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Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller is preparing for three scenarios that might affect the central bank’s monetary policy choices—but no matter which one might occur, he expects lower interest rates in 2025. 

“Whatever happens in the near term, my baseline still calls for reducing the policy rate gradually over the next year,” Waller said in prepared remarks released in conjunction with an appearance Monday.

His remarks come after the Fed cut its key federal funds rate for the first time since 2020 in September and ahead of its next policy meeting in early November.

Since the policy committee's last meeting, data showed more jobs were created than economists expected and food prices pushed inflation higher than analysts' projections in September. Both are important to central bankers as they decide how to balance their dual mandate of promoting employment and taming inflation through rate cuts.

While the Fed cut rates by half a percentage point last month, Waller thinks differently about what should be next for rates.  

“I view the totality of the data as saying monetary policy should proceed with more caution on the pace of rate cuts than was needed at the September meeting,” Waller said. 

Waller thinks there are three economic possibilities moving forward:

Traders are pricing in an 86% chance that the Federal Reserve will cut the fed funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point at its November meeting, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data.

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Hims & Hers Health (HIMS) shares surged Monday after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said compounding pharmacies could continue to produce copycat weight-loss drugs while it reconsiders whether there is a shortage of their active ingredient.

The FDA is facing a lawsuit after it ruled earlier this month that Eli Lilly’s (LLY) popular weight-loss treatments Mounjaro and Zepbound were no longer on its shortages list. The agency allows companies like Hims & Hers to produce compounded copycat drugs when the originals are hard to obtain, allowing them to benefit from the demand for obesity treatments. 

In a court filing Friday, the FDA said it would not take action against companies that are in violation of its decision last week while it reconsiders the matter. The suit was filed by the Outsourcing Facilities Association, a trade association representing compounding pharmacies.

Shares of Hims & Hers gained nearly 10% to close at $20.50 Monday. The stock has more than doubled in value since the start of the year.

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News flash: What we eat can play a pivotal role in warding off — or treating — disease and enhancing quality of life. You may already believe this, and certainly mounting evidence supports that idea. But on the cluttered shelf of diets claiming top health benefits, which one ranks as the absolute best?

That's a trick question. In fact, there is no single best diet. A good diet for me may be different from what's best for you. And for either of us, there may be several good choices with no clear winner.

How can you choose the right diet for you?

When thinking about what diet might be best for you, ask yourself:

Which diets are high in health benefits?

Two very well studied diets demonstrate clear benefit, including lowering risk for heart disease and stroke and reducing high blood pressure: the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet.

But the portfolio diet may be as good as or better than these plans, at least for combatting cardiovascular disease that contributes to clogged blood vessels, heart attacks, and stroke. What? You've never heard of the portfolio diet? You're not alone.

What is the portfolio diet?

Just as a financial advisor may recommend having a diverse investment portfolio — not just stocks, not just bonds — the portfolio diet follows suit. This largely plant-based diet focuses on diverse foods and food groups proven to lower harmful blood lipids, including LDL (so-called bad cholesterol) and triglycerides.

If you choose to follow this eating pattern, you simply need to learn which foods have a healthy effect on blood lipids and choose them in place of other foods. For some people, this only requires small tweaks to embrace certain foods while downplaying other choices. Or it may call for a bigger upheaval of longtime eating patterns.

Which foods are encouraged in the portfolio diet?

Below are the basics. Eating more of these foods regularly may help lower levels of harmful blood lipids:

See? Some of your favorite foods make the cut. That's a major strength of this approach: the list of recommended foods is long. So, it's likely that you're already eating and enjoying some of the recommended foods.

Which foods are not part of the portfolio diet?

It's worth highlighting foods that are not on this list, such as

What can the portfolio diet do for you?

Researchers have shown that the portfolio diet can improve blood lipids. But can it also lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems?

Yes, according to a 2023 study published in Circulation. More than nearly 17,000 people kept careful food diaries for 30 years. Those who most closely followed the portfolio diet, compared with those who followed it the least, were more likely to have favorable lipids and inflammation. They were also 14% less likely to have a heart attack, and 14% less likely to have a stroke.

This was true even after accounting for factors that could affect cardiovascular disease risk, such as taking cholesterol-lowering medications, exercise, smoking, or having diabetes or a family history of cardiovascular disease.

Because this was an observational study, it can't conclusively prove that the portfolio diet, rather than another factor, was responsible for the observed cardiovascular benefits. And we don't know how much benefit came from reducing or eliminating certain types of foods, rather than from the specific foods eaten.

Does the portfolio diet help people lose weight or deliver other health advantages?

What about the portfolio diet for weight loss? Although some people lose weight on the portfolio diet, it's not billed as a weight-loss diet. Understanding its potential benefit for other conditions such as obesity, cognitive decline, diabetes, and cancer awaits further research.

Go beyond diet to boost health

Of course, diet is not the only way to improve cardiovascular health and your overall health. You'll stay healthier by

The bottom line

It's probably best to move past the idea of there being a single best diet. The overall pattern of your diet and your portion sizes are probably more important. For most people, it's also a good idea to move away from restrictive diets that are nearly impossible to stick with and toward healthier overall eating patterns. The portfolio diet checks both those boxes.

There's a lot of overlap between the portfolio diet and other healthy diets. So, no one should be suggesting it's the best diet ever. But if you're trying to eat healthier, it's a great place to start.

Source: Harvard Health Publishing

SiriusXM (SIRI) shares rallied Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) raised its stake in the satellite radio company. 

Berkshire Hathaway bought 3.6 million shares for roughly $97 million across four purchases from Wednesday to Friday, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The purchases bring Berkshire's stake to nearly one-third of SiriusXM.

SiriusXM shares rose nearly 9% in afternoon trading Monday, though even with Monday's gains, they've lost about half of their value so far in 2024. 

In August, SiriusXM signed a multi-year agreement with Alex Cooper to bring her popular "Call Her Daddy" show to its platform starting in 2025. The deal is reportedly for three years and worth $125 million, double her current arrangement with Spotify (SPOT).

The move is part of a “comprehensive programming development strategy for exclusive content with SiriusXM, expected to begin rolling out in 2025,” the company said.

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Shares in Uber Technologies (UBER) lost ground Monday but were still near record highs after investors saw little threat to rideshare companies from Tesla's (TSLA) highly anticipated robotaxi unveiling last week.

Tesla revealed its long-awaited Cybercab autonomous vehicle and a larger Robovan at an event last Thursday evening. Analysts pointed out that the electric vehicle maker provided little in the way of details, with no specific business model to indicate how the new lineup of autonomous vehicles would eventually compete with companies such as Uber and Lyft (LYFT).

Since the start of the year, Uber shares have climbed nearly 40%, in part from its own foray into robotaxis. In recent months, the company has announced partnerships with General Motors' (GM) self-driving car company Cruise, Alphabet’s (GOOGL) autonomous vehicle business Waymo, and startup Wayve.

Uber stock was down 1.6% at $85 in mid-afternoon trading Monday. The stock hit an all-time high of $87 on Friday and finished the session 11% higher.

Below, we take a look at the technicals on Uber’s chart and identify important price levels worth watching out for.

Uber shares carved out an inverse head and shoulders pattern on the chart between May and September, with the stock’s price decisively breaking out above the pattern on Friday. 

Importantly, the move occurred on the highest trading volume since early May, signaling buying activity by larger market participants. 

Moreover, the relative strength index (RSI) confirms bullish price momentum with a reading above 70, but also cautions overbought conditions that open the door to short-term profit taking.

Let’s take a look at a chart-based upside price target and locate three important support levels likely to attract attention.

We can project a price target using the measuring principle, helping us determine an area on the chart where investors may decide to lock in profits.

To do this, we calculate the distance from the inverse head and shoulders head to neckline and add that amount to the breakout point.

For instance, we add $19 to $74, which forecasts a bullish target of $93, representing upside of around 8% from Friday’s close.

During an initial pullback, investors should keep a close eye on the $81 level, where the shares could garner support near three prior peaks that formed on the chart from February to March, an area that also closely aligns with the low price of Friday’s breakaway gap.

A failure to hold this level could see the stock decline to around $74, a location on the chart where investors who prefer not to chase breakouts may look for buying opportunities near the inverse head and shoulders pattern’s neckline.

Finally, further selling could lead a decline to the $68 area, were the shares may encounter support around a horizontal line connecting a range of comparable trading levels on the chart between May and September.

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Bitcoin (BTCUSD) rose Monday, lifting shares of Coinbase Global (COIN) and other stocks linked to the cryptocurrency. 

The price of bitcoin was recently near $66,000, rising some 6% over the past 24 hours according to CoinDesk data. That helped shares of companies like crypto exchange Coinbase, major bitcoin holder MicroStrategy (MSTR) and crypto mining company Marathon Digital (MARA). Coinbase stock was recently up about 9%.

The moves came as broader markets, including the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite, rose to start the week. They have bitcoin trading around recent highs, though a bit below their highest points of 2024.

They also follow a policy statement from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, citing support for “a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets.” The statement, along with previous comments from former President Donald Trump, her Republican opponent, could signal Washington may move toward a more crypto-friendly outlook regardless of who wins the election. Trump in recent days has used social media to promote the coming sale of a crypto token.

Coinbase is set to report its latest quarterly results at the end of the month.

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