Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet’s investment vehicle, has sold all of its shares of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by State Street Advisors and Vanguard, leaving it with no investments in ETFs.
Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT – Mar 4 2025
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GOOGLE CO-FOUNDER SAYS AI PUSH NEEDS WORKERS TO RETURN TO OFFICES
Google, in a race to lead progress in artificial intelligence (AI), will have a better chance of achieving that goal if workers on the project are in the company’s central offices five days a week, Google cofounder Sergei Brin said in an internal memo reported by The New York Times.
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TRUMP NAMES CRYPTOCURRENCIES FOR STRATEGIC RESERVE, SPARKING RALLY
In a 2 March social media post, Donald Trump named Bitcoin and Ethereum as mainstays in a U.S. strategic crypto reserve that would include tokens Cardano, Solana, and XRP.
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FALLING BOND YIELDS DRIVE THE DOLLAR DOWN
The recent drop in bond yields has devalued the dollar. The bellwether 10-year treasury note’s yield fell as low as 4.24 percent on 28 February, sliding from above 4.8 percent in January and reaching its lowest point since mid-December.
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INFLATION EASES IN JANUARY AS CONSUMERS CUT BACK SPENDING
The U.S. annual inflation in January ran at 2.5 percent, a slight slowdown from December’s 2.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The month-to-month rate was up 0.3 percent, the same as it was in December.
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HOME SALES SLUMP IN JANUARY
The number of signed contracts for the purchase of existing homes fell 4.6 percent in January compared to December and were down 5.2 percent year on year, marking the fewest since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) began recording the number in 2001.
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HOME PRICES ROSE AGAIN IN DECEMBER
U.S. home prices grew 3.9 percent in December, year over year, a faster rate than November’s 3.7 percent, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.
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RETAIL BANKRUPTCIES IN 2024 WERE MOST IN FOUR YEARS
Last year, more retailers filed for bankruptcy than any year since 2020 when the COVID War broke out, S&P Global Intelligence reported. Aside from that year, the number was the largest since 2017.
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CLAIMS FOR JOBLESS BENEFITS ROSE IN MID-FEBRUARY
For the week ending 22 February, new claims for unemployment benefits rose to 242,000, an increase of 22,000 from the week before and the most in a single week since early October, the U.S. labor department reported.
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BOND MARKET FLASHES SIGNAL CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH RECESSIONS
On 26 February, the yield on the 10-year U.S. treasury note fell below that of the three-month note. This “inverted yield curve has had a sterling prediction record over a 12- to 18-month timeframe for downturns going back decades,” CNBC reported.