EGSI Financial CEO Talks State of Economy in the Wake of Bank Failures
Ed Siddell, CEO and chief economist at EGSI Financial, joined Cheddar News to assess the market in which the S&P 500 is riding a three-week high. Despite the positive trend, Siddell said there is still too much uncertainty in the market. "What we saw, the GDP came out [and] it's a little bit higher than what most people expected but still well below the original estimates," he said. "Consumer confidence is a little bit higher but I think that has more to do with making sure that their deposits were guaranteed."
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.
