The S&P 500 just crossed 3,200 for the first time ever, hitting its seventh round-number milestone of 2019, a year that has a good chance at being one for the record books. With less than two weeks left in 2019, the S&P 500 is up more than 27%, about 2 percentage points away from 2013’s gain of 29.6%. Based on the historic performance going back to 1950, the majority of December’s gains in the S&P 500 have tended to happen toward the end of the month, according to Ryan Detrick, senior market str

Former Bank of England deputy governor Andrew Bailey, one of the City of London’s most experienced financial regulators, is set to be named as the new governor of the British central bank, a person familiar with the process said. Other names lined with the jobs have included BoE deputy governor, Minouche Shafik, Shriti Vadera, chair of Santander UK, and former Federal Reserve policymaker Kevin Warsh. In his current job at the FCA, Bailey has been criticised for not publishing in full a report in

“I don’t accept gifts,” the NBA Hall of Famer recently told The New York Post’s Page Six. Instead, he prefers to spend his holiday every year handing out gifts to hundreds of kids in need through his Shaq-A-Claus event. “Then one day, when I thought I wasn’t getting anything for Christmas, he surprised me with a [signed] Dr. J basketball.” It inspired me to be who I am today,” O’Neal told The News-Herald in 2009. On Wednesday, O’Neal visited Wesley Lakes Elementary School in Atlanta to deliver h

Chance the Rapper announced that he’s canceling his 2020 tour to “take this time to be with family,” he wrote in an Instagram caption Sunday. The artist, whose name is Chancelor Bennett, has previously said it has been “very strenuous” having to divide his “time and energy between family and work.” Bennett originally postponed The Big Tour, which was supposed to begin in September, after his daughter, Marli, was born that month. “[A]s a husband and father of two I realize that I can’t make that

The kids wouldn’t get shuffled to and from school and math tutors and track practice and doctors appointments and gymnastics and sleepovers. Certainly the kids wouldn’t feel so secure in their lives. Has it crossed your mind that “men take risks and women don’t” as has been alleged against a WeWork executive? Additionally, women’s earnings peak about 10 years earlier, around 44 for women versus 55 for men. In fact, while women outearn men in 25% of all couples, it’s been found that when “she mak

“I think we are going to get an excess 50 basis points of additional growth in GDP as a result of this agreement. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement will boost the U.S. economy by .5%, but some leading economists do not agree. Trump, who counts manufacturers as one of his key constituents, has called NAFTA the “worst trade deal ever made,” blaming it for a decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. The revised deal that the U.S. first

Consumer dataWe’ll get consumer spending and personal income economic data on Friday. Consumer spending data will come out at 8:30 a.m. from the Commerce Department. Key inflation measureThe Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the latest core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, a key inflation gauge on Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting Core PCE rose 0.1% in November, the same reading as October. The core PCE price index rose 1.7% on a year-on-year basis in Oc

Stocks jumped to record highs once again as investors shrugged off President Donald Trump’s impeachment and disappointing economic data. Wall Street was able to look past President Donald Trump’s impeachment in the House since the odds of the Republican-led Senate convicting him are so slim. “It’s fairly obvious that there just not going to be a removal,” remarked one investor on Thursday. Meanwhile, the disappointing jobless claims and business conditions data from the Philadelphia Federal Rese

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, one of just three Democrats to vote against President Donald Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives, will become a Republican, Trump announced Thursday. Perhaps more pressing for Van Drew, however, was the difficult path to reelection he faces in 2020. And ahead of Van Drew’s announcement Thursday afternoon, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee press secretary Robyn Patterson shared a portion of Van Drew’s internal polls showing similar results. Just a yea

Nike earned 70 cents per share on revenue of $10.33 billion, topping the earnings of 58 cents per share and revenue of $10.09 billion Wall Street expected, according to Refinitiv. Smart Global shares fell 3% during extended trading after the parent company of chipmaker SMART Modular Technologies reported a first-quarter earnings miss. For the second quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings between 45 cents to 55 cents per share and revenue between $265 million to $275 million. Analysts had

Stocks rallied to record highs on Thursday a day after Trump became the third president to be impeached by the House. Libby Cantrill, head of public policy at Pimco, says impeachment could still impact the markets. I think they’re going to start to accelerate and that could bring another run again because the one negative all year has been decelerating earnings or flattish earnings trends.” We’re very bullish on the market right now and I think it’s for reasons that we’ve been talking about all

The way to start, according to CNBC’s Jim Cramer, is a process called a “read-through.” To illustrate the process, Cramer took a look at two of the best read-throughs of Thursday’s session, which saw all three major averages again close at record highs. With Micron, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra has been a straight shooter about both the good and bad facing the company, Cramer said. So when Mehrotra says the current quarter is the “trough” for the business, you can believe him, Cramer said.

If you filed for a cash payout from Equifax as part of the credit bureau’s settlement for its massive 2017 data breach, you’re probably not getting anywhere close to $125. On Thursday, Dec. 19, a Georgia federal judge awarded $77.5 million to the attorneys representing the class of consumers against Equifax. It’s also one more reason why the consumers who sought a cash settlement from Equifax won’t be getting the full $125 as initially expected. In fact, consumers were never going to get $125, s

Throughout the year, CNBC’s Jim Cramer has characterized the latest class of initial public offerings as a thorn in the stock market. Levi Strauss & CoAfter going private for more than three decades, iconic jeans brand Levi’s in May relisted on public markets. Cramer initially recommended it as a buy at about $18 a share in late July, but the stock dropped to almost $16 in mid-August. “At this point, I think Levi’s is still worth buying,” Cramer said. Until something goes wrong or the stock goes

The S&P 500 continued its strong run Thursday, topping the 3,200 level for the first time, but one major strategist said the market may be going too far. Jack Manley, global market strategist for JP Morgan Asset Management, said in the Market Zone on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” that investors may be too optimistic about recent developments in the trade negotiations between the United States and China and the elections in the United Kingdom. There’s a whole lot more to do out there, and I do think mark

Nike’s growth on its home turf in North America came in slightly weaker than expected. That was better than the 58 cents analysts were expecting, based on Refinitiv data. Revenue was up about 10% to $10.33 billion from $9.37 billion a year ago, beating expectations for $10.09 billion. It said online sales surged more than 70% in North America on Black Friday. Nike said footwear sales in North America, excluding any impacts from currency changes, were up 8% during the latest period, while apparel

The House passed a new North American trade deal on Thursday, ending a more than year long slog to iron out Democratic concerns about the agreement. Most Republicans and Democrats have praised the latest version of the three-nation deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement. Even before the House passed the agreement, Trump started to bill it as a political win as he campaigns for reelection in 2020. She cheered the trade deal and said it took time because “we weren’t going for

Democratic presidential hopefuls, Mayor of South Bend Pete Buttigieg (L), Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (C) and former Vice President Joe Biden, arrive onstage for the fifth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season co-hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia on November 20, 2019. Seven 2020 Democratic presidential candidates will take the debate stage together on Thursday night with a little more than a month until prim

It’s hard to believe that Red Dead Redemption 2 has been out for over a year already, but Red Dead Online hasn’t been around for nearly as long. To celebrate, Rockstar Games is pulling out all the stops with a Winter Weather Warning that kicks in on Dec. 20. Anyone who logs into Red Dead Online between Dec. 23 and Dec. 25 is going to get a heaping helping of holiday cheer in the form of weapons, ammunition, and treats for your horse. That’s helpful, since players should expect to see snow fallin

During Stone’s trial, former top Trump campaign official Rick Gates testified that Trump talked to Stone about WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaignGates testified that less than a minute after finishing a July 2016 call from Stone, Trump indicated that “more information would be coming” from Wikileaks. That testimony contrasted with Trump’s claim last November that he did not recall speaking to Stone about WikiLeaks. In a written response to Mueller in November 2018, Trump had said, “I do not reca