US Economy Grows 2% Despite Iran War Oil Shock, But Risks Loom
While rising energy prices did dampen growth somewhat, private investment, consumer spending, and government expenditures remained relatively strong during the period.“On net it’s a solid number. Consumer spending has held up,” said Jason Draho, head of asset allocation for the Americas at UBS. However, he cautioned that this strength “could be fully offset” if higher energy prices persist for the next six months.
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Read MorePlain Talk: 'We haven't gotten better deals' out of Trump's trade war
MINOT — When asked on this episode of Plain Talk about the justification that President Donald Trump’s erratic regime of tariffs is necessary to flex America’s economic might and negotiate better deals, John Bitzan, director of the Challey Institute at North Dakota State University, argued that the strategy has not worked.
“We haven’t gotten better deals out of this,”
ETFs to Watch as Alphabet Rides Cloud Surge, Beats Estimates
Alphabet GOOGL came up with first-quarter 2026 earnings on April 29, after market close. Earnings of $5.11 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.64 by a staggering 93.56%. The bottom line marked an improvement of 81.85% from earnings of $2.81 per share recorded in the same period last year.
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Read MoreStock market today: Dow jumps 750 points, S&P 500, Nasdaq notch record highs to cap best month for stocks since 2020
Amazon’s AI spending problem may have a demand answer.
The company’s cloud backlog — future business Amazon has already contracted but has not yet turned into revenue — jumped to $364 billion in the first quarter, CEO Andy Jassy said on the company’s earnings call.
And that figure doesn’t include Amazon’s recently announced Anthropic deal for more than $100 billion.
Read MoreAverage Car Loan Interest Rates by Credit Score in May 2026
How credit scores affect car loan interest rates
Your credit score is a three-digit representation of how you’ve handled credit in the past. It’s based on information in your credit report, including whether you’ve missed payments before or if you’re currently behind on your existing loans.
A higher credit score generally translates to lower loan rates,
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Read MoreThe Burst
Will NVIDIA Be The First To Hit $10 Trillion?
The plaudits NVIDIA receives seem to have no bounds but they also seem deserved when you look under the surface.
This is a company with a perfect Piotroski score of 9, suggesting rock solid fundamentals. It’s not a surprise, as a result, to discover that a full 30 analysts increased their earnings estimates for the company for the upcoming quarter.
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Read MoreThe Ivy
1 High-Yield Casino REIT That Keeps Raising Dividends
VICI Properties (NYSE:VICI) is a REIT that specializes in hotel and casino properties. Spun off from Caesar Entertainment in 2017, the company owns several of the most prominent properties in the United States.
Assets owned by VICI include Caesar’s Palace and The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Chelsea Piers in New York and the Hard Rock Casino in Cincinnati.
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Read MoreThe Spotlight
Spotlight: Is Tesla a Massive Buy After Ford Revealed The Dirty Secret?
“Tesla is just a car company. It trades at a premium to other car manufacturers. The valuation is crazy” – that was the refrain from Tesla bears for years. And without doing a deep dive into Tesla, it seemed reasonable. After all, a car is a car. Analyze the number of units sold…