Federal borrowing expected to hit 8-year high
With the government’s budget deficit rising, the Treasury Department announced Monday it expects to borrow $441 billion in the current January-March quarter, the largest amount in eight years.
The Treasury said this figure compares to actual borrowing of $282 billion in the October-December quarter. It will be the largest borrowing need since the government borrowed $483 billion in the January-March quarter of 2010, a period when the government was using stimulus spending to try to lift the country out of the Great Recession and provide support to the banking system after the worst financial crisis in seven decades.
The government’s borrowing needs have been rising as federal deficits have increased. The deficit for the 2017 budget year, which ended September, totaled $665.8 billion.
No rate change likely at Yellen’s last meeting
Janet Yellen’s final Federal Reserve policy meeting will likely mark an uneventful end to her four-year tenure as Fed chair but perhaps offer hints of the central bank’s approach to interest rates in the months to follow.
Yellen, the first woman to lead the world’s most influential central bank, will step down when her term ends Feb. 3. She will be succeeded by Jerome Powell, a Fed board member whose nomination as chairman the Senate approved last week.
Apple’s stock sinks as iPhone X sales dip
Apple’s stock is backtracking from its recent highs amid mounting concerns iPhone X sales will fall short of the high hopes for a device that ushered in a $1,000 price tag to the company’s flagship product line.
Speculation about disappointing demand has been swirling for the past week, contributing to a 6 percent decline in Apple’s stock since it hit a record high Jan. 18. Concrete evidence of how the iPhone X is faring should emerge Thursday when Apple reports its quarterly earnings.
Eight charged in ‘spoofing’ scam
Federal prosecutors are charging a group of traders with manipulating U.S. futures markets through a practice known as spoofing.
Authorities have announced charges against eight people, some of whom had been employed by HSBC, Deutsche Bank and UBS. Spoofing is when a trader places buy or sell orders with the intent to cancel them before the transactions are completed. That creates the illusion of demand, inflating prices to benefit the trader’s market positions.
EU would hit back on Trump quotas
BRUSSELS – The European Union said that if U.S. President Donald Trump would initiate unfair trade measures against the 28-nation bloc, it would stand ready “to react swiftly and appropriately.”
In a weekend interview, Trump said he was annoyed with EU trade policy since the U.S. cannot sufficiently export to the EU. He said his problems with the EU “may morph into something very big” from a trade standpoint.
West Virginia paper warns of bankruptcy
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The owner of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, which won a Pulitzer Prize last year for its coverage of the state’s opioid drug crisis, has warned its entire staff of pending layoffs and said it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and find a potential buyer.
The Gazette-Mail reported its owner, Charleston Newspapers, issued the 60-day layoff notice to its 209 employees Monday afternoon.
Charleston Newspapers President Trip Shumate said the company plans to file for Chapter 11 protection today.
The newspaper said buyers are being sought and the highest current bidder was Wheeling-based Ogden Newspapers, which owns more than 40 daily newspapers nationwide, including several in West Virginia. Any potential buyer would have the decision whether to retain the employees.
Facebook prefers local news posts
Facebook plans to prioritize posts from local news sources in the news feeds of people who live in the communities served by those outlets, the company said Monday.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Selma Times-Journal in Selms, Ala., on Monday that the decision stems from a cross-country tour he took with his wife in which he spoke with people in communities of different sizes. They visited the small community newspaper in Alabama on last year’s trip.
Zuckerberg told the newspaper people consistently told him they wanted more local news on Facebook. Zuckerberg said the prioritization of local news sources is part of an effort to help people engage with the communities where they live.
“There’s a lot of research that suggests that people who read local news are more engaged in their community and they’re more likely to engage in civic improvements,” Zuckerberg told the newspaper. “The more informed you are about issues in your community, the more empowered you are to get involved and make a change.”