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  • 20 dividend stocks that may be safest if the Federal Reserve causes a recession

    20 dividend stocks that may be safest if the Federal Reserve causes a recession

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    Investors cheered when a report last week showed the economy expanded in the third quarter after back-to-back contractions.

    But it’s too early to get excited, because the Federal Reserve hasn’t given any sign yet that it is about to stop raising interest rates at the fastest pace in decades.

    Below is a list of dividend stocks that have had low price volatility over the past 12 months, culled from three large exchange traded funds that screen for high yields and quality in different ways.

    In a year when the S&P 500
    SPX,
    -0.40%
    is down 18%, the three ETFs have widely outperformed, with the best of the group falling only 1%.

    Read: GDP looked great for the U.S. economy, but it really wasn’t

    That said, last week was a very good one for U.S. stocks, with the S&P 500 returning 4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -0.32%
    having its best October ever.

    This week, investors’ eyes turn back to the Federal Reserve. Following a two-day policy meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee is expected to make its fourth consecutive increase of 0.75% to the federal funds rate on Wednesday.

    The inverted yield curve, with yields on two-year U.S. Treasury notes
    TMUBMUSD02Y,
    4.540%
    exceeding yields on 10-year notes
    TMUBMUSD10Y,
    4.064%    ,
    indicates investors in the bond market expect a recession. Meanwhile, this has been a difficult earnings season for many companies and analysts have reacted by lowering their earnings estimates.

    The weighted rolling consensus 12-month earning estimate for the S&P 500, based on estimates of analysts polled by FactSet, has declined 2% over the past month to $230.60. In a healthy economy, investors expect this number to rise every quarter, at least slightly.

    Low-volatility stocks are working in 2022

    Take a look at this chart, showing year-to-date total returns for the three ETFs against the S&P 500 through October:


    FactSet

    The three dividend-stock ETFs take different approaches:

    • The $40.6 billion Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF
      SCHD,
      +0.15%
      tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Indexed quarterly. This approach incorporates 10-year screens for cash flow, debt, return on equity and dividend growth for quality and safety. It excludes real estate investment trusts (REITs). The ETF’s 30-day SEC yield was 3.79% as of Sept. 30.

    • The iShares Select Dividend ETF
      DVY,
      +0.45%
      has $21.7 billion in assets. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index, which is weighted by dividend yield and “skews toward smaller firms paying consistent dividends,” according to FactSet. It holds about 100 stocks, includes REITs and looks back five years for dividend growth and payout ratios. The ETF’s 30-day yield was 4.07% as of Sept. 30.

    • The SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF
      SPYD,
      +0.60%
      has $7.8 billion in assets and holds 80 stocks, taking an equal-weighted approach to investing in the top-yielding stocks among the S&P 500. It’s 30-day yield was 4.07% as of Sept. 30.

    All three ETFs have fared well this year relative to the S&P 500. The funds’ beta — a measure of price volatility against that of the S&P 500 (in this case) — have ranged this year from 0.75 to 0.76, according to FactSet. A beta of 1 would indicate volatility matching that of the index, while a beta above 1 would indicate higher volatility.

    Now look at this five-year total return chart showing the three ETFs against the S&P 500 over the past five years:


    FactSet

    The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF ranks highest for five-year total return with dividends reinvested — it is the only one of the three to beat the index for this period.

    Screening for the least volatile dividend stocks

    Together, the three ETFs hold 194 stocks. Here are the 20 with the lowest 12-month beta. The list is sorted by beta, ascending, and dividend yields range from 2.45% to 8.13%:

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 12-month beta

    		 Dividend yield

    		 2022 total return
    Newmont Corp.

    		 NEM,
    -0.78%         		0.17

    		 5.20%

    		 -30%
    Verizon Communications Inc.

    		 VZ,
    -0.07%         		0.22

    		 6.98%

    		 -24%
    General Mills Inc.

    		 GIS,
    -1.47%         		0.27

    		 2.65%

    		 25%
    Kellogg Co.

    		 K,
    -0.93%         		0.27

    		 3.07%

    		 22%
    Merck & Co. Inc.

    		 MRK,
    -1.73%         		0.29

    		 2.73%

    		 35%
    Kraft Heinz Co.

    		 KHC,
    -0.56%         		0.35

    		 4.16%

    		 11%
    City Holding Co.

    		 CHCO,
    -1.45%         		0.38

    		 2.58%

    		 27%
    CVB Financial Corp.

    		 CVBF,
    -1.24%         		0.38

    		 2.79%

    		 37%
    First Horizon Corp.

    		 FHN,
    -0.18%         		0.39

    		 2.45%

    		 53%
    Avista Corp.

    		 AVA,
    -7.82%         		0.41

    		 4.29%

    		 0%
    NorthWestern Corp.

    		 NWE,
    -0.21%         		0.42

    		 4.77%

    		 -4%
    Altria Group Inc

    		 MO,
    -0.18%         		0.43

    		 8.13%

    		 4%
    Northwest Bancshares Inc.

    		 NWBI,
    +0.10%         		0.45

    		 5.31%

    		 11%
    AT&T Inc.

    		 T,
    +0.63%         		0.47

    		 6.09%

    		 5%
    Flowers Foods Inc.

    		 FLO,
    -0.44%         		0.48

    		 3.07%

    		 7%
    Mercury General Corp.

    		 MCY,
    +0.07%         		0.48

    		 4.38%

    		 -43%
    Conagra Brands Inc.

    		 CAG,
    -0.82%         		0.48

    		 3.60%

    		 10%
    Amgen Inc.

    		 AMGN,
    +0.41%         		0.49

    		 2.87%

    		 23%
    Safety Insurance Group Inc.

    		 SAFT,
    -1.70%         		0.49

    		 4.14%

    		 5%
    Tyson Foods Inc. Class A

    		 TSN,
    -0.40%         		0.50

    		 2.69%

    		 -20%
    Source: FactSet

    Any list of stocks will have its dogs, but 16 of these 20 have outperformed the S&P 500 so far in 2022, and 14 have had positive total returns.

    You can click on the tickers for more about each company. Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    Don’t miss: Municipal bond yields are attractive now — here’s how to figure out if they are right for you

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  • New omicron subvariants accounted for more cases in New York region in latest week than BA.5, CDC data shows

    New omicron subvariants accounted for more cases in New York region in latest week than BA.5, CDC data shows

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    The omicron sublineages named BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 continued to spread in the U.S. in the week through Oct. 29, accounting for 27.1% of new cases nationwide, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

    The two accounted for 42.5% of all cases in the New York region, which includes New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, up from 37% the previous week. That was more than the BA.5 omicron subvariant, which accounted for 35.7% of new cases in the New York area in the latest week.

    The BA.5 omicron subvariant accounted for 49.6% of all U.S. cases, the data show.

    BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 were included in BA.5 variant data as recently as three weeks ago, because their numbers were too small to break out. BQ.1 was first identified by researchers in early September and has been found in the U.K. and Germany, among other places.

    Last week, the World Health Organization said that BQ.1 and another sublineage dubbed XBB do not appear to have immune-escape mutations that warrant being designated as variants of concern. However, BA.5 is still a variant of concern that is being closely monitored, said a statement from the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution.

    Workers in a manufacturing facility that assemble Apple Inc.’s
    AAPL,
    -1.66%
    iPhone in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou appear to have left to avoid COVID-19 curbs, with many traveling on foot for days after an unknown number of employees were quarantined in the facility after a virus outbreak, the Associated Press reported. 

    Videos circulating on Chinese social media platforms showed people who are allegedly Foxconn workers climbing over fences and carrying their belongings down a road.

    Separately, visitors to Shanghai Disneyland were left stranded at the park on Monday after the resort halted operations to comply with COVID-19 restrictions amid a new outbreak of the virus.

    In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

    The daily average for new cases stood at 36,869 on Sunday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 2% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 3% to 27,415, while the daily average for deaths was down 6% to 352. 

    Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

    Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

    • With a downcast earnings season passing the halfway mark, results from financial-technology companies and vaccine makers will arrive this week amid questions about consumer spending as well as demand for COVID drugs, MarketWatch’s Bill Peters reported. Pfizer Inc.
    PFE,
    -1.82%
    will report earnings on Tuesday, followed by Moderna Inc.
    MRNA,
    -0.47%
    on Thursday. Analysts will have their eye on the state of COVID-19 vaccine and treatment sales and on what executives are anticipating for the full year, as they prepare for a private market for COVID medications and as more people shrug off the pandemic. Pfizer executives, during a call last week, said they intended to charge between $110 and $130 for a single-dose vial of the vaccine for U.S. adults when government purchases end. But they said they believe anyone who has health insurance shouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket.

    The FDA authorized newly modified COVID-19 boosters to target the latest versions of the omicron variant. But as WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez explains, a key part of the decision-making process was changed with these new shots. Photo: Laura Kammermann

    • A number of young children are being hospitalized because of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and it’s happening at an unusual time of year and among older children than in years past, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. COVID may be a contributing factor, in part because many children were not exposed to RSV last season and also because a prior COVID infection or exposure may change the way a baby’s immune system responds to RSV and may lead to more severe illness from an RSV infection, according to Asuncion Mejias, a principal investigator with the Center for Vaccines and Immunity at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

    • On Saturday, more than 3,000 people took part in the first Pride march in South Africa since the COVID pandemic , celebrating the LGBT community and defying a U.S. warning of a possible terror attack in the area, the AP reported. The U.S. government this week warned of a possible attack in the Sandton part of Johannesburg, where the march took place. The South African government expressed concern that the U.S. had not shared enough information to give credibility to the alleged threat. Police said all measures had been taken to ensure safety in the area.

    Here’s what the numbers say:

    The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 630.2 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.58 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

    The U.S. leads the world with 97.5 million cases and 1,070,266 fatalities.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.9 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.4% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

    So far, just 22.8 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 7.3% of the overall population.

     

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  • WHO panel says no evidence yet that new omicron subvariants are more dangerous than others that are circulating

    WHO panel says no evidence yet that new omicron subvariants are more dangerous than others that are circulating

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    The omicron sublineages named BQ.1 and XBB do not appear to have immune escape mutations that warrant being designated as variants of concern, a World Health Organization advisory panel said Friday.

    The decision will be reassessed regularly to ensure there is no change that might warrant a new designation, said the statement.

    As of Oct. 25, the XBB and XBB.1 lineages had been detected in 35 countries, according to a WHO weekly update from Thursday. The two are BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 recombinants, which were found in 26 countries in the previous week.

    “There has been a broad increase in prevalence of XBB in regional genomic surveillance, but it has not yet been consistently associated with an increase in new infections,” the panel wrote. However, early evidence does suggest a higher reinfection risk compared with other circulating omicron variants.

    BQ.1 is a sublineage of BA.5, which remains dominant globally, accounting for 77.1% of sequences forwarded to a centralized database in the week through Oct. 23. BQ.1 has been found in 65 countries.

    “While there are no data on severity or immune escape from studies in humans, BQ.1* is showing a significant growth advantage over other circulating Omicron sublineages in many settings, including Europe and the US, and therefore warrants close monitoring,” said the panel.

    The real risk of the variants depends on the level of immunity in a given region, it added. And with waning immune response from initial waves of omicron infection, and further evolution of omicron variants, “it is likely that reinfections may rise further,” said the statement.

    Read now: COVID-19 may be to blame for the surge in RSV illness among children. Here’s why.

    In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where the data are not being collected.

    The daily average for new cases stood at 37,412 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 3% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 1% at 27,002, while the daily average for deaths is down 5% to 358. 

    Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

    Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

    • Gilead Sciences Inc.
    GILD,
    +12.92%
    said sales of its COVID treatment Veklury, formerly known as remdesivir, fell 52% to $925 million in the third quarter, driven by lower rates of COVID-19-related hospitalizations compared to the third quarter of 2021.” Last month, Gilead said the World Health Organization expanded its guidance to recommend remdesivir for treatment of patients with severe symptoms.

    • The pandemic devastated poor children’s well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents’ jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives, the Associated Press reported, citing an analysis of test scores that was shared on an exclusive basis. The analysis found the average student lost more than half a school year of learning in math and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading—with some district averages slipping by more than double those amounts, or worse. Online learning played a major role, but students lost significant ground even where they returned quickly to schoolhouses, especially in math scores in low-income communities.

    • Optimism among U.S. companies in China has hit record low levels, an annual survey showed on Friday, as competitive, economic, and regulatory challenges compound the stresses already imposed by Beijing’s ongoing zero-COVID policies, Reuters reported. Just 55% of 307 companies surveyed by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and consulting firm PwC China described themselves as optimistic about the five-year business outlook. The reading is the lowest in the survey’s 23-year history and worse than in 2020, when COVID first surfaced, and during the trade standoff between Beijing and Washington in 2019.

    • The Chinese city of Shanghai has ordered mass testing on all 1.3 million residents of its downtown Yangpu district and is confining them to their homes at least until results are known, the AP reported. The demand is an echo of measures ordered over the summer that led to a two-month lockdown of the entire city of 25 million that devastated the local economy, prompting food shortages and rare confrontations between residents and the authorities.

    Here’s what the numbers say:

    The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 629.6 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.58 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

    The U.S. leads the world with 97.4 million cases and 1,070,064fatalities.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.9 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.4% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

    So far, just 22.8 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 7.3% of the overall population.

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  • France to Pay Part of Companies’ Electricity Bills

    France to Pay Part of Companies’ Electricity Bills

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    By Joshua Kirby

    The French government will cover a part of companies’ electricity bills, with big energy firms asked to contribute to the cost, a minister told TV station BFM Business late Sunday.
    

    An “electricity guarantee” for 2023 will be finalized soon, and will cover part of any amount paid above a reference price fixed by the government, according to Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.
    

    

    Energy companies making large profits will be asked to provide a contribution in relation to the reference price, the minister said, adding that the relevant legal proposition will be made very soon.
    

    The move comes amid surging energy prices across Europe following a stoppage of natural-gas flows from Russia. In France, supply has also been threatened by strikes at nuclear reactors owned by national utility Electricite de France SA.
    

    Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby
    

    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    IRS releases new federal tax brackets and standard deductions. Here’s how they affect your family’s tax bill.
    
			
    IRS releases new federal tax brackets and standard deductions. Here’s how they affect your family’s tax bill.
    
			
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    America’s high inflation rate will produce a 7% increase in the size of the standard deduction when workers file their taxes on their 2023 income, according to new inflation adjustments from the Internal Revenue Service.
    

    It’s also going to pump up tax brackets by 7% as well, according to the annual inflation adjustments the IRS announced this week.
    

    

    Many tax code provisions — but not all — are indexed for inflation, so the announcements are a recurring event. But when inflation is persistently clinging to four-decade highs, these annual adjustments carry extra significance.
    

    

    

    
        “When inflation is persistently clinging to four-decade highs, these annual adjustments of approximately 7% for the standard deduction carry extra significance.”
      
    

    

    

    Start with the standard deduction, which is what most people use instead of itemizing deductions. 
    

    The standard deduction for individuals and married people filing separately will be $13,850 for the 2023 tax year. That’s a $900 increase from the $12,950 standard deduction for the upcoming tax season.
    

    For married couples filing jointly, the payout climbs to $27,700 for the 2023 tax year. That’s a $1,800 increase from the $25,900 standard deduction set for the upcoming tax year.
    

    The increases in the marginal tax rates reflect the same 7% rise. For example, the 22% tax bracket for this year is over $41,775 for single filers and over $83,550 for married couples filing jointly. Next year, the same 22% bracket applies to incomes over $44,725 and over $89,450 for married couples filing jointly.
    

    

    

    

    MarketWatch/IRS
    

    

    

    “The changes seem to be much larger than previous years because inflation is running much higher than it has in previous decades,” said Alex Durante, economist at the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning tax think tank.
    

    The IRS arrives at its inflation adjustments by averaging a slightly different inflation gauge, the so-called “chained Consumer Price Index” instead of the widely-watched Consumer Price Index, Durante noted. That’s an outcome of the Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, he added.
    

    “The reason they do this is because the regular CPI is thought to overstate inflation because it doesn’t take into account the substitution that shoppers can make as cost rise,” Durante said. Shoppers substitute when they swap a more expensive item for cheaper one, and research shows many Americans are using the tactic.
    

    The IRS inflation adjustments come after September CPI data last week showed inflation of 8.2% year-over-year, slightly off from 8.3% in August. Also last week, the Social Security Administration said next year’s payments would include an 8.7% cost of living adjustment.
    

    

    

    
        “The payout on the earned income tax credit —  geared at low- and moderate-income working families who have been hit hard by red-hot inflation — is also increasing. ”
      
    

    

    

    The payout on the earned income tax credit is also increasing. The maximum payout for a qualifying taxpayer with at least three qualifying children climbs to $7,430, up from $6,935 for this tax year. The longstanding credit is geared at low- and moderate-income working families who have been hit hard by red-hot inflation.
    

    More than 60 provisions are slated for an increase inline with inflation, but many portions of the tax code are not indexed for inflation. Depending on the circumstances, the taxes or the tax breaks kick in sooner.
    

    Capital gains tax rules one example. The IRS lets a taxpayer use capital losses to offset capital gains taxes. If losses exceed gains, the IRS allows a taxpayer to deduct up to $3,000 in excess loses. They can then carry the remainder of the capital loses to future tax years. It’s been more than four decades since lawmakers last set the limit, according to Durante.
    

    

    

    
        “While more than 60 provisions are slated for an increase inline with inflation, many portions of the tax code are not indexed for inflation. They include capital gains tax. ”
      
    

    

    

    Given the stock market’s rocky downward slide this year, many investors might welcome a fast-approaching tax break — even if it only enables a $3,000 deduction.
    

    At the same time, a married couple selling their home can exclude the first $500,000 of the sale from capital gains taxation, and it’s $250,000 for a single filer. It’s been that way since the exclusion’s 1997 establishment.
    

    The once white-hot housing market may be cooling, but many sellers may still be facing the point when taxes kick in. The median home listing was over $367,000 as of early October, according to Redfin
    
        RDFN,
    
        +2.29%    .
      
    

    The child tax credit is another example. After the payout to parents last year jumped to $3,600 for children under age 6 and $3,000 per child age 6 to 17, it’s back to a maximum $2,000. The credit’s refundable portion climbs from $1,500 to $1,600 during tax year 2023, the IRS notes.
    

    Proponents of the boosted payouts and some Congressional Democrats want to revive the larger payments in negotiations tied to corporate taxes. The high costs of living are a strong reason to bring back the boosted credit, they say.
    

    Related:
    

    What smart strategies can lower your tax bill as year-end approaches? Read this before making any tax moves.
    

    Three things the best 401(k)s offer that can help you save a lot more
    

    Enhanced child tax credit helped reduce poverty for families before it ended last year. But there’s one way Republicans and Democrats could agree on reinstating it.
    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    IRS sets new 401(k) limits — investors can save a lot more money in 2023
    
			
    IRS sets new 401(k) limits — investors can save a lot more money in 2023
    
			
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    People can contribute up to $22,500 in 401(k) accounts and $6,500 in IRAs in 2023, the IRS said Friday.
    

    

    For 401(k)s, that’s an almost 10% increase from 2022’s contribution limit of $20,500. For IRAs, it’s a more than 8% rise from 2022’s limit of $6,000.
    

    As added context, the inflation-indexed bumps tax year 2023 income tax brackets and the standard deduction worked to approximately 7%.
    

    When the IRS increased the 401(k) contribution limits last year, it came to a roughly 5% rise.
    

    “Given the inflation we have been experiencing recently, the early announcement of this increase is encouraging,” Rita Assaf, vice president of retirement products at Fidelity Investments, said after the IRS released the 2023 contribution limits.
    

    Seven in 10 people are “very concerned” how inflating costs will impact their readiness for retirement according to a Fidelity study, Assaf noted. “Every dollar counts, and this increase will provide Americans with the opportunity to set aside just a bit more to help fund their retirement objectives,” she said.
    

    Older workers can save even more
    

    The 2023 contribution limits that apply to 401(k)s — plus 403(b) plans, most 457 plans and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan — are even larger for workers age 50 and over.
    

    Catch-up contribution limits rise to $7,500 from $6,500, the IRS said. Combine the catch-up contributions with the regular contribution limits, and workers age 50 and over can sock away $30,000 for retirement in these accounts during 2023, the agency said.
    

    Income phase-outs increase when it comes to possible deductions, credits and contributions
    

    Tax rules can let people deduct contributions to traditional IRAs so long as they meet certain conditions, pegged to issues like coverage through a workplace retirement plan and yearly income. Above phase-out ranges, deductions don’t apply if a person or their spouse has a retirement plan through work, the IRS noted.
    

    For 2023, a single taxpayer covered by a workplace retirement plan has a phase-out range between $73,000 and $83,000. That’s up from a range between $68,000 and $78,000 during 2022.
    

    For a married couple filing jointly “if the spouse making the IRA contribution is covered by a workplace retirement plan, the phase-out range is increased to between $116,000 and $136,000,” the IRS said.
    

    If an IRA saver doesn’t have a workplace plan but their spouse is covered, “the phase-out range is increased to between $218,000 and $228,000,” the agency noted.
    

    There are also changes coming for the Roth IRA, which people fund with after-tax money and then can tap tax-free later.
    

    Read also: Here’s when you should choose a Roth IRA over a traditional account 
    

    The Roth IRA contribution limits also climb to $6,500. Retirement savers putting money in their 401(k) can’t also put pre-tax money in a traditional IRA, but they can contribute to a Roth account.
    

    Still, the eligibility to contribute to Roth IRA accounts is pegged to income, subject to phase-out ranges.
    

    In 2023, the income phase-out range on Roth IRA contributions climbs to between $138,000 – $153,000 for individuals and people filing as head of household. (That’s up from a range between $129,000 and $144,000, the IRS noted.) 
    

    With a married couple filing jointly, next year’s phase-out range goes to $218,00 – $228,000. That’s a step up from this year’s $204,000 – $214,000 range.
    

    The income limit surrounding the saver’s credit, which is geared toward low- and moderate-income households, is also getting a lift. The credit lets taxpayers claim 10%, 20% or one-half of contributions to eligible retirement plans, including a 401(k) or an IRA. The credit’s income limits are climbing, the IRS said.
    

    The 2023 income limit will be $73,000 for married couples filing jointly, $54,750 for heads of household and $36,500 for individuals and married individuals filing separately, according to the IRS.
    

    Don’t miss: Opinion: It’s harder for me to look at my 529 balance than my 401(k) because I have a high school junior. Here’s some advice for parents on a similar timeline.
    

    

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    CDC shoots down false claims it will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren, saying states make that decision
    
			
    CDC shoots down false claims it will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren, saying states make that decision
    
			
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    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has refuted claims that it’s planning to add the COVID-19 vaccine to immunization schedules for schoolchildren, saying that the authority for that decision lies with states and other local entities. 
    

    The false claim spread after it was shared by Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a tweet this week, as the Associated Press reported. 
    

    

    Carlson tweeted that the agency would make the vaccine mandatory in order for children to attend school, a claim the CDC quickly shot down. While an advisory committee to the CDC voted to recommend that the vaccine be added to immunization schedules, the CDC “only makes recommendations for use of vaccines, while school-entry vaccination requirements are determined by state or local jurisdictions,” CDC spokeswoman Kate Grusich told the AP.
    

    Grusich explained that the action was meant to streamline clinical guidance for healthcare providers by adding COVID-19 vaccines to a single list of all currently licensed, authorized and routinely recommended vaccines.
    

    “It’s important to note that there are no changes in COVID-19 vaccine policy,” she said.
    

    The news comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected. 
    

    The daily average for new cases stood at 38,077 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 8% from two weeks ago. Cases are currently rising in 14 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. 
    

    The daily average for hospitalizations was down 2% to 26,669, although hospitalizations are rising in almost all northeastern states as cold weather arrives. The daily average for deaths was down 7% to 360.
    

    Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began
    

    Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
    

    • Pfizer
    
        PFE,
    
        +4.42%
    
       is planning to sell the COVID vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech
    
        BNTX,
    
        +9.88%
    
       for $110 -$130 a dose once the U.S. market for COVID-19 shots becomes commercial, likely in the first quarter of next year, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. Pfizer and BioNTech are currently paid $30.50 per vaccine dose by the U.S. government, which contracted with the companies, as well as with other vaccine makers like Moderna
    
        MRNA,
    
        +9.07%
    
       and Novavax
    
        NVAX,
    
        +11.35%    ,
    
        and then made the COVID-19 shots available at no cost to people in the U.S. during the public-health emergency. The emergency declaration in the U.S. isn’t expected to be renewed next year, which will lead to the formation of an official commercial market for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. 
    

     • Johnson & Johnson 
    
            JNJ,
    
        +1.91%
    
       said the volume of surgical procedures is returning to prepandemic levels in many parts of the world, a trend that cheered Wall Street and could bode well for other medical-technology heavyweights like Stryker Corp.
    
        SYK,
    
        +0.57%
    
       and Zimmer Biomet Holdings
    
        ZBH,
    
        +0.18%    .
    
       J&J, which reported earnings this week, said its medical-technology business had a “strong September,” with U.S. sales of hip and knee implants and other surgical devices rising 7.7% to $3.3 billion in the third quarter of the year. “We are seeing procedures recovering,” Ashley McEvoy, worldwide chair of J&J’s MedTech business, told investors during this week’s earnings call. “In the U.S., we started to see surgical procedures tick up, predominantly at the latter part of the quarter.”
    

    

    
          The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual COVID shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to COVID could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes
    
        
    

    

     • “As China’s ruling Communist Party holds a congress this week, many Beijing residents are focused on an issue not on the formal agenda: Will the end of the meeting bring an easing of China’s at times draconian ‘zero-COVID’ policies that are disrupting lives and the economy?” the AP reported. It appears to be wishful thinking. As the world moves to a postpandemic lifestyle, many across China have resigned themselves to lining up several times a week for COVID tests, restrictions on travel to other regions and the ever-present possibility of a community lockdown.
    

     • Fantasy Fest, a 10-day annual party, is kicking off in Key West, Fla., on Friday, with a full slate of events for the first time since the pandemic started, the AP reported. “Due to the COVID pandemic, this will be the first full Fantasy Fest since 2019,” the festival’s board chair, Steve Robbins, said. “So I know our guests and staff are excited about getting back to the real Fantasy Fest.” Dozens of themed events are set for the festival, including a nighttime parade Oct. 29 featuring floats and elaborately costumed marching groups. Participants are encouraged to draw costume ideas from the festival’s theme, “Cult Classics & Cartoon Chaos,” and to portray characters inspired by favorite cartoons and television or film productions with a cult following.
    

    Here’s what the numbers say:
    

    The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 626.9 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.57 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
    

    The U.S. leads the world with 97.2 million cases and 1,067,190 fatalities.
    

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.5 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.2% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 111.4 million have had a booster, equal to 49.1% of the vaccinated population, and 26.8 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 40.6% of those who received a first booster.
    

    The CDC reports that some 19.4 million people have had a dose of the updated bivalent booster that targets omicron and its subvariants along with the original virus. 
    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    Pfizer sets new prices for its COVID-19 vaccines. The cost? $110 to $130 per dose
    
			
    Pfizer sets new prices for its COVID-19 vaccines. The cost? $110 to $130 per dose
    
			
     [ad_1]
    

    

    Pfizer Inc.
    
        PFE,
    
        +4.17%
    
       said Thursday that it plans to sell the COVID-19 shot it developed with BioNTech SE
    
        BNTX,
    
        +7.14%
    
       for $110 to $130 per dose once the U.S. market for COVID-19 shots becomes commercial, likely in the first quarter of next year. 
    

    Pfizer and BioNTech are currently paid $30.50 per vaccine dose by the U.S. government, which contracted with the companies (as well as other vaccine makers like Moderna Inc.
    
        MRNA,
    
        +6.57%
    
       and Novavax Inc.
    
        NVAX,
    
        +8.88%
    
      ) and then made the COVID-19 shots available at no cost to people in the U.S. during the public-health emergency. 
    

    

    The emergency declaration in the U.S. isn’t expected to be renewed next year, which will lead to the formation of an official commercial market for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. That said, this change doesn’t mean most Americans will be on the hook to pay for their shots in 2023 and beyond.
    

    A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis said most people with private insurance won’t be expected to pay anything out of pocket for the vaccines, though the costs may eventually be baked into the price of health-insurance premiums, as is done with flu shots. People with Medicare will have their shots covered by Medicare Part B, while those with Medicaid should also have coverage of COVID-19 vaccines. It’s the uninsured who may find it difficult to find free vaccines and boosters in the future. 
    

    Wall Street analysts cheered the news, saying Pfizer’s pricing plan came in above expectations. It also bodes well for Moderna’s stock. SVB Securities upgraded the company to market perform from underperform, though the company has not yet announced its pricing plans for its COVID-19 shots. 
    

    “Presuming that MRNA prices as a rational duopolist, this substantially improves the company’s ability to meet 2023 revenue guidance,” SVB analyst Mani Foroohar told investors.
    

    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    Twitter shares slump after report that the U.S. mulls national-security reviews for some of Elon Musk’s ventures
    
			
    Twitter shares slump after report that the U.S. mulls national-security reviews for some of Elon Musk’s ventures
    
			
     [ad_1]
    

    

    Shares of Twitter plunged in premarket trade on Friday after a report Biden administration officials are considering subjecting some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national-security reviews.
    

    Twitter
    
        TWTR,
    
        +1.18%
    
       shares plunged 9% to $47.64 in premarket trade, below the $54.20 per share buyout price.
    

    

    Bloomberg News reported late Thursday that some U.S. officials have become concerned in recent weeks by Musk’s Russia-friendly tweets and his threat to cut off Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine. The Tesla
    
        TSLA,
    
        -6.65%
    
       and SpaceX CEO’s pending $44 billion acquisition of Twitter  has also reportedly drawn concerns because of its foreign investors, including a Saudi prince, Binance Holdings  — a crypto exchange that was initially based in China — and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
    

    Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said discussions are still in the early stages and officials are trying to figure out what regulatory tools are available to them. One option could be a national-security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the report said.
    

    Separately, Bloomberg also reported late Thursday that Musk’s lawyers and bankers are preparing paperwork for the Twitter deal to be completed ahead of a Oct. 28 deadline, and that relations between Musk and Twitter have turned cordial rather than adversarial.
    

    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    I want to retire next year, but I have $25,000 in credit card debt and a major monthly mortgage payment — I also live with my three kids and ex
    
			
    I want to retire next year, but I have $25,000 in credit card debt and a major monthly mortgage payment — I also live with my three kids and ex
    
			
     [ad_1]
    

    I’ll be 57 next month and am divorced with three kids living with me. One is 28, she’s working, another is 21 and a senior in college (with a full scholarship) and the youngest is 15 (a sophomore in high school with a full scholarship). 
    

    

    I plan to retire at the end of next year with $25,000 in credit card debt and 15 more years to pay my mortgage. The credit cards have 0% interest. I have a good medical benefit when I retire and it will cover my two sons under 26 years old. My monthly expenses are $2,000, including life insurance, utilities, and a car payment.  
    

    My mortgage is around $4,000 monthly impounded. The interest rate is 2% until January 2022, then 3% until January 2023 and the remaining loan is 4.5%. Is it worth it to refinance to a lower rate? I also plan to just pay the principal and pay interest in December and April. I have two credit cards: one that totals $20,000, where the 0% promo ends in April 2021, and another with $4,500 where the 0% interest promo ends this December. 
    

    I work for the state and have a pension and 401(k) and 457 investments that total $110,000. I also have one month’s worth of expenses in an emergency fund. I can only apply for a loan to the retirement accounts while employed. 
    

    I would like to ask if retiring will be a good idea. If so, is it appropriate to take a loan with my investment to pay off the credit card debt before retiring? Based on our benefit, I don’t have to repay the debt (to the 401(k)) after my retirement unless I win the lottery or something. There won’t be a penalty. My annual gross income is $96,000.
    

    I’m a cohabitant with my ex on the house but get no contribution from him at all. I am working with my lawyer to see if I have the right to kick him out of the house.
    

    Please help.
    

    Thank you.
    

    CDT
    

    See: I’m a 57-year-old nurse with no retirement savings and I want to retire within seven years. What can I do?
    

    Dear CDT, 
    

    You have a lot to juggle, so the fact that you’re reaching out to someone for some financial guidance should be deemed an accomplishment all its own!
    

    The truth is, you may want to hold off on retiring if you can. Having $110,000 in retirement accounts is great, and you don’t want to have to start dwindling that down while also trying to manage a way to effectively pay down credit card debt and a mortgage. Should an emergency arise, taking a big chunk out of that nest egg could end up hurting you significantly in the long run. 
    

    “I think she needs to take a hard look at her income and expenses,” said Tammy Wener, a financial adviser and co-founder of RW Financial Planning. “When it comes to retirement, so many things are out of your control, like inflation and investment return. The one thing you do have control over is expenses.” Furthermore, your pension may be enough to maintain your lifestyle — though advisers wondered what exactly you would be getting from that pension every month — but you would still be better off with a larger nest egg to fall back on. 
    

    Say you retire next year after all, but you still have credit card debt and hefty bills to pay. Any retirement income you have with and outside of your current funds may not be sufficient for your current living expenses, and if in a few years you realize this, you could end up back in the workforce — though it may be hard to get the same or a similar job you already have. 
    

    Let’s look at your 401(k) and 457 plans for a moment. You said you could take a loan and based on your benefit you don’t need to pay it back, but you should be extremely cautious about this. With 401(k) loans, employees may be required to repay that loan if they’re separated from their employers, so this is a stipulation you should absolutely verify. If there was any misunderstanding as to how a loan is treated, that remaining loan would be treated as taxable income when you left your job, Wener said. 
    

    Financial advisers usually caution investors not to take loans and withdrawals from retirement accounts if they can avoid it, and in your case, this may be especially true as you plan to retire in the next year. When you take a loan, you may be paying yourself and your account back, but your balance is reduced by the amount of the loan, which means you could lose out on investment returns. In the midst of this pandemic, many of the Americans who took a loan or withdrawal regret it now, a recent survey found. “I would not recommend ‘swapping debt’ by taking a loan from her investments,” said Hank Fox, a financial planner. “Instead, she should pay whatever amount is due each month to avoid the finance charges and continue to pay-down the balances.” 
    

    Don’t miss: 5 ways to find free financial advice
    

    Also, consider what would happen if you continued to work: you’d still be able to contribute to a retirement account, boost your savings and, if applicable, reap the rewards with an employer match. You’d also narrow the amount of time you have between retirement and when you can claim Social Security benefits, Fox said. 
    

    Outside of the retirement accounts, you should try to build a “sizable” emergency fund, Wener said. Financial advisers typically suggest three to six months’ worth of living expenses, though you might want to strive for closer to six to offset any undesirable scenarios. 
    

    I’m not sure what the motivation was to retire next year, but if you can delay it, this may be the best solution. “The first thing I would recommend is that she reconsider retiring next year,” Fox said. “Since she will be 57 in November and assuming she is in good health, she should expect to be in retirement for 30 years or more.” 
    

    If postponing retirement is not an option, and it isn’t always, he suggests reducing or eliminating your mortgage, since it’s your largest expense by far. You could refinance, Wener said. Interest rates are very low these days, and while you may end up paying a little more every month for the next two years compared with that 2% rate you currently have, you’d end up paying the same and then less from February 2022 and on. 
    

    As for your credit cards, having a 0% interest rate is such a huge help in paying off debts faster, so you should try to extend that benefit, either by calling and asking about your options with your current credit card company or looking at alternative 0% interest cards. 
    

    A financial adviser — specifically, a Certified Financial Planner — could really help you crunch the numbers and find meaningful ways to make the most of the money you have now and will be getting in retirement, said Vince Clanton, principal and investment adviser representative at Chancellor Wealth Management. 
    

    An adviser can gather information on your current earnings and expenses, retirement savings, potential Social Security benefits and pension and create a financial plan to help you navigate retirement. “Voluntary retirement, and particularly early retirement, are very big decisions,” Clanton said. “It’s extremely important to know and understand all of the variables.” 
    

    Letters are edited for clarity.
    

    Have a question about your own retirement savings? Email us at HelpMeRetire@marketwatch.com
    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    Kroger and Albertsons Say Their Merger Will Cut Prices. Their Shares Are Tumbling.
    
			
    Kroger and Albertsons Say Their Merger Will Cut Prices. Their Shares Are Tumbling.
    
			
     [ad_1]
    

    

    With inflation still an untamed threat, Friday’s announced merger of the grocers
    
        
    
          
    
            Kroger
    
          
    
        
    
       and
    
        
    
          
    
            Albertsons
    
          
    
        
    
       will spur debate about whether the consolidation will raise food prices, or lower them.
    

    The Biden administration’s antitrust regulators are scrutinizing mergers more closely than did predecessors, and an old argument against combinations is that they lead to price-gouging.
    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    Infowars host Alex Jones ordered by Connecticut jury to pay $965 million over Sandy Hook ‘hoax’ claims
    
			
    Infowars host Alex Jones ordered by Connecticut jury to pay $965 million over Sandy Hook ‘hoax’ claims
    
			
     [ad_1]
    

    

    WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided Wednesday.
    

    The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.
    

    

    It came in a lawsuit filed by the relatives of five children and three educators killed in the mass shooting, plus an FBI agent who was among the first responders to the scene. A Texas jury in August awarded nearly $50 million to the parents of another slain child.
    

    

    

    
        “ Experts testified that Jones’s audience swelled when he made Sandy Hook a topic on the show, as did his revenue from product sales. ”
      
    

    

    

    The Connecticut trial featured tearful testimony from parents and siblings of the victims, who told about how they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones’s show.
    

    Strangers showed up at their homes to record them. People hurled abusive comments on social media. Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, testified that people mailed rape threats to her house.
    

    Mark Barden told of how conspiracy theorists had urinated on the grave of his 7-year-old son, Daniel, and threatened to dig up the coffin.
    

    

    

    

    Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis discusses a question from the jury with attorneys on Tuesday.
    

          
    
            H. John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media/AP
    
          
    
  
    

    

    Testifying during the trial, Jones acknowledged he had been wrong about Sandy Hook. The shooting was real, he said. But both in the courtroom and on his show, he was defiant.
    

    He called the proceedings a “kangaroo court,” mocked the judge, called the plaintiffs’ lawyer an ambulance chaser and labeled the case an affront to free speech rights. He claimed it was a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to silence him and put him out of business. “I’ve already said ‘I’m sorry’ hundreds of times, and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” he said during his testimony.
    

    Twenty children and six adults died in the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012. The defamation trial was held at a courthouse in Waterbury, about 20 miles from Newtown, where the attack took place.
    

    The lawsuit accused Jones and Infowars’ private parent company, Free Speech Systems, of using the mass killing to build his audience and make millions of dollars.
    

    Experts testified that Jones’s audience swelled when he made Sandy Hook a topic on the show, as did his revenue from product sales.
    

    Don’t miss: Alex Jones’s audience and Infowars’ revenue grew as Jones alleged Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax
    

    Also: Alex Jones has created a ‘living hell’ of harassment and death threats, testify Sandy Hook school parents
    

    In both the Texas lawsuit and the one in Connecticut, judges found the company liable for damages by default after Jones failed to cooperate with court rules on sharing evidence, including failing to turn over records that might have showed whether Infowars had profited from knowingly spreading misinformation about mass killings.
    

    See: Texas jury orders Alex Jones to pay more than $49 million in damages in Sandy Hook case
    

    Because he was already found liable, Jones was barred from mentioning free-speech rights and other topics during his testimony.
    

    Jones now faces a third trial, in Texas around the end of the year, in a lawsuit filed by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.
    

    It is unclear how much of the verdicts Jones can afford to pay.
    

    During the trial in Texas, he testified he couldn’t afford any judgment over $2 million. Free Speech Systems has filed for bankruptcy protection. But an economist testified in the Texas proceeding that Jones and his company were worth as much as $270 million.
    

    Read on: Alex Jones’s Infowars picks new CRO for bankruptcy
    

    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    Large number of U.S. COVID deaths could be prevented if patients would take Pfizer’s Paxlovid, White House coordinator warns
    
			
    Large number of U.S. COVID deaths could be prevented if patients would take Pfizer’s Paxlovid, White House coordinator warns
    
			
     [ad_1]
    

    A large number of U.S. COVID deaths could be prevented if patients would take Paxlovid, the antiviral developed by Pfizer
    
        PFE,
    
        -1.79%
    
       that helps reduce the risk of hospitalization and death, according to White House COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha.
    

    Jha told the New York Times that the average daily death count could be reduced to about 50 a day from 400 currently, if every American aged 50 and above that tests positive for the virus took a course of either Paxlovid or used monoclonal antibodies.
    

    

     “The public doesn’t seem to understand that the evidence around hospitalization and deaths is really powerful,” Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco told the paper.
    

    The issue seems to be a combination of worry about certain issues that Paxlovid can cause, including a strange metallic taste and the potential for “rebound COVID,” where patients quickly become reinfected after the five-day course of pills has been completed. That happened to both President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden recently.
    

    The second reason is that many Americans — and Republicans, in particular — have refused to take COVID seriously and are not willing to take steps to reduce its impact. Trials have found Paxlovid to be effective across all age groups, but mostly among older patients.  But as the COVID death rate for people under 50 is already close to zero, reducing it in a statistically significant way is difficult. 
    

    See now: CDC scraps travel health notices as countries slow testing, and study confirms Republican-leaning counties suffered more COVID deaths than Democrat-leaning ones
    

    “I think almost everybody benefits from Paxlovid,” Jha said. “For some people, the benefit is tiny. For others, the benefit is massive.” 
    

    Yet a smaller share of 80-year-olds with COVID in the U.S. is taking it than 45-year-olds, Jha said citing data he has seen. 
    

    From the CDC: Stay Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines Including Boosters
    

    The news comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, with data generally not being collected.
    

    The daily average for new cases stood at 41,605 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 25% from two weeks ago. Cases are declining in northeastern states including New York and New Jersey, while cases are rising in the western states Montana, Washington and Oregon. 
    

    The daily average for hospitalizations was down 11% at 27,021, while the daily average for deaths is down 8% to 391.
    

    Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began
    

    Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
    

    • Molnupiravir, the COVID pill developed by Merck
    
        MRK,
    
        +0.18%
    
       and privately held Ridgeback Therapeutics, produced mixed results in two recent studies, the companies said Thursday. Early data from a trial conducted in the U.K. by the University of Oxford found no evidence of a difference when molnupiravir was added to usual care in reducing hospitalizations and death. A second study conducted in Israel found a benefit in patients who were 65 and older, but no benefit for 40- to 60-year-olds. 
    

    • Homelessness is surging in the U.S. again as pandemic programs that halted evictions are being phased out, the Associated Press reported. The overall number of homeless people in a federal report to be released in the coming months is expected to be higher than the 580,000 unhoused before the coronavirus outbreak, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said. The AP tallied results from city-by-city surveys conducted earlier this year and found the number of people without homes is up overall compared with 2020 in areas reporting results so far.
    

    • The idea was to have China in stable and tip-top shape when thousands of delegates gather in Beijing to usher in a historic third term in power for Xi Jinping, BBC News reported. However, the coronavirus is not playing nicely. In recent weeks, tens of millions of people have again been confined to their homes in lockdowns across 60 towns and cities, and this is bringing political pressure on the man who has become the most powerful Chinese figure since the first communist-era leader, Mao Zedong.
    

    

    
          Covid-19 lockdowns, corruption crackdowns and more have put China’s economy on a potential crash course. WSJ’s Dion Rabouin explains how China’s economic downturn could harm the U.S. and the rest of the world. Illustration: David Fang
    
        
    

    

     • A new COVID-19 wave appears to be brewing in Europe as cooler weather arrives, with public health experts warning that vaccine fatigue and confusion over types of available vaccines will likely limit booster uptake, Reuters reported. The omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 that dominated this summer are still behind the majority of infections, but newer omicron subvariants are gaining ground. Hundreds of new forms of omicron are being tracked by scientists, the World Health Organization said this week.
    

    Here’s what the numbers say:
    

    The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 620.5 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.55 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
    

    The U.S. leads the world with 96.6 million cases and 1,062,130 fatalities.
    

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 225.8 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 110.5 million have had a booster, equal to 48.9% of the vaccinated population, and 24.8 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 37.9% of those who received a first booster.
    

    Some 11.5 million people have had a shot of the new bivalent booster that targets the new omicron subvariants.
    

    

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    U.S. risks prolonging pandemic if it doesn’t back WTO push to get vaccines and treatments to lower-income countries, lawmakers warn
    
			
    U.S. risks prolonging pandemic if it doesn’t back WTO push to get vaccines and treatments to lower-income countries, lawmakers warn
    
			
     [ad_1]
    

    

    The U.S. is at risk of prolonging the COVID pandemic if it fails to back an initiative that aims to get vaccines, diagnostics and treatments to lower-income countries, a congressional group has told President Joe Biden.
    

    In a letter to Biden from the group led by Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, the group urged him to back the World Trade Organization’s agreement in June to ease exports of lifesaving therapies. 
    

    

    “With more than 600 million shots in arms, 21,500 free testing sites, the ability to order at-home tests for free, and more treatments available now than at any point in the pandemic, the outlook in the United States is better than ever. Unfortunately, however, the prospect for many low-income countries is not so positive — putting the United States’ own success in jeopardy,” the lawmakers wrote. 
    

    The letter was sent ahead of a meeting of the WTO council for trade-related aspects of IP rights that is due to kick off Thursday. 
    

    The group noted that lower-income countries are facing a higher risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death as only a small percentage of their populations are vaccinated. Just 19% of people in those countries are vaccinated, compared with about 75% in high-income countries, according to the Multilateral Leaders Taskforce on COVID-19, a joint initiative of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the WTO. 
    

    U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. 
    

    The daily average for new cases stood at 43,149 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 23% from two weeks ago. Cases are rising in most northeastern states by 10% of more, while cases in the western states Montana, Washington and Oregon are rising. 
    

    The daily average for hospitalizations was down 11% at 27,184, while the daily average for deaths is down 8% to 391. 
    

    

    
          The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual Covid shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to Covid could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes
    
        
    

    

    Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began
    

    Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
    

    • China’s huge Xinjiang region has been hit with sweeping COVID travel restrictions ahead of a key Communist Party congress later this month, the Associated Press reported. Trains and buses in and out of the region of 22 million people have been suspended, and passenger numbers on flights have been reduced to 75% of capacity in recent days, according to Chinese media reports. The region is home to minorities who have been forced into prison-like re-education centers to force them to renounce their religion, typically Islam, and allegedly subjected to human-rights abuses. 
    

    • Five current or former Internal Revenue Service workers have been charged with fraud for illegally getting money from federal COVID-19 relief programs and using a total of $1 million for luxury items and personal trips, prosecutors said, the AP reported. The U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said Tuesday that the five have been charged with wire fraud after they filed fake applications for the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, which were part of a federal stimulus package tied to the pandemic response in 2020.
    

    • Peloton Interactive Inc.
    
        PTON,
    
        +3.84%
    
       said it plans to cut about 500 jobs, roughly 12% of its remaining workforce, in the company’s fourth round of layoffs this year as the connected fitness-equipment maker tries to reverse mounting losses, the Wall Street Journal reported. After enjoying a strong run early on in the pandemic, Peloton has struggled since the start of the U.S. recovery, and CEO Barry McCarthy, who took over in February, said he is giving the unprofitable company another six months or so to significantly turn itself around and, if it fails, Peloton likely isn’t viable as a stand-alone company.
    

    Don’t miss: Peloton CEO says ‘naysayers’ are looking at the company’s $1.2 billion quarterly loss all wrong.
    

    Here’s what the numbers say:
    

    The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 619.9 million on Wednesday, while the death toll rose above 6.55 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
    

    The U.S. leads the world with 96.6 million cases and 1,061,490 fatalities.
    

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 225.3 million people living in the U.S., equal to 67.9% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 109.9 million have had a booster, equal to 48.8% of the vaccinated population, and 23.9 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 36.6% of those who received a first booster.
    

    Some 7.6 million people have had a shot of one of the new bivalent boosters that target the new omicron subvariants that have become dominant around the world.
    

    

    

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  • 
		
		
    
			
    A strong fall COVID booster campaign could save 90,000 U.S. lives and avoid more than 936,000 hospitalizations, study finds
    
			
    A strong fall COVID booster campaign could save 90,000 U.S. lives and avoid more than 936,000 hospitalizations, study finds
    
			
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    A strong fall COVID booster campaign could save about 90,000 people living in the U.S. from dying of the virus and avoid more than 936,000 hospitalizations, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund.
    

    As immunity wanes and new variants that can evade protection from early vaccines emerge, surges in hospitalizations and deaths are increasingly likely this fall and winter, the authors wrote. That makes it important that people get the bivalent boosters recently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and help stop transmission, they wrote.
    

    

    Researchers analyzed three scenarios to evaluate the impact of vaccination on reducing fatalities, hospitalizations and medical costs to both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
    

    The first measured the outcome if daily vaccination rates remain unchanged from current levels; they have gradually declined since the first wave of the omicron variant. Federal financial support has also not been replenished, amid a perception among many Americans that the pandemic is over and as congressional Republicans oppose legislative efforts to continue the pandemic fight. 
    

    As of Oct. 3, some 68% of the U.S. population has had primary shots, but fewer than half of those have received a booster dose, and only 36% of those aged 50 and older have had a second booster. 
    

    The second and third Commonwealth Fund scenarios looked at outcomes if rates increased by the end of 2022. 
    

    In one scenario, researchers imagined booster uptake would track flu-shot coverage in 2020 to 2021. The other scenario assumed 80% of eligible individuals 5 and older get a booster by the end of 2022.
    

    

    

    
          
    
            Source: Commonwealth Fund
    
          
    
  
    

    

    The data found that more than 75,000 deaths could be prevented along with more than 745,000 hospitalizations if coverage reaches similar levels to 2021 to 2022 flu vaccination. The best scenario would save $56 billion in direct medical costs over the course of the next six months. 
    

    “Stratifying by insurance type, we found direct medical costs would be reduced by $11 billion for Medicare alone under scenario 1 and $13 billion under scenario 2,” the authors wrote. “An additional $3.5 to $4.5 billion in savings would accrue to Medicaid. Even if the federal government paid all vaccination costs, accelerated campaigns would generate more than $10 billion in net savings from federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid.”
    

    The study comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, with data not being collected. 
    

    The daily average for new cases stood at 44,484 on Tuesday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 22% from two weeks ago. Cases are rising in most northeastern states by 10% of more, while cases in the are rising in the western states Montana, Washington and Oregon. 
    

    The daily average for hospitalizations was down 12% at 27,334, while the daily average for deaths is down 8% to 393. 
    

    

    
          The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual Covid shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to Covid could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes
    
        
    

    

    Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began
    

    Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
    

    • Long COVID, a condition that can encompass symptoms such as respiratory distress, cough, “brain fog,” fatigue and malaise that last 12 weeks or longer after initial infection, is becoming a long-term challenge as both employers and workers navigate an ever-mutating virus, according to Liz Seegert, writing for NextAvenue.org. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in five COVID survivors younger than 65 experienced at least one incident that might be related to previous COVID-19 infection. Among those 65 and older, the rate was one in four. Their data also show that nearly three times as many people age 50 to 59 currently have long COVID than those 80 or older.
    

    • A retired judge opened a public inquiry on Tuesday into how Britain handled the coronavirus pandemic, saying bereaved families and those who suffered would be at the heart of the proceedings, the Associated Press reported. Former Court of Appeal judge Heather Hallett said the inquiry would investigate the U.K.’s preparedness for a pandemic, how the government responded, and whether the “level of loss was inevitable or whether things could have been done better.”
    

    

    
          With each mutation, the Covid-19 virus is becoming more transmissible. WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez breaks down the science of how Covid variants are getting better at infecting and spreading. Illustration: Rami Abukalam
    
        
    

    

    • Health experts are keeping an eye on new versions of the BA.5 omicron subvariant amid concerns those virus versions can evade the drugs developed to fight COVID, Salon reported. Of particular concern are two named BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, along with BA.2.75.2, which is spreading in Singapore, India and parts of Europe. Then there’s XBB, which some research suggest is the most antibody-evasive strain tested so far. The World Health Organization said in its weekly update on the virus that BA.5 descendent lineages continued to be dominant in the latest week, accounting for 80.8% of sequences shared through a global database.  It also noted “increased diversity” within omicron and its lineages.
    

    • Eiger BioPharmaecuticals Inc.
    
        EIGR,
    
        -5.01%
    
       said Wednesday it will not pursue emergency authorization of its experimental treatment for mild and moderate COVID-19 infections. It had asked the Food and Drug Administration to consider an EUA application based on data from the Together trial, a Phase 3 study that has assessed 11 possible treatments for COVID-19 that is being conducted in Brazil and Canada. Eiger said the FDA instead recommended the company consider running its own pivotal trial for peginterferon lambda that would support full approval of the drug.
    

    Here’s what the numbers say:
    

    The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 619.2 million on Wednesday, while the death toll rose above 6.55 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
    

    The U.S. leads the world with 96.5 million cases and 1,060,446 fatalities.
    

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 225.3 million people living in the U.S., equal to 67.9% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 109.9 million have had a booster, equal to 48.8% of the vaccinated population, and 23.9 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 36.6% of those who received a first booster.
    

    Some 7.6 million people have had a shot of the new bivalent booster that targets the new omicron subvariants that have become dominant around the world. 
    

    

    

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    Midterm elections: Republicans regain edge over Democrats in generic ballot, scoring biggest advantage in 2 months in key indicator
    
			
    Midterm elections: Republicans regain edge over Democrats in generic ballot, scoring biggest advantage in 2 months in key indicator
    
			
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    The Republican Party has an edge again in the generic ballot, and that advantage has reached a level last seen in late July, according to a RealClearPolitics average for that closely watched indicator.
    

    That could be another sign that the GOP may be getting back some momentum as November’s midterm elections approach, after Democratic prospects improved during the summer.
    

    

    Republicans are now scoring 46.0% support in the RCP average of generic ballots, a percentage point ahead of Democrats at 45.0%. 
    

    The GOP hit a 1-point edge last Wednesday, then saw a dip, but as of Tuesday was back at that level, as shown in the chart below.
    

    It’s not a big advantage, but it’s the best showing for Republicans in RCP’s data for generic ballots since July 28, as Democrats had the advantage for much of August and September.
    

    Related: If this seat flips red, Republicans will have ‘probably won a relatively comfortable House majority’
    

    Also read: ‘Republican control of the House is not a foregone conclusion,’ says political analyst
    

    

    

    
          
    
            RealClearPolitics
    
          
    
  
    

    

    The generic ballot refers to a poll question that asks voters which party they would support in a congressional election without naming individual candidates. Analysts tend to see it as a useful indicator.
    

    Other websites focused on political analysis and forecasting, such as FiveThirtyEight, still show Democrats with an edge in their data for generic ballots.
    

    Election Day for the midterm contests is now five weeks away. Democrats have focused their campaigns on abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s June decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, while Republicans have seized on Americans’ frustration with high inflation.
    

    The additional chart below is interactive and shows RCP’s data for the generic ballot over a longer time frame.
    

    Related: Biden to talk up Democrats’ support for abortion rights, with midterm elections now just 5 weeks away
    

    And see: New poll finds just 30% of Americans approve of how Biden is handling inflation
    

    Plus: Republicans’ chances for taking control of Senate rebound to 46%, a level last seen about 8 weeks ago
    

    

    

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    CDC scraps travel health notices as countries slow testing, and study confirms Republican-leaning counties suffered more COVID deaths than Democrat-leaning ones
    
			
    CDC scraps travel health notices as countries slow testing, and study confirms Republican-leaning counties suffered more COVID deaths than Democrat-leaning ones
    
			
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    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dropped its country-by-country COVID-19 travel health notices that it began issuing early in the pandemic, the Associated Press reported. 
    

    The reason: Fewer countries are testing for the virus or reporting the number of COVID cases. That limits the CDC’s ability to calculate travelers’ risk, according to the agency. 
    

    

    CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said the agency will only post a travel health notice for an individual country if a situation such as a troubling new variant of the virus changes CDC travel recommendations for that country.
    

    The CDC still recommends that travelers remain up-to-date on vaccines and follow recommendations found on its international travel page.
    

    From the CDC: Stay Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines Including Boosters
    

    A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research has confirmed that political affiliations played a key role as a risk factor for dying of COVID, finding evidence that Republican-leaning counties suffered higher death rates than Democratic-leaning ones.
    

    “We estimate substantially higher excess death rates for registered
    Republicans when compared to registered Democrats, with almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available in our study states,” the authors, Jacob Wallace and Jason L. Schwartz of the Yale School of Public Health, and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham of the Yale School of Management wrote.
    

     “Overall, the excess death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points (pp), or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats.”
    

    The researchers used data from Ohio and Florida and matched 2017 voter registration data with mortality data from 2018 to 2021. They also found a link between political affiliation and views on vaccines, with Republican-leaning counties showing far lower vaccination rates. 
    

    

    

    
          
    
            Source: NBER paper
    
          
    
  
    

    

    In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. 
    

    The daily average for new cases stood at 45,495 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 24% from two weeks ago. Cases are rising in 11 states plus Washington, D.C. They are up by double-digit percentages in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Vermont. 
    

    The daily average for hospitalizations was down 11% at 27,854, while the daily average for deaths is down 12% to 386. 
    

    Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began
    

    Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
    

    • Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
    
        NCLH,
    
        +16.84%
    
       is removing all COVID testing, vaccination and masking requirements from its health and safety protocols. The company said the new protocols, which follows “significant, positive progress” in the public health environment, will be effective Oct. 4. “Health and safety are always our first priority; in fact, we were the health and safety leaders from the very start of the pandemic,” said Chief Executive Harry Sommer. “Many travelers have been patiently waiting to take their long-awaited vacation at sea and we cannot wait to celebrate their return.” 
    

    See also: Would you take a cruise without such COVID-19 testing, vaccination and masks? MarketWatch asked health experts to weigh in.
    

     • Ringo Starr has test positive for COVID, forcing the former Beatle to cancel scheduled concerts in Canada with his All Starr Band, the AP reported. Five concert dates from Tuesday to Sunday — in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Lethbridge, Alberta; and the British Columbia cities of Abbotsford and Penticton — will be rescheduled. “Ringo hopes to resume as soon as possible and is recovering at home. As always, he and the All Starrs send peace and love to their fans and hope to see them back out on the road soon,” said a statement from the band.
    

    

    
          The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual Covid shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to Covid could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes
    
        
    

    

     • A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Monday became the latest to hear arguments on whether President Joe Biden overstepped his authority with an order that federal contractors require that their employees be vaccinated against COVID, the AP reported separately. The contractor mandate has a complicated legal history. It is being challenged in more than a dozen federal court districts, and the mandate has been blocked or partially blocked in 25 states. 
    

     • The Chinese resort city of Sanya has ordered all tourists to take PCR tests, and those who fail to do so by noon on Tuesday will be slapped with a yellow code restricting their mobility, according to local officials, the South China Morning Post reported. The city in the southern province of Hainan logged two asymptomatic Covid-19 cases on Monday. It carried out a round of mass testing and locked down several areas in Haitang district, including a scenic island that received around 2,000 tourists on Monday.
    

    Here’s what the numbers say:
    

    The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 618.7 million on Tuesday, while the death toll rose above 6.54 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
    

    The U.S. leads the world with 96.4 million cases and 1,059,888 fatalities.
    

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 225.3 million people living in the U.S., equal to 67.9% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 109.9 million have had a booster, equal to 48.8% of the vaccinated population, and 23.9 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 36.6% of those who received a first booster.
    

    Some 7.6 million people have had a shot of the new bivalent booster that targets the new omicron subvariants that have become dominant around the world.
    

       
    

    

    

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