Wealth Management News & Insights
529 Accounts, CrowdStrike Shares Plunge, Evan Gershkovich Among 24 Prisoners Exchanged
Primary Sources
- Federal Reserve Issues FOMC Statement: Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. Job gains have moderated, and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low. [FRB]
Financial Markets
- CrowdStrike Shares Plunge 11% to Lowest Level of the Year on Report That Delta May Seek Damages: The company has now lost one-third of its value since July 19, when a historic outage of Microsoft systems, caused by a software update from CrowdStrike, knocked numerous industries offline, including airlines. [CNBC]
- Microsoft, Apple, Meta Set to Report in Busy Earnings Week: A quartet of big tech companies is set to report results during a busy week for earnings, and after a selloff among the “Magnificent Seven” hit the Nasdaq. [WSJ]
- Diapers Are a Drag for P&G Earnings; Stock Slides: The consumer giant said it has introduced a revamped version of its mid-priced Luvs diapers, after market-share losses dragged down sales for its baby, feminine and family care business. [WSJ]
- Bank of England Cuts Rates After Fed Held Off: U.K. central bank lowers key rate for the first time since 2020, a day after the Fed kept rates at a two-decade high. [WSJ]
The charts above provide an overview of personal saving rate trends. As of June 2024, the personal saving rate is recorded at 3.4% and there is approximately $400 billion in excess savings.
Financial Planning
- Credit Card Swipe Fee Suit Will Continue, Nearly 2 Decades Since It Started: In 2005, the same year Google Maps and Wedding Crashers graced the world, four merchant associations filed the antitrust, class action. [Morning Brew]
- You Inherited an IRA. Here’s How to Avoid a Huge Tax Bill: People who inherited retirement accounts in recent years finally have guidance from the Internal Revenue Service on how to drain their accounts. A few strategies can help you avoid handing over more than necessary to the IRS. [Barron’s]
Business Strategy
- Southwest To Get Rid Of Open Seating, Offer Extra Legroom In Biggest Shift In Its History: Southwest Airlines is ending open seating and will offer extra legroom seats on its airplanes as mounting pressure on the carrier to increase revenue prompts the biggest changes to its business model in its 53 years of flying. [CNBC]
- Amazon Pushes Fast Delivery Into Rural Areas in Challenge to Post Office: E-commerce giant is expanding into remote areas after years of fine-tuning its delivery systems in more dense cities. [WSJ]
- A Few Blockbuster Podcasts Are Making All the Money: The top shows are adding video, merchandise and live tours and signing megadeals with Spotify, Sirius and Amazon. [WSJ]
- Chevron Dumps California for Texas After 145 Years: Chevron Corp., based in California since the days of kerosene lamps, is moving headquarters to Texas after years of fighting Golden State officials over strict environmental policies and costly regulations. [Bloomberg]
- Washington Post C.E.O.’s Last Company Lost Millions Betting on Gen Z: The Post is creating a division under Will Lewis, its C.E.O., to find valuable audiences in new places. His last company shows that’s a tough road. [NYT]
- NBA Says It Has Signed New 11-Year Media Rights Deal With Disney, NBC And Amazon: The NBA signed its 11-year media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday after saying it was not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer to continue its longtime relationship with the league. [AP News]
Following the new NBA renewal cycle, the league is set to achieve a 2.6x increase in value compared to the pervious cycle. Additionally, the NBA has established a new partnership with Amazon, which will enhance their reach by tapping into the Amazon Prime user base.
Life & Work
- Simone Biles Wins Olympic All-Around Title; Bronze For Suni Lee: Simone Biles remains peerless — even when she’s not quite perfect. The American gymnastics star held off Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade during a tense Olympic all-around final Thursday. [ESPN]
- There’s a LeBron of Table Tennis. His Name Is Lebrun: China’s table-tennis dominance is being challenged at the Paris Olympics—by a 17-year-old French sensation with an unusual playing style. [WSJ]
- The Olympic Flame Isn’t a Flame at All: Two torches may have lit it to open the Paris Games, but that’s not a fire in the cauldron. [NYT]
- Inside the Secret Negotiations to Free Evan Gershkovich: The effort to bring home The Wall Street Journal reporter and others unfolded on three continents, involving spy agencies, billionaires, political power players and his fiercest advocate—his mother. [WSJ]
- Evan Gershkovich Among 24 Prisoners Exchanged in Massive Russia-West Deal: The biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War era took place earlier on Thursday, with 24 people released in total, the US has confirmed. [BBC]
- Wrigley Field View Set to Undergo Major Change: The view beyond the outfield at Wrigley Field is about to undergo a major change after the Chicago City Council approved a plan to replace three buildings just beyond right field with a single five-story apartment building. [Reuters]