Connect with us

Finance

Trump is the most pro-stock market president in history, Wharton’s Jeremy Siegel

Published

on

President-elect Trump is the most pro-stock market president in history: Wharton's Jeremy Siegel

The stock market could enjoy a bigger boost from President-elect Donald Trump than any previous administration thanks to his pro-business policies, according to Jeremy Siegel, finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“President-elect Trump is the most pro-stock market president we have had in our history,” Siegel said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday. “He measured his success in his first term by how well the stock market did. You know, it seems to me very unlikely he’s going to implement policies that are going to be bad for the stock market.”

The market already reached new heights in reaction to Trump’s election win as investors bet that his promises of tax cuts and deregulation will propel growth and benefit risk assets.

The S&P 500 soared 4.66% last week for its best week since November 2023, trading above 6,000 for the first time ever. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average also climbed above a new milestone of 44,000 post election.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

hide content

S&P 500

Investments seen as the biggest beneficiaries under a Trump presidency exploded during the week. 

Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk is a prominent backer of Trump, saw shares skyrocket 29% to return to a $1 trillion market cap. Bank stocks such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo also had big rallies. Bitcoin continued to hit record highs as traders see looser regulations under Trump.

Siegel believes that Trump’s corporate tax cuts from his first term in 2017 are mostly likely to be extended.

“I think the extension of his 2017 tax cuts, looks pretty much like a slam dunk, but the expansion to all his other tax cuts is certainly going to be much more difficult,” Siegel said.

Still, the president-elect’s trade policy, including his vow to slap steep tariffs on trading partners, could hurt growth and inflame inflationary pressures at a time when the Federal Reserve has spent more than two years raising interest rates to bring down price increases.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Finance

CFPB expands oversight of Apple Pay, other digital payments services

Published

on

Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, testifies during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Semi-Annual Report to Congress,” in the Dirksen Building on Nov. 30, 2023.

Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday issued a finalized version of a rule saying it will soon supervise nonbank firms that offer financial services likes payments and wallet apps.

Tech giants and payments firms that handle at least 50 million transactions annually will fall under the review, which is meant to ensure the newer entrants adhere to the laws that banks and credit unions abide by, the CFPB said in a release. That would include popular services from Apple and Google, as well as payment firms like PayPal and Block.  

While the CFPB already had some authority over digital payment companies because of its oversight of electronic fund transfers, the new rule allows it to treat tech companies more like banks. It makes the firms subject to “proactive examinations” to ensure legal compliance, enabling it to demand records and interview employees.

“Digital payments have gone from novelty to necessity and our oversight must reflect this reality,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The rule will help to protect consumer privacy, guard against fraud, and prevent illegal account closures.”

A year ago, the CFPB said it wanted to extend its oversight to tech and fintech companies that offer financial services but that have sidestepped more scrutiny by partnering with banks. Americans are increasingly using payment apps as de facto bank accounts, storing cash and making everyday purchases through their mobile phones.

The most popular apps covered by the rule collectively process more than 13 billion consumer payments a year, and have gained “particularly strong adoption” among low- and middle-income users, the CFPB said on Thursday.

“What began as a convenient alternative to cash has evolved into a critical financial tool, processing over a trillion dollars in payments between consumers and their friends, families, and businesses,” the regulator said.

The initial proposal would’ve subjected companies that process at least 5 million transactions annually to some of the same examinations that the CFPB conducts on banks and credit unions. That threshold got raised to 50 million transactions in the final rule, the agency said Thursday.

Payment apps that only work at a particular retailer, like Starbucks, are excluded from the rule.

The new CFPB rule is one of the rare instances where the U.S. banking industry publicly supported the regulator’s actions; banks have long felt that tech firms making inroads in financial services ought to be more scrutinized.

The CFPB said the rule will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

Continue Reading

Finance

SNOW, NVDA, BJ and more

Published

on

Continue Reading

Finance

Baidu Q3 2024 earnings:

Published

on

Baidu on Nov. 12, 2024, unveiled a pair of glasses with a built-in AI assistant, putting up a Chinese rival to the Meta Ray-Bans that have proven a rare success in AI-powered hardware. 

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese tech giant Baidu on Thursday posted a 3% annual drop in third-quarter revenue, nevertheless beating market expectations amid AI cloud growth.

The revenue print came in at $4.78 billion for the quarter ending on Sept. 30. Net income for the period rose by 14% to $1.09 billion.

Baidu noted a 12% surge in its non-online marketing revenue to the equivalent of $1.1 billion, mainly driven by its artificial intelligence cloud business.

Here’s what analysts expected the company to report for the quarter, according to LSEG estimates:

  • Revenue: $4.63 billion
  • Net income: $857.17 million

Baidu had reported revenue of 34.45 billion yuan ($4.75 billion) and net income of 6.68 billion yuan for the third quarter of 2023.

Beijing-based Baidu operates one of the major web browser search engines in China, along with a frequently used maps app. The company also sells cloud computing services. Online marketing drives a significant portion of the firm’s revenue.

In artificial intelligence, Baidu has promoted its Ernie chatbot as a local alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which isn’t available in China. Ernie bot now has 430 million users, Baidu said last week.

The company this month also announced that its Xiaodu AI Glasses will begin sales in the first half of next year. The wearable has at least one camera and uses Ernie’s AI capabilities and Baidu’s maps and search functions. While Baidu hasn’t revealed a price, the product is widely expected to be a Chinese alternative to Meta’s popular Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Baidu announced a management rotation last month, with Junjie He, formerly head of the mobile ecosystem group, becoming the company’s interim Chief Financial Officer, while former CFO Rong Luo assumed leadership of the mobile division.

Continue Reading

Trending