It is widely tipped that … the corporate tax rate (will) be cut to 15 percent from 35 percent. The key for markets will be how will such a tax cut be funded and what is the likelihood of the tax cut being passed by Congress.” The Canadian dollar continued to trade around its lowest levels against the dollar since last December due to trade concerns. Meanwhile, Aussie/dollar weakened to trade at $0.7500, off the $0.756 handle seen on Monday. The dollar index traded at 98.869, off 99 handle seen

The company reported a 20 percent drop in quarterly profit, which was driven lower because of higher costs related to its refranchising efforts in Coca-Cola’s North America bottling operations. Here’s what the company reported vs. what the Street was expecting:Earnings per share: 43 cents adjusted vs. estimate of 44 cents expected, according to Thomson Reuters analysts’ consensus. Though, he added, “[Coca-Cola] remain[s] on track to deliver our underlying revenue and profit targets for the full

McDonald’s share prices surged further into record territory Tuesday, thanks to a stronger-than-expected first quarter performance that got a boost from a new variety of Big Macs and discounted beverages. “There’s a sense of urgency across the business as we take actions to retain existing customers, regain lapsed customers and convert casual customers to committed customers.” Despite having one less day in the quarter because of Leap Day last year, McDonald’s was able to deliver global same-sto

Privately held specialty retailer J.Crew is cutting 250 jobs, it announced on Tuesday. As part of a reorganization, J.Crew will reduce headcount by approximately 150 full-time and 100 open positions, mostly from its corporate headquarters. As part of the reorganization, J.Crew COO and CFO Michael Nicholson will take on additional responsibility in planning and allocation, merchandising, marketing and design functions. Meanwhile, J.Crew named Lisa Greenwald, who will become the Chief Merchandisin

The battle between Buffalo Wild Wings and activist investors at Marcato Capital Management continued to rage on Tuesday after the hedge fund accused the chicken wing chain of making an “astronomical error” in a SEC filing. A chart from the Buffalo Wild Wings 2017 proxy statement as seen by CNBC. An image published by Marcato alongside its statement on Buffalo Wild Wings. Marcato, which owns 6.1 percent of the restaurant chain’s outstanding stock, has been pushing since July for Buffalo Wild Wing

Bank of America said there’s ‘material risk’ to the long-term viability of Tesla 4 Hours Ago | 00:51Bank of America Merrill Lynch cut its price forecast on Tesla shares on Tuesday, saying the electric car maker’s “long-term viability” was at risk because of the acquisition of SolarCity. Murphy sees Tesla shares falling to $165, a 46 percent drop from where the stock closed Monday at $308.03 a share. In November, SolarCity and Tesla shareholders voted to approve the electric car maker’s $2.6 bill

The primary challenge to a sitting president goes back to William Howard Taft’s fight with Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. In 1952, Senator Estes Kefauver ran in the New Hampshire primary and defeated the slate which was scheduled to support Harry Truman. Gerald Ford barely beat back a Ronald Reagan campaign in 1976 and Jimmy Carter faced down Senator Ted Kennedy’s primary race in 1980. Sitting presidents have to spend their reelection race justifying their decisions to the undecided electorate. There

Is anyone surprised by a new ABC News/Washington Post poll that shows Donald Trump is the least popular president approaching 100 days in office since they started taking such surveys? Trump won the office while losing the popular vote and was inaugurated as the least popular new president. But the same poll that puts Trump deep under water compared with every president since Truman also should give his critics pause. But a deep dive into the ABC/WaPo poll should remind us that the same sort of

Funding to keep the federal government up and running will run out at midnight Friday unless Congress passes a new spending bill and President Trump signs it into law. If they fail, the result would be a partial government shutdown in which most services would stop except those deemed “essential” — such as national security work performed by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Active duty military personnel would not be furloughed, but roughly 40% of non-defense employees would be.

U.S. home prices rose more than was anticipated for the month of February, according to new data from the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. This happened as homebuyer demand continues to outweigh supply in the housing market. The national home price index jumped 5.8 percent in February, while analysts were expecting home prices to climb by 5.7 percent for the month, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates. “Housing affordability has declined since 2012 as the pressure of

Consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions fell in April, as fewer people believe business conditions are “good,” according to the latest data from The Conference Board. The Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 120.3 in April, while economists were expecting the index to only fall to 122.9 for the month, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates. “Consumer confidence … still remains at strong levels,” Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, said i

You probably know less about Social Security than you think. More than two-thirds of older workers said they were confident about the rules of America’s largest retirement program, according to a new survey by Fidelity Investments. Yet among the 521 people age 55 to 61 that Fidelity polled in October, most got these three key concepts wrong:

Homebuilder stocks fell on Tuesday on concern new tariffs by the Trump administration on Canadian softwood lumber imports will raise costs. “Lumber futures should move higher, but this announcement has been anticipated,” said Brian Kelly of BKCM. Lumber futures are up more than 20 percent this year. “It was priced in a couple weeks ago when there was talk the tariff was going to happen,” said Daniel Flynn, trader at The PRICE Futures Group. Canadian lumber stocks, on the other hand, rose sharply

David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital returned just 1 percent last quarter, trailing the S&P 500’s 6 percent gain, according to the hedge fund’s letter sent to shareholders Tuesday. Conduent shares traded a touch lower midday Tuesday, about 8 percent above Greenlight’s average purchase price of $14.76 a share. The pharmaceutical company’s shares spiked Tuesday before holding slightly higher, about 2.5 percent below Greenlight’s average purchase price of $68.81 per share. The hedge fund’s largest di

Last week, the Trump administration launched a trade probe against China and other countries that export cheap steel. “I think it just shows these are outstanding issues they’re going after hard,” Chandler said. “These are outstanding issues from the Obama administration, and they are just playing harder ball.” Chandler said the Canadian dollar was weak before the announcement was made and speculators have been amassing a short in it. But Canadian lumber companies, like Canfor, Norbord and Inter

Banking is the one industry above all others that should cruise higher during a Trump administration, but the road likely won’t be smooth. The sector surged more than 25 percent on hopes that higher interest rates, stronger growth and less regulation would be the boon that banks needed. Nearly 100 days into the Trump administration, the picture has become muddied. In all, banks face as uncertain a future as pretty much anything else in the Trump economy. The rally has met reality,” said Fred Can

McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook is not a business leader to be underestimated, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday, following the company’s first-quarter earnings results. … We better start talking about Easterbrook because Easterbrook delivers. Easterbrook, who took over as CEO in March 2015, said in the earnings release that the company’s efforts to “build a better McDonald’s are yielding meaningful results.” “There’s a sense of urgency across the business as we take actions to retain existing c

Novartis’s first-quarter core net income fell 4 percent, it said on Tuesday, as the Swiss drugmaker’s spending to kick start sales at its eyecare unit Alcon and for its heart failure drugEntresto weighed again on earnings. Core net income fell to $2.69 billion, Novartis said, beating the $2.67 billion average forecast of analysts in a Reuters poll. Sales fell 1 percent to $11.54 billion, compared to the $11.6 billion average estimate in the poll. The company confirmed its 2017 outlook, with core

Eli Lilly reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly adjusted profit as sales of its newest products, including a diabetes injection, more than doubled. Revenue from Lilly’s biggest-selling diabetes drug, Humalog, rose 17 percent to $708.4 million, above the consensus estimate of $638 million. “We are encouraged by another solid performance from Lilly’s overall diabetes franchise,” Leerink Partners analyst Seamus Fernandez said in a note. Excluding items, the company earned 98 cents per share, ab

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to stand up for Canadian interests on Tuesday after the U.S. imposed new tariffs on softwood lumber and trade tensions between the two countries escalated, sending the Canadian dollar to a 14-month low. While the currency fell, shares in Canadian lumber companies rose as the level of the new tariffs came in at the low end of what investors were expecting. The United States will impose preliminary anti-subsidy duties averaging 20 percent on imports of Canadian