Finance

Housing shows signs of stabilizing to round out 2022

September 11, 2024

The housing market has borne the brunt of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rates.

But mortgage rates are now on a downswing, with the average 30-year fixed mortgage slipping to 6.09% as of last week, according to Freddie Mac. That’s down from a peak of over 7% in November.

“Interested buyers are out there,” Odeta Kushi, First American Deputy Chief Economist, wrote in a statement. “From a financial perspective, the decision to buy a home comes down to a payment-to-paycheck calculation, and lower rates may help to reduce the mortgage payment while higher incomes can increase one’s monthly paycheck.”

As

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Finance

5 Types of People You Should Never Take Financial Advice From

August 11, 2024

All types of people love to give advice.

Some advisors may be professionals who watch the market on a regular basis. They may have a background in business and finance or be certified or licensed as financial planners. But there are also people who may want to give you advice with no financial background and/or who don’t understand your particular financial position.

Here are some people you shouldn’t be getting financial advice from – and how to choose a good financial advisor instead.

11 legit ways to make extra money

1. Family members

Your family may be well-intentioned when they

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kirara
Finance

US politics and the Paris finance summit

July 24, 2023
US politics and the Paris finance summit

US Climate Envoy John Kerry (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron talk during the New Global Financial Pact Summit at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, on June 22. [EPA]

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and French President Emmanuel Macron invited world leaders to Paris on June 22-23 to reach a new “global pact” to finance the fight against poverty and human-induced climate change. All kudos for the ambition, yet a few dollars were put on the table. To an important extent, the continuing global failure to finance the fight against poverty and climate change reflects the failings of US politics,

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Finance

Opinion: In this economy, traditional personal finance advice can no longer help you

May 18, 2023
Open this photo in gallery:

Elena Delgado picks up food during a visit to the Daily Bread Food Bank on April 18. Delgado has been using the food bank once a week since the pandemic began.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail

Saijal Patel is the founder and chief executive officer of Saij Wealth Consulting, a consultancy and education platform dedicated to empowering women’s financial independence and security.

As a financial educator and a business TV host, I’m witnessing first hand the profound impact that recent economic changes have had on the psyche. There’s a notable shift in conversations – from

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Finance

‘If we get a debacle in the financial markets, it will definitely have collateral damage in oil,’ said the analyst

May 6, 2023

It’s been a brutal week for oil prices, despite a Friday rebound. Slides in earlier sessions led crude futures to close out their third straight week of losses.

The S&P 500 Energy Select Sector ETF (XLE) also rebounded during Friday’s trading day, yet it ended the week down 5.7%.

Recession fears drove much of the downward movement in prior sessions. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points. The move is expected to further press the brakes on the economy.

This week’s slide is played out in tandem with the regional banking turmoil. As regional banks

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Finance

ChatGPT may be able to predict stock movements: finance professor

April 26, 2023
ChatGPT could be the next stock forecaster, according to this finance professor

Alejandro Lopez-Lira, a finance professor at the University of Florida, says that large language models may be useful when forecasting stock prices.

He used ChatGPT to parse news headlines for whether they’re good or bad for a stock, and found that ChatGPT’s ability to predict the direction of the next day’s returns were much better than random, he said in a recent unreviewed paper.

The experiment strikes at the heart of the promise around state-of-the-art artificial intelligence: With bigger computers and better datasets — like those powering ChatGPT — these AI models may display “emergent abilities,” or capabilities that weren’t

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Finance

Bolivian Central Bank Is Rebuilding Reserves, Finance Chief Says

April 20, 2023

(Bloomberg) — Bolivia’s central bank is rebuilding its international reserves as it deals with a “transitory” liquidity problem affecting the country, according to Finance Minister Marcelo Montenegro.

The minister declined to elaborate on what the current level of reserves was, but said it had increased recently. The central bank board can decide to withhold the data to avoid creating “more speculation,” he said.

“They’re replenishing them,” Montenegro said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings in Washington. “The central bank is the only institution that can publish those

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Finance

Finance ministers defy gloomy IMF message to hit upbeat notes

April 16, 2023

Finance ministers from some of the world’s largest economies refused to have their optimism dented by the gloomy message delivered by top IMF officials at the fund’s spring meetings in Washington this week.

Despite IMF forecasts highlighting the potential for a hard landing for the global economy, Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, said the prospects for his country were “solid”.

Jeremy Hunt, UK chancellor, thought the IMF was over-egging the pessimism, especially about Britain. “They’re just one of a number of forecasters,” he said. “The IMF has undershot the British economy for quite a long time — I think

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