Philanthropy Grants

The movement to prevent members of Congress from trading stocks has slowed, as many lawmakers agree on the need to prohibit such transactions but have not defined the specifics. As concerns grow that time is running out, a key figure in the talks tells Yahoo Finance that a unity bill may be imminent as the legislature moves steadily towards agreement. In an interview with Yahoo Finance Presents, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), around a dozen lawmakers are negotiating a draft bill, and a final one will be introduced “at some point in the next few weeks.”

In recent years, there has been controversy over whether legislators should trade stocks because they have access to non-public information. The lawmakers’ proposal would mark a significant step in reforming the relationship between lawmakers and Wall Street. Gillibrand told Yahoo Finance that lawmakers are closer to reaching an agreement on one of the key issues – how they can put their money in blind trusts. “We are going to create some provisions for people who come into Congress owning certain portfolios, that they can hold them in blind trust,” she said. “That’s probably going to be the outcome.” According to the most recent draft of the unity bill, she added that cryptocurrency trading would be banned, and for all securities, “we would allow people to own what they own, but they would have to put it behind a blind trust.”

Strategist at the bank of America noted on Friday that Investors pulled $17.5 billion out of global equities over the past week, making the biggest weekly outflow this year. They cautioned that those outflows could well deepen. Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett pointed out that Since Nov. 2021, NASDAQ peak inflows to stocks have occurred in 16 of 20 weeks, for a total of $229 billion, while private clients bought stocks 17 out of 20 weeks.

Investors also pulled $8.7 billion out of bonds and $55.4 billion from cash, pouring $900 million into gold. Before Friday’s stock-market rout, the S&P 500 SPX -2.77% slumped 2.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -2.82% plummeted 981.36 points or 2.8%. The S&P 500 is down 10.4% year to date, while the Dow is off 7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, -2.55%, is down 17.9% so far in 2022, after a 2.5% Friday drop. Breaking down some of the equity outflows, Bank of America strategists noted data showing Europe saw the 10th straight weekly outflow — $2.9 billion, while $1.6 billion exited financials, as money flowed back into buying the technology sector dip. Materials, meanwhile, marked a record 8-weeks of inflows.

President Joe Biden will nominate former Treasury Department official, Michael Barr, to be the Federal Reserve’s top regulator in charge of big banks. Barr is the White House’s frontrunner for the top regulatory job. If appointed, the financial law author perhaps becomes the most powerful U.S. bank regulator: the Fed Vice chair supervision.

Barr helped design the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act during his service as assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions during the Obama administration. That law became one of the most extensive overhauls of financial regulation in U.S. history and came on the heels of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Among its many provisions to protect the economy from future calamity, Dodd-Frank produced both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Fed’s vice chair for supervision. Biden said in a statement Friday morning accompanying the formal White House announcement. “He was instrumental in the passage of Dodd-Frank, to ensure a future financial crisis would not create devastating economic hardship for working families.” “He understands that this job is not a partisan one, but one that plays a critical role in regulating our nation’s financial institutions to ensure Americans are treated fairly and to protect the stability of our economy.”

Shares of HP Inc. on Thursday soared higher after Securities and Exchange Commission filings revealed that billionaire investor Warren Buffet had built a $4.2 billion stake in the Pc and printer maker. According to the SEC filings published late Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway BRK, an investment group, now owns an 11.4% stake in the Palo Alto, California-based group. The move adds to Buffet’s recent buying after new stakes in oil major Occidental petroleum.
Buffet lamented that few companies or deals were able to pique his interest as Berkshire Hathaway posted record fourth-quarter earnings this year and bought back $27 billion in stock over the whole of 2021. Since then, however, the billionaire cautioned that stock buybacks would slow considerably this year to just $1.2 billion, suggesting the Sage of Omaha may be tempted to put his $146.7 billion cash pile to work in finding more companies. Shares of the Pc and printer maker were marked 15.27% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $40.24 each. The company, in the spring of 2020, beat back a $35 billion hostile takeover bid from Xerox (XRX) and has now added video and audio devices maker poly to its stable last month in a deal valued at $3.3 billion, including debt, as it looks to expand product offerings to take advantage of the global shift towards hybrid work.

There is no doubt that any assistance that can be provided to someone who wishes to study is critical to their success, which is why grants and scholarships are such an important means of assisting individuals who choose to pursue studies and research in an academic setting. Read More

The First Case of Omicron Reported in America
Panic seems to be rising as the first case of the Omicron variant has been reported in the United States in the state of California. Scientists still don’t know all of the specifics of this variant, but it does have the most mutations out of all the variants before it. This one could be more deadly, but it also might not be. We are still weeks away from having all the answers. Read More

October has been an interesting month in the world of crypto. The latest meme-coin craze is Shiba Inu, which reached a market capitalization of $40 billion in the last week of the month. The cryptocurrency is a little hard to get though. You can only get it on Coinbase in some states. Robinhood is under a lot of pressure from their users to add more crypto to the platform. Some even signed a petition to add Shiba Inu specifically. Read More

The holidays are coming, and while it is the most wonderful time of the year, it is also the most expensive for some. It can be overwhelming and stressful to have to worry about holiday shopping. It’s not impossible, though, and there are many ways to make the holidays cheaper. The first thing you should know is that you do not have to buy gifts for every single person in your life. You don’t have to buy gifts for anyone, but that’s easier said than done. Read More

If you want to take out a mortgage loan, you’ll need to start with making sure you know your credit score and that you have a budget that you can stick to. From there, you’ll also want to take into account all of your existing debt and try to pay off as much as possible before taking on another new faction of debt. You also don’t want to do any other major purchases in that time. Read More