We break down the biggest gainers and droppers in the Cheddar 50 index this year, plus one Japanese stock that's made a big splash in the U.S. in 2017.
On the plus side, shares of Square have risen about 160 percent this year as the digital payment company has expanded into new markets. And video game maker Take-Two Interactive has also more than doubled in 2017, as investors and fans both await the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 this spring.
But they weren't all winners. Pandora shares were down more than 60 percent as the music streaming service struggled to grow paying subscribers. And Blue Apron stock has dropped as much as 70 percent since its IPO in late June, losing its CEO and cutting jobs.
Plus, what about Japan's SoftBank? The tech holding company launched its $100 billion Vision Fund, which has made investments in Nvidia, WeWork and Flipkart. And we're still waiting for what could be a $10 billion investment in Uber.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.