30 year treasury rate

Sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. plunged in April, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, falling to the lowest level since April of 2020. New home sales decreased 16.6 percent in April compared with the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That is just barely above the 582,000 level hit during the initial lockdown phase of the pandemic when the economy was brought to a near halt. Economists had forecast home sales to fall 1.7 percent to 750,000 from the preliminary March report of 763,000. The March report was revised down to 709,000. Existing homes sales have been cratering , as well. April home sales declined by 2.4 percent compared with March. At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.61 million, sales were at the slowest pace since June of 2020, according to data released last week from the National Association of Realtors. Compared with a year ago, sales were off by 5.9 percent. The … [Read more...] about New Homes Sales Cratered in April Amid Rising Rates and High Prices

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a Hamas finance official and a network of financial facilitators and companies that have generated revenue for the Palestinian militant group, the Treasury Department said. The sanctions target Hamas’ Investment Office, which holds assets estimated to be worth more than $500 million, including companies operating in Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates, the department said in a statement. “Hamas has generated vast sums of revenue through its secret investment portfolio while destabilizing Gaza, which is facing harsh living and economic conditions,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and is deemed a terrorist group in the West and by Israel. The Hamas official sanctioned is Abdallah Yusuf Faisal Sabri, a Kuwait-based Jordanian national and accountant who has … [Read more...] about US Sanctions Hamas Official and Financial Network, Treasury Dept Says

The reaction to Covid-19 has been a case study in economic theory. Direct cash payments from the government to individuals and corporations were made for the first time in 2020. This experiment in fiscal and monetary policy will be studied by economists for decades. There are many areas of exploration, but I am going to limit this discussion to growth stocks. Before we identify the difference between a growth stock and a value stock, we need to review what a share of stock represents. A share of stock is simply a very small piece of ownership in a company. As an owner, you are entitled to your share of the company's future profits for as long as you own the stock. This right to future profits is what gives the stock its value, which can be calculated with relative precision. The challenge in investing is not the precision of the calculation, but rather the ambiguity of the inputs into the calculation. Allow me to explain. The universal law of finance is this: The current value … [Read more...] about Why Growth Stocks Hate Higher Interest Rates

The last few months looked promising for San Francisco restaurant and bar owners following the decline of omicron cases near the start of the year. As the proof of vaccination rule ended, the sight of more diners around SF neighborhoods seemed to resemble pre-pandemic levels. But with COVID cases again on the rise, experts are still wary and say that it will take some time before local restaurants are back on track. Ted Egan, chief economist at San Francisco’s Office of the Controller, isn’t sure when city restaurants can expect a full recovery. He believes that it will be longer than a year, as the food industry was among the hardest sectors hit during the pandemic. “The hospitality industry has more customers than it had a year ago ... but I think it will recover at the same level as tourism,” Egan told SFGATE. “A year may be too optimistic.” Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, reasons that the industry won’t get back to its … [Read more...] about ‘A year may be too optimistic’: San Francisco’s restaurant industry won’t recover by 2023, experts say

BJP president J P Nadda is scheduled to hold a meeting with all the Union ministers here on Wednesday to deliberate upon the massive reach out exercise planned by the party to mark eight years of the Narendra Modi government, sources said on Tuesday. Top Union ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, are expected to attend the meeting at the party headquarters, the sources said. Prior to this meeting, Nadda is also likely to launch a campaign to strengthen the BJP on about 73,000 polling booths where it is relatively weak. Most of these booths are in southern and eastern states. The BJP has already prepared a committee led by its vice-president Baijayant Panda to draw a blueprint for strengthening the party on these booths. In its recent meeting of the office bearers in Jaipur, the BJP had announced that all Union ministers will visit villages across the country to mark eight years of the Narendra Modi government and take feedback on welfare … [Read more...] about Nadda to Meet Union Ministers on Wednesday to Discuss Plan to Mark 8 Years of Modi Govt

The price of groceries has increased at its fastest rate for 13 years, according to new figures. Researchers at Kantar revealed that grocery price inflation reached 7% over the past four weeks to mark the highest level since May 2009. Dog food, savoury snacks and fresh meat saw particularly sharp price rises, although spirit prices slipped for the month. Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “ People are really feeling the squeeze at the supermarket tills and they’re having to stretch their budgets further to accommodate rising prices. Recommended Superspreader events blamed for monkeypox surge - follow live Minister condemns PM’s ‘allies’ briefing against Sue Gray - live Brexit has increased risk of danger foods reaching UK, watchdog warns “To put the most recent numbers into context, if you were picking up supplies for a family fry-up over the long weekend with toast, eggs, sausages, … [Read more...] about Grocery prices surge at fastest pace for 13 years

A mass shooting Tuesday that killed at least 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school came less than a year after legislators drastically expanded gun rights. Pledging to keep Texas a “bastion of freedom,” Gov. Greg Abbott in June signed seven laws , one of which allows people to legally carry handguns without licenses. “Texas will always be the leader in defending the Second Amendment, which is why we built a barrier around gun rights this session,” Abbott said that day, flanked by representatives of the National Rifle Association. One of the laws passed last year authorizes so-called constitutional carry, which means law-abiding Texans, 21 or older, no longer need a license to carry a handgun in public. The law went into effect Sept. 1. Another new law made Texas a “Second Amendment Sanctuary State” against new federal gun-control regulations. Other laws made it legal for hotel guests to store firearms in their rooms and allowed gun owners to carry … [Read more...] about A year before Uvalde school shooting, Texas expanded gun rights

Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost nearly 30,000 troops with some seen piling up on refrigerated trains, it has been claimed. Fresh footage shared by Ukraine 's Railway Chief Alexander Kamyshin shows Ukraine collecting hundreds of dead Russian soldiers and storing their bodies inside a refrigerated train to then send them back to their families. Mr Kamyshin wrote on Twitter : "We treat dead Russians better than they treat live Ukrainians. Just another thing that makes us different." The clip declares that Ukraine preserves the bodies, according to humanitarian law, to then release them to "mothers and wives." The video shows people dressed in head-to-toe protective suits and lifting body bags into the trains. Vladimir Putin set to lose 30,000 men in Ukraine as corpses of dead Russian troops piled up abandoned in refrigerated trains - taken without permission from - The railway network, it says in the video, is prepared to deliver "cargo 200" back to Russia … [Read more...] about Vladimir Putin set to lose 30,000 men in Ukraine as bodies pile up in refrigerated trains

Voters want to see Universal Credit uprated and the new National Insurance hike scrapped to combat the soaring cost of living. And in an exclusive Sunday Mirror poll six in ten say that tackling rising prices will be the deciding factor in how they vote at the General Election expected as early as next year. Nine in ten of those questioned said they are concerned about how they would afford heating bills and food while seven in ten said the same about rents and mortgages. Chancellor Rishi Sunak now has just 17 months to put more money back in people’s pockets if Britain is to go to the polls in October, 2023. Yesterday former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith backed our poll findings which showed 57% want Universal Credit increased with prices. His Centre for Social Justice think tank estimates that would put an extra £739 into the kitties of four million poorer households. Mr Duncan Smith added: “The Chancellor should bring UC into line with inflation … [Read more...] about Voters say tackling cost of living will decide who they back in General Election

Mohammed Iqtedar Husain Farooqi (The Jakarta Post) Lucknow, India   ● Wed, December 9, 2020 2020-12-09 01:00 532 d66dcbf21949a93b498053ceec4b0343 3 Opinion literacy,Muslim-majority-country,rate,UNESCO,World-Bank,middle-age,Europe,Saudi-Arabia,Indonesia,Turkey Free Education is fundamental for the development of any nation, and higher education is a powerful tool for the eradication of poverty, boosting shared prosperity and making society strong enough to face challenging times. This basic fact was very well known to the ummah (Islamic community) in the Middle Ages, a golden period in Islamic history. “Seek knowledge” was the known commandment of Islam for Muslims, and they followed it for almost 800 years. Edward G. Browne (1862-1926) rightly observed that, “when Caliphs of Baghdad and Cordova fostered education amongst their subject to the extent that every boy and girl of twelve could read and write, Barons, Lords and their ladies in … [Read more...] about Literacy improving in Muslim-majority countries