More than a quarter-billion dollars is up for grabs in the next Mega Millions drawing. After 10 weeks with no one hitting all six numbers, the jackpot has climbed to $285 million for Friday night’s drawing. And experts recommend that big lottery winners take steps right away to protect their windfall. A customer holds Mega Millions tickets at a newsstand in midtown Manhattan in New York, U.S., October 19, 2018. Mega Millions winners get anywhere from three or six months to a year to claim their

Kylie Jenner visits Houston Ulta Beauty to promote the exclusive launch of Kylie Cosmetics with the beauty retailer, on November 18, 2018 in Houston, Texas. Ulta Beauty beat third-quarter profit estimates on Thursday, driven by sales of higher-margin cosmetics products, sending the retailer’s shares up nearly 13% during midday trading Friday. Ulta has attributed cosmetics lines from Kylie Jenner and YouTuber James Charles for driving customers to its stores. Ulta shares were recently trading aro

Need calibration and stabilization on earnings to keep expansion alive: Sr. portfolio managerLiz Young, BNY Mellon Director of Market Strategy, Margaret Reid, Union Bank, The Private Bank senior portfolio manager, and Josh Brown, Ritholtz Wealth Management, join ‘Fast Money Halftime Report’ to discuss the state of the markets and their forecast for the end of the year.

How Social Security benefits are calculated on a $45,000 salary5 Hours AgoSocial Security is an essential part of retiring for Americans. Nearly nine of ten people aged 65 and older receive benefits, which are based on your income, the year you were born and the age you decided to start taking money out. How it’s calculated, however, is anything but simple. Here’s how the math is broken down and how much you can expect to earn in Social Security benefits on a $45,000 salary.

How America’s obsession with pets helped create a $72-billion-a-year industryCute puppies. Pet supplements, a smart cat litter box and specialty veterinary practices. U.S. pet spending hit $72 billion in 2018, an increase of more than $3 billion from the prior year. And with pet ownership on the rise, the industry could grow into an even bigger business. Here’s how America’s love for pets turned into big business.

Tesla — Shares of the automaker gained more than 2% after Morgan Stanley raised its “bull case” target on the stock to $500. Ulta earnied $2.25 per share, compared to the $2.13 per share expected by Wall Street analysts, according to Refinitiv. Zoom Video Communications — Shares of the video-conferencing company plummeted more than 10% on the back of quarterly results that revealed slowing growth. Big Lots lost 18 cents per share, compared to the 20 cents per share expected on Wall Street, accor

A stronger-than-expected November U.S. jobs report sent stocks soaring Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallying over 300 points intraday on word that the economy added 266,000 jobs last month, mainly in education and manufacturing. Economic and market professionals largely see the results as yet another catalyst for the U.S. stock market’s record bull run. Here’s what five of them — two economists, two strategists and one investment chief — see ahead for stocks. You saw the real we

Americans spent $72 billion on their pets in 2018. As some delay having children and starting families, more and more end up treating their pets as surrogate children. “The millennial suburban, urbanites essentially have their pets as their quasi children,” Guggenheim Securities analyst David Westenberg said. “So as you see people moving to urban environment and people getting married later, essentially you have your dog being the surrogate children.” Watch the video above to learn more about ho

eclipse_images | E+ | Getty ImagesTax season is still months away, but the IRS will want to know about your cryptocurrency holdings. This is the agency’s latest effort to gather additional information on taxpayers’ virtual currency holdings. Varying tax treatmentsThe Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters in Washington, D.C. Janhvi Bhojwani | CNBCIf you sold your cryptocurrency, you need to report the transaction. Cryptocurrency you receive from an employer is subject to federal income tax

Look, what “facts” are you going to believe, the ones you hear with your own ears or from Joe Biden’s spin room? Biden and the Democratic presidential contender’s spokeswoman are denying — strongly — that he called a retired Iowa farmer “fat” after the man challenged him about Hunter Biden at a campaign event Thursday. Biden’s team claims he said “facts” not “fat” during the confrontation in New Hampton. And he challenged Gorman to do push-ups or go running with him after suggesting that the far

After leaving Papa John’s, Schnatter filed several lawsuits against the pizza chain before settling. The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that Laundry Service recorded the May conference call with Schnatter without his knowledge. A dispute allegedly arose with the ad firm in June 2018 over whether Papa John’s owed Laundry Service payment for work as the company’s media buyer. The lawsuit claims that Laundry Service leaked excerpts of the conference call to Forbes, breaching the advertising firm’s

It’s hard to deny that anti-Trump sentiment and a desire to oust him from office is a unifying issue for Democrats. Do the Democrats really need more anti-Trump publicity? A recent study by the conservative Media Research Council found that 96 percent of network news stories covering President Trump were negative since the impeachment inquiry began. The White House and several Trump supporters have been arguing that the impeachment process is solidifying the president’s chances at re-election. T

A long exposure photo shows Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifting off on the company’s 10th mission. By navigating the booster through reentry, Rocket Lab is one step closer to becoming one of the few in the world able to recover a rocket booster. Additionally, if successful, Rocket Lab would join SpaceX as the only private company to return an orbital-class rocket booster. Rocket Lab, instead, is testing a technology Beck calls an “aero thermal decelerator” — essentially using the atmosphere to

Dank Vapes was the most commonly used THC product among patients who developed a deadly vaping illness, though it’s “unlikely” that a single brand caused the national outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Friday. Among 1,782 patients, 80% said they vaped THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, and 12% said they vaped CBD, another cannabis compound. However, which products patients used varied regionally. Vitamin E oil is emerging as a likely suspect, as f

November’s surprisingly strong jobs report makes it less likely the Fed will move to cut interest rates, and it could sound even more hawkish when it meets next week. A so-called hawkish Fed is one that is more likely to move to tighten policy than make it looser by cutting interest rates or taking other measures. Stocks jumped and bond yields initially rose after the jobs report was released. Swonk said the jobs report showed the impact from trade, and that will be an important topic for the Fe

Homebuilders aren’t building enough for millennialsThat generation is expected to be the largest single cohort of homebuyers next year, but the nation’s homebuilders are not keeping up. This is already exacerbating the shortage of homes for sale and for rent nationwide, but will especially hurt affordability for millennials (those born between 1981 and 1997). While the majority of both single- and multifamily home construction is in millennial-dense counties, it actually lags the rest of the nat

Where all games are limited by what developers program, this game uses OpenAI to create infinitely generated worlds that are only limited by your imagination. AI Dungeon 2 gives you a few different settings and roles that you can adopt, but from there, it pretty much lets you run wild. Yes, this is a sequel to a game that used deep learning to generate its text, but in that iteration, the game gave you specific actions to choose from. AI Dungeon 2 was made possible by the support of David Wingat

Black Friday has come and gone, but Amazon is keeping the holiday sales rolling with an up-to 50 percent off board games sale. The sale includes dozens of strategy games, including everything from card games to traditional board games to role-playing game miniatures. Among the sale titles is Wasteland Express Deliver Service, a post-apocalyptic board game about making deliveries. Pathfinder’s second edition succeeds at refining the game’s complicated combat system into something a little more ma

Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm has always put a ridiculous amount of production work into his streams. From cutaways to fake car chases, to mid-match music videos, the Dr Disrespect persona Beahm has created is all about putting on a show for viewers. As part of this new deal, which was initially announced by The Hollywood Reporter, Beahm and Skybound will develop a scripted narrative television series based on the Dr Disrespect character. Before he started streaming, Beahm worked at Sledgehammer gam

Destiny 2 offers two currencies for the in-game store: Silver, bought with real money, and Bright Dust, earned by playing the game. Players can only use their Bright Dust to purchase items on a weekly shop rotation, while most Silver items are available all season long. According to a new blog post from Bungie, only 50% of new Eververse items went on sale for Bright Dust during the Season of the Undying — Destiny 2’s fall season. Moreover, players didn’t have any idea which items the studio woul