Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] It’s been difficult to get a clear view on how US businesses are dealing with President Donald Trump’s tariff roller coaster. Now, two reports show how they’re raising prices and slowing hiring.The Federal Reserve released its Beige Book on Wednesday, which explores economic conditions across the Fed’s 12 regional banks based on interviews and surveys of business owners, economists, and others. Half of the districts reported “slight to moderate” declines in economic activity, and three reported no growth.The Beige Book and a separate report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed that businesses stockpiled goods expected to…

[ad_1] CNN  —  The Consumer Price Index is more than just the most widely used inflation gauge and a measurement of Americans’ purchasing power. Its robust data plays a key role in the US economy’s trajectory as well as monthly mortgage payments, Social Security checks, financial aid packages, business contracts, pay negotiations and curiosity salves for those who wonder what Kevin McCallister’s $19.83 grocery bill in “Home Alone” might cost today. However, this gold standard piece of economic data has become a little less precise recently: The Bureau of Labor Statistics posted a notice on Wednesday stating that it stopped…

[ad_1] Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Trump family media company is seeking to launch a bitcoin exchange traded fund in its latest push to capitalise on surging enthusiasm for digital currencies. Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs the president’s preferred social media app Truth Social, announced on Thursday that it had filed an application with US regulators to create the “Truth Social Bitcoin ETF”.  The ETF will be operated by Florida-based Yorkville America Digital — an “America-first asset management firm” — and will hold bitcoin directly,…

[ad_1] (This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh here — There will always be an agriculture cycle and companies in the agriculture space will always be, to some extent, beholden to it. In fact, companies in most sectors of the economy must contend with one cycle or another — commodities, interest rates, housing, capex, etc. But in the digital age, companies have found ways to annuitize their businesses and transcend this cyclicality. Converting traditional transaction-based business models into subscription or annually recurring revenue (ARR)…

[ad_1] Sentiment on Wall Street has been strengthening steadily on Boeing shares, with the aerospace behemoth finally gaining some momentum. Sixty-nine percent of analysts surveyed by FactSet rate Boeing either a buy or overweight. That’s up from 52% at the end of 2024. Consensus price targets call for about 2% upside from Wednesday’s close. The stock has been on a tear in 2025 as well, with a gain of nearly 20%, while the S & P 500 has ticked up 1.5%. JPMorgan, Wolfe Research and Bernstein are among the Wall Street shops that have raised price targets for Boeing stock…

[ad_1] CNN  —  Anna Gomez, soon to be the lone Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, has been sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump’s “weaponization” of her agency against the press. And now she’s taking it on the road. Gomez has embarked on a “First Amendment Tour” of planned speeches across multiple states, saying Trump has shown a “pattern of censorship and control” threatening free speech rights. Under Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC has conducted what she calls “sham investigations” against news outlets. Last week, Gomez gave a speech at California State University in Los Angeles — her…

[ad_1] CNN  —  UnitedHealthcare sued The Guardian and its parent on Wednesday for defamation, claiming the US version of the British daily newspaper ran information it knew to be incorrect in order to “capitalize” on the assassination of the medical insurer’s CEO. The article in question was produced and published by The Guardian’s US investigations team as part of a series titled “Too Big to Care” and was available worldwide at publication. In the article, George Joseph, an investigative reporter for The Guardian’s US publication, wrote that UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare’s parent, had engaged in cost-cutting tactics by paying off nurses…

[ad_1] Less than half a year since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, billionaire Ken Griffin was asked during a recent visit to China, “Why are you trying to be like China?”He had no good answer.The founder of the $66 billion hedge fund Citadel and its sister company, market maker Citadel Securities, Griffin is a megadonor to the Republican Party and was excited for the American economy after Trump’s election.Now he’s confused by the administration’s actions. He said there isn’t a logical reason the US would want to bring manufacturing “jobs that’ll never pay much” to the country, but that seems to…

[ad_1] Anthropic says that it has released a new set of AI models tailored for U.S. national security customers. The new models, a custom set of “Claude Gov” models, were “built based on direct feedback from our government customers to address real-world operational needs,” writes Anthropic in a blog post. Compared to Anthropic’s consumer- and enterprise-focused models, the new custom Claude Gov models were designed to be applied to government operations like strategic planning, operational support, and intelligence analysis. “[These] models are already deployed by agencies at the highest level of U.S. national security, and access to these models is…

[ad_1] Angelo Sotira started the online digital art platform DeviantArt when he was just a teenager, growing a formative community for millions of artists in the 2000s. Twenty-five years later, Sotira wants to change digital art again, but with a focus on the way it’s displayed. On Thursday, Sotira revealed his new venture, Layer, a screen specifically designed to showcase digital art in the best quality possible. “The way that the canvas needs to perform and behave in your life is quite different than other types of displays,” Sotira told TechCrunch. “It needs to blend into beautiful environments.” The closest…