Business Matters with Don Ma

U.S. regulators will not immediately allow Boeing to increase 737 MAX production as it addresses ongoing safety issues, the agency's administrator said on Thursday, after a three-hour meeting with company officials, including outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun. The U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first quarter than previously estimated, after downward revisions to consumer spending and a key measure o...

Top U.S. independent oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips on Wednesday agreed to buy Marathon Oil for $22.5 billion, the latest in a series of mega-deals in the energy industry. Walgreens is cutting prices on 1,500 items, in an effort to lure back inflation-weary shoppers turned off by high prices. A Samsung Electronics union in South Korea will begin escalating strike action next we...

The Nasdaq crossed 17,000 for the first time ever on Tuesday, boosted by gains in Nvidia, while the S&P 500 closed barely higher and the Dow ended lower as Treasury yields rose. T-Mobile will buy almost all of regional carrier United States Cellular's wireless operations including customers, stores and 30% of its spectrum assets in a deal valued at $4.4 billion, the telecom giant said on Tuesd...

Memorial Day weekend is shaping up to offer some of the best deals on new cars in years. The discounts vary widely by manufacturer and type of car, but it’s a good time to be in the market for an electric vehicle. Passenger traffic at US airports is on pace to make this Memorial Day weekend the busiest on record, according to Transportation Security Administration screening data. China has se...

Elon Musk says artificial intelligence will take all our jobs. He also told the 2024 VivaTech conference in France that AI may bring universal high income as well as a lack of meaning to life. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday approved applications from Nasdaq, CBOE and NYSE to list exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to the price of ether, potentially paving th...

The House of Representatives has just passed a bill to stop the federal reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. The bill passed the chamber pretty much along party lines. Proponents of the bill argue a central bank digital currency would threaten Americans' financial privacy. Meanwhile democrats say the bill will hold back American innovation. The U.S. Justice Department and more tha...

President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the cancellation of another $7.7 billion in student debt for 160,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of people to get their debt cancelled to 4.75 million, despite Republican opposition. U.S. existing home sales unexpectedly fell in April as higher mortgage rates and house prices weighed on demand, dealing another setback to...

Trucking companies are reporting more and more theft. Some are happening in new and unusual ways. Co-Owner of J.K.C. Trucking Inc. Mike Kucharski shared one example of thieves posing as the company and trying to book loads in its name. Theft has become so prevalent, Kucharski says thieves are stealing anything. A conservative shareholder has pulled a resolution calling on JPMorgan to report how it...

Restaurant chain Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Florida court. It said its restaurants will be open and operate as usual during the proceedings, and plans to reduce its locations as well as pursue a sale of substantially all its assets. Target is lowering prices on at least 5,000 frequently shopped products across its assortment rangin...

China on Friday announced some of its most sweeping measures yet to stabilize the crisis-hit property sector, allowing local governments to buy “some” apartments, relaxing mortgage rules and pledging further efforts to deliver unfinished homes. U.S. workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama handed a stinging loss to the United Auto Workers on Friday, rejecting the union in a vote...

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed the 40,000 level on Thursday for the first time, on hopes of U.S. interest rate cuts and strong earnings before stocks turned mostly flat in afternoon trading. Walmart raised its full-year forecast and reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday, betting that easing inflation will drive stronger sales of groceries an...

U.S. consumer prices increased less than expected in April, suggesting that inflation resumed its downward trend at the start of the second quarter in a boost to financial market expectations for a September interest rate cut. New data released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed that as household debt balances grew during the first quarter, delinquencies also marched higher. No...

President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including electric vehicle batteries, computer chips, and medical products, in a bid to woo voters who give his economic policies low marks. Producer prices—the cost of goods and services paid by businesses—rose hotter than expected in April, adding to concerns that the U.S. economy co...

China will start raising money to stimulate the economy. this is going to be with its long-awaited, long-term special treasury bonds this week. The finance ministry confirmed that it will be issuing one trillion yuan of special government bonds, more than $138 billion dollars. Shares of videogame retailer GameStop surged nearly 75% on Monday after "Roaring Kitty", an account associated with a soci...

U.S. consumer sentiment tumbled to a six-month low in May, as households worried about the higher cost of living and unemployment. President Joe Biden is set to announce new China tariffs as soon as next week targeting strategic sectors, including a major hike in levies on electric vehicles (EVs), according to people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters. Novavax’...

A new report says a number of U.S. pensions, university endowments, and other institutional investors may have exposure to TikToks owner Byte Dance, this is from a new report by a bipartisan advocacy organization Future Union. Lawmakers at the house of representatives have voted to repeal a controversial crypto rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The rule relates to how banks hand...

Crypto exchange FTX will have between $14.5 billion to $16.3 billion to pay its creditors and customers, according to an amended reorganization plan filed by the company on Tuesday in a U.S. bankruptcy court. Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust is baffling investors. The $59 billion fund has boasted 10.5% annual return since its debut in 2017. Competitors on the other hand have fallen in...

TikTok sued on Tuesday to block a new law that requires the sale of the app from its Chinese parent company or its ban from app stores and web-hosting services. A new report shows that the Social Security system’s main trust fund will be depleted by 2035—one year later than a prior estimate, though concerns remain about the fund’s solvency. Walt Disney's surprise profit in its streaming enter...

Warren Buffett assured Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that the executives expected to succeed him were ready for the job, and he heaped praise on Apple although Berkshire trimmed its position in the iPhone maker. The Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday it has opened an investigation into the Boeing 787 Dreamliner after the planemaker said some employees had committe...

An auditing firm that represents hundreds of clients including Trump Media, which owns former President Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” app, reached a $12 million settlement with the SEC to settle charges alleging it failed to comply with accounting oversight standards affecting over 1,500 of its SEC filings. The U.S. labor market showed further signs of cooling down after the economy added a smalle...

A former quality auditor at a Boeing supplier died suddenly this week after struggling with a “sudden, fast-spreading infection,” the Seattle Times reported on May 1. U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday as investors weighed the Federal Reserve's more dovish-than-expected interest rate guidance on Wednesday against a plethora of mixed earnings and economic data. A U.S. District Judge peppered the Justi...

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at their highest levels in 23 years as monetary policymakers have observed “a lack of further progress” toward the central bank’s 2 percent inflation target. Regulatory filings show that former President Donald Trump increased his stake significantly in the company behind his social media platform Truth Social, with the former president n...

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for allowing rampant money laundering on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Elon Musk has dismissed two Tesla senior executives and plans to lay off hundreds more employees, frustrated by falling sales and the pace of job cuts so far, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing the CEO's email to seni...

An April small business report found 43% of small business renters were late on their rent or could only pay part of their payment. Alignable conducted the survey. It found that small business owners say rent is higher, costs have increased, and revenue is declining. Nearly 70% of businesses formed before the pandemic report making less monthly now. The report also found that i...

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge surged at a higher-than-expected pace, highlighting the persistent struggle to return inflation to the central bank’s 2 percent target. Alphabet Inc. announced a first-time-ever dividend program and a $70 billion buyback of its own stock that could revitalize the tech company for the next year. TikTok’s Beijing-based owner ByteDance denied media repo...