?

    According to global wealth management firm AES, collectibles like wine, manuscripts, vintage cars, rare pieces of art, and more can produce a “reasonable” return for investors, but they often don’t come with the same long-term gains of investing in stocks. 

    Between 1900 and 2012, collectibles produced a nominal annual return of 6.4% and a real return of 2.4%, according to the AES report.

    “Although the return is reasonable, it’s far lower than the long-term rewards of investing in the equity market,” AES CEO Sam Instone wrote. But, “that’s not to say these collectible items are not for certain investors.”

    Still, Gen Z men have become obsessed with investing in these collectibles, which some argue will beat Nvidia stock and the S&P 500. And they could have a point: Pokémon cards have seen the largest long-term increase in value among all card categories. They’re up 3,261% in the past 20 years, according to data provided to Fortune’s Preston Fore from Card Ladder. Even a one-year investment is up 46%, which is higher than Nvidia’s 35% jump and the S&P 500’s 17% year-to-date increase. 

    “The trading card hobby has entered a new era, driven by technology, innovation, community, and a great balance of modern creativity–with new sets, storylines and characters–alongside good old nostalgia,” Adam Ireland, VP and GM of global collectibles at eBay, previously told Fortune. He also said eBay users searched for “Pokemon” nearly 14,000 times per hour in 2024.

    Other collectibles like the Hermes Birkin bag have caught the attention of young investors, who have argued buying one can be more valuable than investing in gold. But recent reports have shown these rare handbags don’t have the same return-on-investment they once did. The average resale premium for Birkin and Kelly bags—a metric that compares the auction price to its retail cost—has fallen from 2.2 times its original value in 2022 to 1.4 times as of November, according to Bernstein Research’s Secondhand Pricing Tracker. To put that in perspective, a Birkin bag originally bought for $10,000 and resold in 2022 would have cost more than $22,000, but a bag originally retailing for the same price and resold today would be worth just $14,000.

    Overall, although investing in collectibles can end in a big payday, they can also be a very risky investment because of liquidity risks, concentration risks, costs and upkeep, the potential for a bubble, and tax treatment, according to an analysis by The Economic Times.

    “It’s also true that some people generate income regularly buying and selling collectibles,” according to Consumers Credit Union. “However, fortunes are determined by the whims of buyers along with the rising and falling popularity of particular items. While the stock market may have a down year, over time it trends to higher value.”

    [ad_2]

    Sydney Lake

    Source link

  • Apple is ramping up succession plans for CEO Tim Cook and may tap this hardware exec to take over, report says | Fortune

    [ad_1]

    Apple’s board of directors and senior executives have been accelerating succession plans for Tim Cook, sources told the Financial Times.

    After serving as CEO for 14 years, Cook may step down as early as next year, the report said.

    Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, 50-year-old John Ternus, is widely seen as the most likely successor, but no final decisions have been made yet, sources told the FT.

    The engineer joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and has overseen hardware engineering for most major products the tech company has launched ever since, according to Ternus’ LinkedIn profile.

    He has also played a prominent role during Apple’s most recent keynotes, introducing products like the new iPhone Air. Ternus had been rumored to be Cook’s potential successor, according to previous reports. 

    The company is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, and an early-year announcement would allow a new leadership team time to settle in before its annual events, the FT said. 

    The succession preparations have been long-planned and are not related to the company’s current performance, which is expecting strong end-of-year sales, people close to Apple told the FT.

    Apple did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment and declined to provide a comment to the FT.

    The $4 trillion company is expecting year-on-year revenue growth of 10% to 12% for its holiday quarter ending in December, fueled by the release of the iPhone 17 model in September.

    Ternus would take the helm of the tech giant at an important time in its evolution. Although Apple has seen sales success with iPhones and new products like Airpods over the past couple of decades, it has struggled to break into AI and keep up with rivals.

    Instead, Apple has even spending significantly less in AI investments compared to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft. 

    Apple has been criticized by analysts this year for not having a clear AI strategy. And despite approving a multibillion-dollar budget to run its own models via the cloud in 2026, it was reported in June that Apple is even considering using models from OpenAI and Anthropic to power its updated version of Siri, rather than using technology the company has built in-house. 

    Its AI-enabled Siri, originally slated for 2025, will be delayed until 2026 or later due to a series of technical challenges, the company announced earlier this year.

    Apple has also lost a number of senior AI team members since January, many of whom have joined Meta’s AI and Superintelligence Labs during talent poaching wars this year. The exodus of Apple’s AI execs included Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple’s foundation models and core generative AI team, who joined Meta with a compensation package reportedly worth $200 million.

    The company is also dealing with increased competition from one of its most influential former employees.

    In May, Sam Altman’s OpenAI acquired startup io for about $6.5 billion, bringing in former Apple chief designer Jony Ive to build AI devices. The 58-year-old designer was instrumental in creating the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. 

    Cook, Apple’s former operations chief, turned 65 this month. He has grown the company’s market capitalization to $4 trillion from $350 billion in 2011, when he took over the CEO role from company co-founder Steve Jobs.

    Under Cook, Apple became the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018—then it became the first company to reach $3 trillion in market cap in 2022.

    But more recently, its stock price has been lagging behind Big Tech rivals Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft, though Apple is trading close to an all-time high after strong earnings were reported in October.

    Apple has also dealt with tariff complications as U.S.-China trade tensions have disrupted its supply chain.

    Cook has previously said he’d prefer an internal candidate to replace him, adding that the company has “very detailed succession plans.”

    “I really want the person to come from within Apple,” Cook told singer Dua Lipa last year on her podcast At Your Service.

    [ad_2]

    Nino Paoli

    Source link

  • Travis Kelce Investing in Six Flags Is a Genius Move. Here’s What You Can Learn From Him

    [ad_1]

    Why is Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce teaming up with activist investor firm Jana Partners to buy a 9 percent stake in Six Flags for $200 million? Because it looks like a very, very smart move. Six Flags share price, which was down about 50 percent this year, rose 18 percent on the news. This just might be the investment that saves a beloved American brand and makes a lot of money for Kelce at the same time.

    Six Flags has been struggling for the past several years, especially since traffic to its parks have never returned to their pre-pandemic levels. The company cut costs, leading to poorer maintenance at its parks. Meantime, Six Flags management tried to improve the company’s finances with sharp price hikes that drove even more customers away. A merger last year with amusement park chain Cedar Fair made matters worse. The newly combined company struggled to integrate two very different systems and customers grew frustrated.

    But this deal has the potential to turn all of that around. Beyond a badly needed cash infusion, both Kelce and Jana bring abilities that Six Flags can really use right now. Jana is known as a more benign activist investor that works with a company’s existing management to solve its most pressing problems. The firm plans to push Six Flags to improve its technology, build better relationships with customers, and reward frequent visitors, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal. (Jana discovered that, far from encouraging visitors to buy season passes, Six Flags made it almost impossible to purchase one.)

    Kelce can bring his love of amusement parks and his enormous fan base to the deal. That process has already begun, with Kelce discussing the investment and his love of amusement parks on New Heights, the podcast he co-hosts with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagle Jason Kelce.

    Travis Kelce is a sophisticated investor.

    The Journal‘s reporting also revealed a side of Kelce we don’t often get to see. Kelce’s public image is of a good-natured, highly emotional guy, and a supremely talented and hardworking tight end who enjoys a good time and is up for any kind of party. We don’t necessarily think of him as a sophisticated business executive and investor. But apparently, he’s those things as well.

    Both Kelce brothers are big investors in Garage Beer. Its CEO Andy Sauer told the Journal that while Jason brings creativity to the table, Travis has an instinct for spotting opportunity, just as he does on the football field. He’s famous for abandoning planned routes and instead finding wide-open spaces on the field. It’s why he’s traditionally been the default passing target for Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. “He sees things that other people miss,” Sauer said.

    Kelce’s investment choices also suggest a very straightforward formula for assessing any investment or other business opportunity. And whether you have $200 million of your own to invest, or you’re working on a smaller scale, it can work for you too.

    1. Can you bring added value to the deal?

    Money is always useful. But in the best deals, there are also intangible benefits and synergies that go way beyond the dollar signs. This is why founders are often advised to evaluate investors not only for how much they’re willing to invest, but what else they can offer, such as industry expertise, visibility, or contacts.

    Kelce’s ultra-high profile would be a boon for any company, of course. That’s why brands from State Farm to Buffalo Wild Wings sponsor New Heights. But there’s a special synergy with an amusement park chain. Kelce grew up loving amusement parks and can be genuine in his enthusiasm. And the off chance that Kelce–or better yet, Kelce plus his fiancée Taylor Swift–might show up at a Six Flags park is bound to drive up attendance.

    2. Is it something you know well?

    Warren Buffett is one of many investment gurus who recommends investing in products and industries you know well. That’s really great advice. Kelce knows amusement parks well, having spent plenty of time at them while he was growing up. But he also knows entertainment, and how to connect to a fan base. That expertise can serve Six Flags well.

    Both Kelces have done very well for themselves by following this simple rule. They invested in Garage Beer after drinking quite a bit of it. Travis is a known clothes horse, with so much apparel that he converted a spare bedroom into an especially large walk-in closet. And he’s a model in his spare time. So it makes sense that he’s partnered with American Eagle and also created his own clothing line.

    3. Will it be fun?

    This might seem like something you shouldn’t worry about when choosing an investment. But I’d argue it’s an important question if you plan to be more than a passive investor. If you enjoy what you’re investing in, you’ll be more likely to devote your time and attention to it. That means you’ll bring more added value to the mix.

    Besides, life is short. You already spend too much of it working. Why not choose to spend your limited time on things that you truly enjoy? That certainly seems to be Kelce’s philosophy. Leaving aside a football player’s grueling workouts, everything he does looks like tremendous fun. That approach has worked out very well for him. It just might work for you, too.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    [ad_2]

    Minda Zetlin

    Source link

  • CPI inflation report will be released by Labor Department, while other data is delayed by shutdown

    [ad_1]

    A large US flag is seen on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington DC, United States on September 8, 2025.

    Celal Gunes | Anadolu | Getty Images

    The Labor Department will bring back staff to work on a key consumer inflation report despite the ongoing federal government shutdown, CNBC has learned.

    The department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics will “promptly resume” work on September’s consumer price index data, a White House official said. The report will come out at 8:30 a.m. ET on Oct. 24, nine days after it was originally scheduled, according to the BLS.

    The department had originally paused work on the CPI report – which tracks a broad basket of goods and services for price changes over time — because of its shutdown plan, the official said. But the Social Security Administration needs third-quarter CPI data for calculating and publishing annual cost-of-living adjustments before Nov. 1.

    Other BLS data releases including the nonfarm payroll report haven’t been published as originally intended since the federal government shutdown due to a lapse in funding. The Senate on Thursday failed to pass funding bills for the seventh time that would have ended the closure, which began last week.

    Bloomberg News first reported that the BLS was calling employees back to work on the CPI data.

    — CNBC’s Steve Liesman contributed to this report.

    Correction: The Social Security Administration needs third-quarter CPI data for calculating and publishing annual cost-of-living adjustments before Nov. 1. An earlier version misstated the organization’s name.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Deloitte was caught using AI in $290,000 report to help the Australian government crack down on welfare after a researcher flagged hallucinations | Fortune

    [ad_1]

    Deloitte’s member firm in Australia will pay the government a partial refund for a $290,000 report that contained alleged AI-generated errors, including references to non-existent academic research papers and a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment. 

    The report was originally published on the Australian government’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations website in July. A revised version was quietly published on Friday after Sydney University researcher of health and welfare law Chris Rudge said he alerted media outlets that the report was “full of fabricated references.”

    Deloitte reviewed the 237-page report and “confirmed some footnotes and references were incorrect,” the department said in a statement Tuesday.

    Deloitte did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

    The revised version of the report includes a disclosure that a generative AI language system, Azure OpenAI, was used in its creation. It also removes the fabricated quotes attributed to a federal court judge and references to nonexistent reports attributed to law and software engineering experts. Deloitte noted in a “Report Update” section that the updated version, dated September 26, replaced the report published in July. 

    “The updates made in no way impact or affect the substantive content, findings and recommendations in the report,” Deloitte wrote.

    In late August the Australian Financial Review first reported that the document contained multiple errors, citing Rudge as the researcher who identified the apparent AI-generated inaccuracies. 

    Rudge discovered the report’s mistakes when he read a portion incorrectly stating Lisa Burton Crawford, a Sydney University professor of public and constitutional law, had authored a non-existent book with a title outside her field of expertise.

    “I instantaneously knew it was either hallucinated by AI or the world’s best kept secret because I’d never heard of the book and it sounded preposterous,” Rudge told The Associated Press on Tuesday. 

    The Big Four consulting firms and global management firms such as McKinsey have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into AI initiatives to develop proprietary models and increase efficiency. In September, Deloitte said it would invest $3 billion in generative AI development through fiscal year 2030. 

    Anthropic also announced a Deloitte partnership on Monday that includes making Claude available to more than 470,000 Deloitte professionals.

    In June, the UK Financial Reporting Council, an accountancy regulator, warned that the Big Four firms were failing to monitor how AI and automated technologies affected the quality of their audits. 

    Though the firm will refund its last payment installment to the Australian government, Senator Barbara Pocock, the Australian Greens party’s spokesperson on the public sector, said Deloitte should refund the entire $290,000.

    Deloitte “misused AI and used it very inappropriately: misquoted a judge, used references that are non-existent,” Pocock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “I mean, the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for.”“The matter has been resolved directly with the client,” a spokesperson from Deloitte Australia told TheAssociated Press.

    Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.

    [ad_2]

    Nino Paoli

    Source link

  • Trump wants to end a half-century-old mandate on how companies report earnings | Fortune

    [ad_1]

    President Donald Trump wants corporations to “no longer be forced” to report earnings every quarter.

    In a Truth Social post on Monday, he said companies should instead only be required to post earnings every six months, pending the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval. This change would break a quarterly reporting mandate that’s been in place since 1970. 

    “This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies,” Trump wrote.

    Trump added that China has a “50 to 100 year view on management of a company,” as opposed to U.S. companies required to report four times in a fiscal year. China’s Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) allows companies to submit voluntary quarterly financial disclosures, but only requires them to report their financial results twice a year.

    During his first term, Trump publicly asked the SEC on X, then still known as Twitter, to study shifting company disclosures from a quarterly to semiannual basis, stating business leaders felt less frequent reporting would allow for greater flexibility and long-term planning. 

    He told reporters at the time that he got the idea from CEOs.

    “It made sense to me because, you know, we are not thinking far enough out,” Trump said in 2018. “We’ve been accused of that for a long time, this country. So we’re looking at that very, very seriously.”

    No change came from the SEC.

    A revived debate

    “President Trump has revived an old idea emphasizing the costs of quarterly filings, the distraction from long-term goals, and how they reinforce Wall Street’s obsession with beating short-term expectations,” Usha Haley, a professor at the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University, told Fortune.

    For his part, SEC Chair Paul Atkins has explicitly called for more transparency as he’s taken control of the regulatory body this year.

    But companies keep pushing back. Last week, the San Francisco-based Long Term Stock Exchange said it planned to petition the SEC to end its quarterly reporting requirement. The exchange lists companies focused on long-term goals.

    Critics of the move argue that it might reduce transparency for investors.

    Chad Cummings, a CPA and attorney at Cummings & Cummings Law, told Fortune semiannual reporting enables companies to hide “red flags” like deteriorating cash flows or abrupt changes in auditor language, which can lead to unsavory practices like concealment of liquidity crises, accounting fraud, and whistleblower retaliation.

    “Removal of quarterly earnings sabotages valuation models and tilts power to insiders,” Cummings, who has active bar admissions in the U.S. Tax and Bankruptcy courts, added.

    SEC approval would face internal resistance, statutory barriers, and potential litigation, as the SEC’s investor protection mandate requires “reasonably current” disclosure, Cummings said.

    If regulators stopped requiring companies to report earnings every quarter without having clear legal authority, the decision could be challenged in court under the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law that governs how U.S. administrative agencies create regulations, he warned.

    Meanwhile, Haley also said Trump’s nod to China’s financial disclosure mandates misses the point.

    “The United States is not China,” she said. “Our markets derive their strength and global dominance through transparency, investor protections, and a long tradition of disclosures… Weakening those guardrails, while invoking efficiency risks, undermines investors’ confidence, the foundation of U.S. capital markets, which China does not have.”

    Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.

    [ad_2]

    Nino Paoli

    Source link

  • Berkshire Hathaway’s cash fortress tops $300 billion as Buffett sells more stock, freezes buybacks

    Berkshire Hathaway’s cash fortress tops $300 billion as Buffett sells more stock, freezes buybacks

    [ad_1]

    Warren Buffett walks the floor ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 3, 2024.

    David A. Grogen | CNBC

    Berkshire Hathaway‘s monstrous cash pile topped $300 billion in the third quarter as Warren Buffett continued his stock-selling spree and held back from repurchasing shares.

    The Omaha-based conglomerate saw its cash fortress swell to a record $325.2 billion by the end of September, up from $276.9 billion in the second quarter, according to its earnings report released Saturday morning.

    The mountain of cash kept growing as the Oracle of Omaha sold significant portions of his biggest equity holdings, namely Apple and Bank of America. Berkshire dumped about a quarter of its gigantic Apple stake in the third quarter, making the fourth consecutive quarter that it has downsized this bet. Meanwhile, since mid-July, Berkshire has reaped more than $10 billion from offloading its longtime Bank of America investment.

    Overall, the 94-year-old investor continued to be in a selling mood as Berkshire shed $36.1 billion worth of stock in the third quarter.

    No buybacks

    Berkshire didn’t repurchase any company shares during the period amid the selling spree. Repurchase activity had already slowed down earlier in the year as Berkshire shares outperformed the broader market to hit record highs.

    The conglomerate had bought back just $345 million worth of its own stock in the second quarter, significantly lower than the $2 billion repurchased in each of the prior two quarters. The company states that it will buy back stock when Chairman Buffett “believes that the repurchase price is below Berkshire’s intrinsic value, conservatively determined.”

    Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

    Berkshire Hathaway

    Class A shares of Berkshire have gained 25% this year, outpacing the S&P 500’s 20.1% year-to-date return. The conglomerate crossed a $1 trillion market cap milestone in the third quarter when it hit an all-time high.

    For the third quarter, Berkshire’s operating earnings, which encompass profits from the conglomerate’s fully-owned businesses, totaled $10.1 billion, down about 6% from a year prior due to weak insurance underwriting. The figure was a bit less than analysts estimated, according to the FactSet consensus.

    Buffett’s conservative posture comes as the stock market has roared higher this year on expectations for a smooth landing for the economy as inflation comes down and the Federal Reserve keeps cutting interest rates. Interest rates have not quite complied lately, however, with the 10-year Treasury yield climbing back above 4% last month.

    Notable investors such as Paul Tudor Jones have become worried about the ballooning fiscal deficit and that neither of the two presidential candidates squaring off next week in the election will cut spending to address it. Buffett has hinted this year he was selling some stock holdings on the notion that tax rates on capital gains would have to be raised at some point to plug the growing deficit.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Making sense of the markets this week: November 3, 2024 – MoneySense

    Making sense of the markets this week: November 3, 2024 – MoneySense

    [ad_1]

    Amazon earnings highlights

    Share prices were up 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday after the strong earnings beat.

    • Amazon (AMZN/NASDAQ): Earnings per share of $1.43 (versus $0.14 predicted) and revenues of $134.4 billion (versus $131.5 billion predicted).

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains the golden goose, even though very few of Amazon’s retail customers know it exists. Revenues climbed 19% during the quarter, and totalled $27.4 billion. Amazon’s advertising revenues were another highlighted area of the report, as they were up 19%. Overall operating profits grew 56% year over year to $17.4 billion, mostly credited to the 27,000 jobs cut by the company since 2022.

    Founder, executive chairman and former president and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos was in the headlines this week in his role as owner of the Washington Post. He refused to allow the Post’s editorial team to print their endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, and it was met with widespread outrage from Post readers. As of Tuesday, more than 250,000 subscriptions were cancelled as a result. 

    Source: The Sporting News

    Fortunately for Bezos, he purchased the Washington Post (one of the world’s premier news brands) for “chump change”—$250 million (roughly a mere 1.2% of his net worth). So, if he drives it into the ground, I don’t think he’ll shed tears.

    No doubt co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, is making similar calculations with his luxury purchase two years ago of Twitter (which he rebranded as X). Critics say he has turned the social platform into an echo chamber for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. What are the billions for, if a person can’t even enjoy themselves by buying a little media, am I right? (That’s sarcasm.)

    So far we’ve yet to see analysis to show Bezos’ editorial decision affecting Amazon’s share price or revenue numbers. Apparently Republicans buy Amazon Prime, too.

    Canada’s best dividend stocks

    Microsoft, Meta and Google: Predictably incredible earnings

    While not having quite as large a market cap as Nvidia and Apple, other mega tech stocks in the U.S. are no slouches. For example, Microsoft is also as valuable as the entirety of Canada’s stock exchanges at $3.2 trillion. Alphabet and Meta clock in at $2.1 trillion and $1.5 trillion respectively. (All figures in this section are in U.S. dollars.)

    Other Big Tech stock news highlights

    Here’s what these companies announced this week.

    • Alphabet (GOOGL/NASDAQ): Earnings per share came in at $2.12 (versus $1.51 predicted) on revenues of $88.27 billion (versus $86.30 billion predicted).
    • Microsoft (MSFT/NASDAQ): Earnings per share of $3.30 (versus $3.10 predicted), and revenues of $65.59 billion (versus $64.51 predicted).
    • Meta (META/NASDAQ): Earnings per share coming in at $6.03 (versus $5.25 predicted) and revenues of $40.59 billion (versus $40.29 predicted).

    All three companies crushed earning estimates across the board. However, shareholders’ reactions to these earnings beats were still muted. Meta shares were down 2.5% in after-hours trading on Wednesday, and it was a similar situation for Microsoft. Alphabet fared better as its shares were up 3%.

    It’s hard to put these numbers into the massive context into which they belong, because the world has never seen anything like these companies before. Here are highlights from the earnings calls. (Scroll the chart left to right with your fingers or press shift, as you use scroll wheel on your mouse to read.)

    [ad_2]

    Kyle Prevost

    Source link

  • We’re trimming a bank stock on tear since earnings, booking nearly a 100% profit

    We’re trimming a bank stock on tear since earnings, booking nearly a 100% profit

    [ad_1]

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Making sense of the markets this week: October 27, 2024 – MoneySense

    Making sense of the markets this week: October 27, 2024 – MoneySense

    [ad_1]

    Despite these setbacks, CPKC posted an income gain of 7% year over year. The four categories that made the most impact were grain, energy, plastics and chemicals, and they grew revenues by 11%. CPKC says the shipment of wheat to Mexico from the Canadian and American Prairies over the past 12 months was exactly the type of “synergy win” that it was hoping for when the former Canadian Pacific acquired Kansas City Southern back in 2021. This railway remains the only one to span Canada, the United States and Mexico.

    CNR CEO Tracy Robinson commented on the railway’s operational challenges. “Our scheduled operating plan demonstrated its resilience in the third quarter, allowing us to adapt our operations to challenges posed by wildfires and prolonged labor issues,” she said. “Our operations recovered quickly and the railroad is running well. As we close 2024, we will continue to focus on recovering volumes, growth, and ensuring our resources are aligned to demand.”

    CNR’s revenues were up 3% year over year; however, increased expenses meant the company’s operating ratio rose 1.1% to 63.1% (indicating that expenses are growing as a share of revenue). The railway announced it was  raising its quarterly dividend from $0.79 to $0.845. This raise of nearly 7% is right in line with CNR’s mission to conservatively raise its dividend payouts each year.

    For more information on these railroads, check out my article on Canadian railway stocks at MillionDollarJourney.ca.

    Canada’s best dividend stocks

    Rough day for Rogers 

    Thursday’s revenue miss left some Rogers shareholders shaking their heads. 

    Rogers earnings highlights

    Here’s what the large mobile company reported this week:

    • Rogers Communications (RCI/TSX): Earnings per share of $1.42 (versus $1.34 predicted) and revenues of $5.13 billion (versus $5.17 predicted).

    While solid earnings numbers did take away some of the sting, Rogers’ share price was down 3% on Thursday. Lower-than-expected numbers for new wireless customers were at the root of low revenue growth. The oligopolistic Canadian wireless market remains uncharacteristically competitive as Rogers, Telus and Bell all continue to fight for market share. That competition is hurting profit margins for all three telecommunications giants at the moment. (Unlike in past years, when the three telcos all enjoyed charging some of the highest wireless plan fees in the world.)

    One highlight for Rogers was its sports revenue vertical, which was up 11% from last quarter. Rogers has really doubled down on its sports media strategy over the last few years and now owns a controlling share of the: 

    • Toronto Blue Jays in the Major League Baseball league (MLB)
    • Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League (NHL)
    • Toronto Raptors in the National Basketball Association (NBA)
    • Toronto FC in Major League Soccer (MLS)
    • Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League (CFL)
    • SportsNet, a major Canadian sports network
    • Toronto’s Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena venues
    • Naming rights of sports venues in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver
    • National NHL media rights in Canada
    • Local media rights to the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers
    • Partial local media rights to the Maple Leafs and Raptors
    • Several minor-league franchises and esports (gaming) teams

    Despite owning all those household-name sports assets, it’s worth noting that Rogers’ wireless and cable divisions were responsible for close to 90% of revenues, with sports and media making up the rest.

    [ad_2]

    Kyle Prevost

    Source link

  • U.S. will be ‘more pro-crypto’ after this election, no matter who wins, says Ripple CEO Garlinghouse

    U.S. will be ‘more pro-crypto’ after this election, no matter who wins, says Ripple CEO Garlinghouse

    [ad_1]

    Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, speaks at the 2022 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 4, 2022. 

    Mike Blake | Reuters

    Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse has been skeptical of crypto regulation in the U.S., but he is feeling highly optimistic about the post-election environment around the corner.

    “This is the most important election we’ve had, but I also believe no matter what happens, we’re going to have a more pro-crypto, more pro-innovation Congress than we’ve ever had,” he said in a Wednesday conversation with CNBC at DC Fintech Week.

    Ripple, a veteran company in crypto known in part for its close association with the XRP token, operates a global payments business with banks and financial institutions as its main customers. About 95% of its business takes place outside of the U.S., which Garlinghouse said is partly a reflection of the contentious environment in Washington.

    In 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple, but last year the company scored a big victory for the industry when a judge determined that XRP is not a security when sold to retail investors on exchanges.

    On Wednesday, Garlinghouse offered a piece of advice to fintech startups in this changing time: “Incorporate outside the United States.”

    Nevertheless, he was upbeat about where the industry is heading in the long term.

    “Anybody who doesn’t believe that no matter what, we’re going to end up in a better place, is not paying attention … and [if in] 10 years we look back on how the U.S. got it wrong for years and years … It’s going to be a speed bump, and this industry is going to continue to thrive.”

    An approaching ‘reset’

    Ripple has donated at least $45 million to the Fairshake pro-crypto political action committee. Co-founder Chris Larsen recently donated $11 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Garlinghouse pointed out he was intentionally wearing a purple tie on Wednesday.

    “Obviously, Trump came out early and very aggressively in a pro crypto [way] and said he’s the crypto president,” Garlinghouse said. “Team Harris have been more nuanced. This week, they had some of the most constructive things they have said publicly.”

    “Kamala Harris is from Silicon Valley, she has generally been pro technology over the years,” he added. “She has been relatively quiet on the topic, but I think no matter what happens, we’re going to see a reset.”

    Because of that contrast, sentiment in the crypto industry has grown increasingly partisan — even as it has previously applauded growing bipartisan support for crypto issues in Congress. Many pro-crypto voters fear that the Harris campaign would continue the “attack” on crypto, as Garlinghouse called it.

    Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC PRO:

    “No matter what happens, we’re going to leave behind a failed approach from the Biden administration,” he said. “It has been an attack, and it isn’t just the SEC. The [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] is hostile towards crypto; the Treasury is hostile towards crypto.”

    He highlighted banks becoming unwilling to work with crypto businesses in what many in the industry have referred to as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.” The term refers to an Obama-era project known as “Operation Choke Point,” which discouraged banks from serving risky but legal enterprises, such as payday lenders and online gambling businesses.

    “That is a hostile administration, and no matter what happens in this next election, we will have a reset,” Garlinghouse said. “We can debate the magnitude of that reset, and there’s lots of disagreement about that … We’re going to see forward progress, and I certainly am looking forward to that.”

    Though Garlinghouse hasn’t publicly backed any of the presidential candidates, he said that this week he endorsed John Deaton, an attorney seeking to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass). Warren has been critical of the crypto industry, seeking additional oversight of the space.

    Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Why bond yields are rising and what stock investors should do about that

    Why bond yields are rising and what stock investors should do about that

    [ad_1]

    Cars drive past the Federal Reserve building on September 17, 2024 in Washington, DC.

    Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Bond traders are at it again, pushing Treasury yields higher and signaling the Federal Reserve was too heavy-handed when it cut interest rates by a half-percentage point last month. The recently rising yields have put pressure on the stock market — and specifically, names in our portfolio tied to housing.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Watch Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse speak live on legal battle with SEC and upcoming election

    Watch Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse speak live on legal battle with SEC and upcoming election

    [ad_1]

    [The stream is slated to start at 2:55 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

    Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse will speak at DC Fintech Week in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday afternoon.

    Ripple, the largest holder of XRP coins, scored a partial victory last summer after a three-year legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This was hailed as a landmark win for the crypto industry as it established a precedent that could help determine when other cryptocurrencies might be deemed securities. The SEC appealed that decision earlier this month.

    Garlinghouse will discuss that lawsuit, along with Ripple’s role in informing U.S. crypto regulation more broadly. He will also speak about the upcoming presidential election and his donations to the Fairshake pro-crypto political action committee.

    The CEO will also talk about why his company is entering the burgeoning stablecoin space this year with the launch of Ripple USD (RLUSD).

    Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Watch live as CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam speaks at DC Fintech Week

    Watch live as CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam speaks at DC Fintech Week

    [ad_1]

    [The stream is slated to start at 9:05 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

    Rostin Behnam, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is speaking at DC Fintech Week in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday morning.

    The agency is in a critical period: The CFTC sought to block financial exchange Kalshi from offering contracts that allow people to bet on the outcomes of U.S. elections. The agency lost that suit in September, and an appeals court lifted a temporary injunction that barred Kalshi from offering contracts bidding on elections.

    The CFTC is appealing the ruling.

    “The position of the commission has actually been pretty consistent for the better part of a decade, that we don’t believe listing event contracts on political elections is legal,” Behnam said in a Bloomberg Television interview Tuesday. “But while we have this ongoing legal challenge, we’ll allow them and we’re going to do what we can to protect the integrity of the markets.”

    The CFTC has also been grappling with the rapid evolution of digital assets and the need for Congress to take the first steps toward establishing a regulatory framework to ensure consumer protections.

    “What has concerned me most throughout the expansion of this digital asset class is that while everyday Americans fall victim to one digital asset scam after another, there remains no completed legislative response,” he said July in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

    “Federal legislation is urgently needed to create a pathway for a regulatory framework that will protect American investors and possibly the financial system from future risk,” he added.

    Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • AI on the trading floor: Morgan Stanley expands OpenAI-powered chatbot tools to Wall Street division

    AI on the trading floor: Morgan Stanley expands OpenAI-powered chatbot tools to Wall Street division

    [ad_1]

    Morgan Stanley is expanding the use of OpenAI-powered, generative artificial intelligence tools to its vaunted investment banking and trading division, CNBC has learned.

    The firm, which launched an AI assistant based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology to its wealth management advisors in early 2023, began rolling out another version called AskResearchGPT this summer in its institutional securities group, said Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley’s global director of research.

    The tool lets users extract answers from across the universe of Morgan Stanley’s research — including on stocks, commodities, industry trends and regions — collapsing what could otherwise be the cumbersome task of gleaning insights from the more than 70,000 reports produced annually by the bank.

    “We see it as a game changer from a productivity standpoint, both for our research analysts and our colleagues across institutional securities,” Huberty said in an interview. The tool helps staff “access the highest quality, most insightful information as efficiently as possible.”

    Since its arrival as a viral consumer app in late 2022, OpenAI’s generative AI technology has been swiftly adopted by Wall Street’s largest players.

    Morgan Stanley says that close to half of its 80,000 employees are using generative AI tools created with OpenAI, while at rival JPMorgan Chase, about 60% of the firm’s 316,043 employees have access to a platform using OpenAI’s models, said a person with knowledge of the matter who wasn’t authorized to disclose the figure publicly. The San Francisco-based startup recently raised money at a $157 billion valuation.

    OpenAI already has network advantages in financial services because of its ample funding and early focus on use cases for banks, said Pierre Buhler, a banking consultant with SSA & Co.

    “They are ahead of everyone else in terms of market penetration,” Buhler said.”But it is an emerging market, and we are still at the very beginning.” It’s likely that competitors to OpenAI such as Anthropic will gain use over time, he added.

    Viral hit

    At Morgan Stanley, a leader in global investment banking and trading along with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, employees have gravitated toward AskResearchGPT, using it instead of getting on the phone or lobbing an email to the research department, Huberty said.

    Employees are asking the tool three times the number of questions as compared with a previous tool based on traditional AI that’s been in use since 2017, according to the bank.

    It’s most in-demand among salespeople and other client-facing staff who often field questions from hedge funds or other institutional investors, said Huberty.

    “We found that it takes a salesperson one-tenth of the time to respond to the average client inquiry” using AskResearchGPT, she said.

    Productivity boost

    In a recent demonstration, the GPT-4 based chatbot was able to summarize Morgan Stanley’s position on matters from copper to Nvidia to the finer points of standing up a data center, understanding industry-specific jargon and providing charts and links to source material.

    The bank wants to push adoption further in light of the productivity gains it’s seeing, Huberty said. The tool is embedded within workers’ browsers as well as Microsoft Teams and Outlook programs to make it readily available.

    Understandably, Huberty says she is often asked if AI could ultimately replace the analysts who are creating the reams of research published under Morgan Stanley’s banner.

    “I don’t see in the near future a path to just having the machine write the research report to generate the idea,” she said. “I really think that it’s humans who make the call and own the relationship, which is a really important part of the analyst job, or sales and trading job, or corporate banker job.”

    Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • What’s wrong with the Nasdaq? One troubling thing for the bulls’ case

    What’s wrong with the Nasdaq? One troubling thing for the bulls’ case

    [ad_1]

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Do real estate agents have to disclose if someone died in a house? Here’s how to find out

    Do real estate agents have to disclose if someone died in a house? Here’s how to find out

    [ad_1]

    Matt Champlin | Moment | Getty Images

    When a real estate agent works with a prospective homebuyer, they’re required to point out physical or material defects in the property.

    A death on the property? It depends on the state where the house is located. In most states, death doesn’t count as a material defect requiring disclosure.

    Some homes are considered “stigmatized properties,” or dwellings that have been “psychologically impacted by a past or suspected event on the property, but has no physical impact of any kind,” according to the National Association of Realtors. 

    Stigmatizing events include murder, suicide, alleged hauntings or a notorious previous owner, NAR noted. 

    Different people interact with stigmatized properties in different ways.

    Harrison Beacher

    real estate agent and managing partner at Coalition Properties Group in Washington, D.C.

    Which states require disclosure of death

    Listing agents will have different requirements state-by-state on what to disclose to a buyer. Most states don’t have any death disclosure requirements.

    Among those that do, rules can be straightforward and explicitly require prior death to be disclosed to homebuyers. Even those rules may only apply to recent deaths or more stigmatizing events such as murder.

    In California, for example, a seller must disclose if someone died in the house within the last three years.

    Meanwhile, in Alaska, the listing agent must communicate if any known murders or suicides happened in the last year. South Dakota requires sellers to disclose deaths within the last 12 months.

    Regulations will depend on the stigma in question. In New York, a seller doesn’t need to disclose if the house was the site of death or crime. But if a seller has made claims of paranormal activity in the home, they have to inform the buyer of supposed ghosts in the property, experts say.

    More from Personal Finance:
    Buying a home? Here are some key steps to consider
    An insurance provision can help with living expenses after a natural disaster
    Gen Zers are willing to buy fixer-upper homes

    Often, it falls on the homebuyers to directly ask the agent about the property’s history. States such as Georgia do not require real estate agents or sellers to disclose upfront if the home was the site of a death. But they have to be truthful if a prospective buyer inquires.

    Outside of what the disclosure laws are in a specific state, listing agents have a fiduciary responsibility to the sellers, said Harrison Beacher, a real estate agent and managing partner at Coalition Properties Group in Washington, D.C.

    “If somebody asks me about it, I can point them towards empirical resources to get answers, but I’m not under any requirements to go into detail,” said Beacher.

    Here’s what homebuyers should know about properties that have been stigmatized by murder, suicide, alleged hauntings or notorious prior owners, and how to find more detail about the home’s history.

    Who buys stigmatized properties?

    Stigmatized homes can be a “turnoff” for homebuyers who believe in ghosts or spirits, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, an online real estate brokerage firm.

    “Some people are spooked away,” said Fairweather, while others might “seek out those homes.”

    Nearly three-quarters, 72%, of potential homebuyers said they would buy a “haunted” house for a lower price, according to a new report by Real Estate Witch, a data site owned by Clever Real Estate. The site polled 1,000 U.S. adults in September to discover their views on buying and selling supposedly haunted houses.

    Some buyers don’t care what happens in a stigmatized property “if it can get them a discount on price,” Beacher said.

    About 43% of polled Americans said they would offer at least $50,000 below market value on a haunted house, according to the Real Estate Witch report.

    In 2021, the LaBianca mansion, the home where Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered by Charles Manson’s followers in 1969, sold for $1.875 million. The previous owner, Zak Bagans, a paranormal activity investigator, originally put the house on the market for $2.2 million, but later cut the price to $1.9 million.

    “Different people interact with stigmatized properties in different ways,” Beacher said.

    In 2023, about 67% of would-be buyers said they would buy a supposedly haunted house if it met their wants, like having appealing features, the right location or a more affordable price, according to Zillow.

    But buyers should know that “every property has a history,” said Connie Vavra, managing broker of RE/MAX, a real estate brokerage franchise, at Elgin, Illinois.

    “We can’t erase the history that’s been done there … That doesn’t mean that you can’t have good energy in there and have [a] good experience living in that home.”

    How to find out a home’s history

    If you have questions or concerns about a property’s history, the first thing you should do is ask the real estate agent. In some states, real estate agents need to provide truthful information upon a buyer’s request, or at the very least, point you toward the right direction to find out.

    Here are two ways to check, experts say:

    1. Talk to neighbors and officials

    Keep an eye out for the property’s neighbors, experts say. Besides the real estate agent, neighbors can give you first-hand experience of the area, as well as information about the previous homeowners. 

    You can also call the county manager where the property is located, said Theresa Payton, a former White House chief information officer who is now the CEO of cybersecurity firm Fortalice Solution.

    Ask the county manager’s office about the property you’re considering and if there are any crime records associated with it, she said. 

    2. Follow the paper trail

    An internet search can turn up details. If police responded to any activity at the house, the event will likely be reported in the newspaper and it would be public record, Payton said.

    You can do an advanced search online through newspaper headlines and police reports, as “all that information is free,” she said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • After a well-received quarter, Cramer explains why he thinks Netflix can ‘rock on higher’

    After a well-received quarter, Cramer explains why he thinks Netflix can ‘rock on higher’

    [ad_1]

    After a siding with the bulls in the run-up to Netflix‘s latest earnings report, CNBC’s Jim Cramer explained why the quarter made him more optimistic about the company’s future, saying he was impressed by management’s outlook and commentary about content.

    “If you were worried about Netflix not having enough levers to pull in order to generate growth going forward, or at least enough growth to justify the stock’s price-to-earnings multiple, I think those concerns have been put to bed by last night’s earnings report,” he said. “Near-term, the Netflix bears will hibernate, but just remember all these positives when they inevitably come out of their den and try to maul this best-of-breed company with a stock that I think can rock on higher for a long time.”

    Netflix beat Wall Street’s expectations for earnings, revenue and paid membership growth when it posted its report Thursday evening. The streaming giant’s shares popped 11% Friday morning and maintained those gains through close.

    Cramer was encouraged by management’s guidance for the current quarter and 2025, as the company expects to keep up double-digit revenue growth some investors feared would be hard to maintain. He also appreciated co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ explanation about Netflix’s vast library and engagement, including his assertion that members on average watch two hours of content per day. Cramer pointed out that Sarandos also said that the streamer is focused on adding “more value to this package,” instead of bundling content with other streaming services, as some competitors are doing.

    This breadth of content makes Cramer optimistic about Netflix’s ability to scale its ad-tier, pointing to popular offerings like “Emily in Paris,” “Selling Sunset” and “Squid Game,” as well as two National Football League games set to stream on Christmas. He also liked Sarandos’ positive read on how AI will impact business.

    “I’m not saying that Netflix has become an AI play, not at all, I’m just saying that between the expanding library, clear customer interest in the ad tier model, and their ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence, we have a lot of positives here, and it’s gong to translate into a lot of money,” Cramer said.

    Jim Cramer digs into Netflix Q3 results

    Jim Cramer’s Guide to Investing

    [ad_2]

    Source link