Number 2023, cash dollar banknotes and stock market indicators (money, economy, business, finance, inflation, crisis)
The U.S. economy grew at a lackluster 1.3% annual rate from January through March as businesses wary of an economic slowdown trimmed their inventories, the government said Thursday, a slight upgrade from its initial estimate.
The government had previously estimated that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter.
The Commerce Department's revised measure of growth in the nation's gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — marked a deceleration from the second half of 2022.
Despite the first-quarter slowdown, consumer spending, which accounts for around 70% of America's economic output, rose at a healthy pace.
With mortgage rates having doubled over the past year, the real estate market has already taken a beating: Investment in housing fell from January through March. In April, sales of existing homes were 23% below their level a year earlier.
A recent study by MSI uncovers a vast racial divide in influencer marketing. The research found a 35% racial pay gap between white and black influencers. This gap is extremely wider than the gap in other industries such as education, business, and finance. The research also suggests that brands and agencies have the power to close this gap. Tiffany Hardin, founder and CEO of Gild Creative Group, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a private-public fund backed by Bill Gates, is planning to invest up to $15 billion in clean technology initiatives across the U.S., UK, and European Union. It will target four key areas and help fund large projects that otherwise would not be financially possible. Bobby Hollis, Director of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Student loan collection company Navient agreed to cancel $1.7 billion in debt and paid more than $140 million in other penalties to settle a lawsuit over abusive lending practices. Josh Shapiro, the attorney general of Pennsylvania who led negotiations in the settlement, joined Cheddar to go over the details of the company's predatory lending. "What Navient would do is charge [borrowers] these exorbitantly high rates, even though they knew people couldn't pay them or they would likely default on them," he explained.
An economic development agency, the Northwest Arkansas Council, is looking to draw technology professionals to their region of the Southern state with incentives like $10,000 worth of Bitcoin and a new bicycle. Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the private nonprofit made up of companies like Walmart and Tyson Foods, joined Cheddar to talk about the program to further power his local economy. "By offering the payment in Bitcoin, we're looking to identify those people with interest and expertise in the underlying technologies, the blockchain technologies," he said.
Stocks closed mixed Friday with big bank stocks dragging on the Dow after a few lackluster earnings reports. Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 gained, but overall, stocks notched a second losing week in a row to start 2022. Tom Kozlik, Head of Research and Analytics at Hilltop Securities, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss today's close, expectations for 2022 earnings reports, whether or not the COVID-19 omicron variant is being properly priced into markets, and more.
After months of investors turning to crypto as a hedge against inflation, instead of the traditional hedge of gold, one crypto exchange is working with a token creator to launch a digital coin backed by a physical asset. GCOIN gives customers a digital title of ownership to 99.99% pure physical gold which is stored in a secured vault. Brent de Jong, GCoin's founder and Kristin Boggiano, Co-Founder and President of CrossTower, a cryptocurrency exchange, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the GCOIN rollout, customer interest, why crypto is used as an inflation hedge, and more.
