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Instablog9ja
23 m
15
OAP Toolz has prayed for a visa applicant after seeing him on his knees, praying over his documents at the UK visa application centre in Victoria Island, Lagos.
She said she drove past the UK visa centre in Victoria Island and saw this guy on his knees in front of his car praying over his documents. She prayed for God’s favour for him.
Investopedia 24 m 14
Oracle (ORCL) shares surged more than 9% in extended trading on Monday after the enterprise software company posted better-than-expected fiscal first quarter results and announced a multicloud partnership with Amazon’s (AMZN) cloud business, Amazon Web Services.
The software giant’s stock has gained around 34% since the start of the year prior to Monday’s after-hours jump, as growing demand for its cloud services, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has powered earnings in recent quarters.
Below, we’ll take a close look at the technicals on Oracle’s chart and point out important post-earnings price levels to watch out for. The stock rose 8.9% to $152.30 in after-hours trading Monday.
Oracle shares staged a decisive breakaway gap above 12-month trading range in mid-June but subsequently retraced the move throughout most of July to the initial breakout area. However, bulls stepped in to defend this important technical level in early August before driving a rally of more than 11% from last month’s low ahead of the company’s quarterly results.
Amid the stock’s projected jump to a new all-time high (ATH) following its upbeat report, investors can forecast both a shorter-term and longer-term price target using technical analysis.
We can forecast a shorter-term price target by using the measuring principle, sometimes referred to as the measured move technique.
This works by calculating the distance between the trading range’s upper and lower trendlines and adding that amount to the June breakout point. For instance, we add $27 to $127, which projects a target of $154.
Investors can predict a longer-term price target by using a bars pattern.
We do this by extracting the stock’s upward trending move from December to June and position it from last month’s swing low. Doing so projects an upside target of around $180.
Moreover, that prior advance occurred over 126 trading days, indicating that the shares could remain in an uptrend until early February if a similar move were to play out.
During retracements or periods of profit taking, investors should monitor how the price responds to the $145 level, an area on the chart that may flip from providing prior resistance into offering future support following the stock’s projected jump above this region on Tuesday.
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Investopedia
1 h
14
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Household budgets likely got a welcome break in August, with prices falling or staying flat for important items including food and gas, if forecasts of an upcoming inflation report are correct.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report Wednesday should show prices rose 2.6% over the year through August, down from a 2.9% annual increase in July, according to a survey of economists by and .
Falling prices for gas and stable prices for food likely helped keep overall inflation in check, several economists said. If the prediction holds, the annual inflation rate would be a fresh low since March 2021.
Should inflation stay tame as forecasters expect, it would bolster the recent evidence that consumer prices are well on their way back to the stability that people had gotten used to before the pandemic.
Starting in March 2022, the Fed hiked its benchmark rate to its highest since 2001, pushing up borrowing costs on mortgages, car notes, and other loans in an effort to quell the post-pandemic surge of inflation. Since then, inflation has cooled, nearly reaching the Federal Reserve’s goal of a 2% annual rate, prompting Fed officials to pivot to rate cuts.
Whether CPI inflation meets economists' expectations will largely depend on how quickly rents rose. Housing costs make up two-thirds of the overall value of the price index.
Many economists expect rent to start putting downward pressure on inflation as official government measures catch up to cooling rent increases shown by other, more up-to-date data sources. Last month’s report defied those expectations, showing an unexpected rent increase.
Cooling inflation would also be welcome news to officials at the Federal Reserve who manage the nation’s monetary policy and could pave the way for the central bank to make a series of cuts to its benchmark interest rate at its three remaining meetings this year.
The inflation report will be one of the last major economic data releases Fed officials see before they decide on their interest rate moves at the Sept. 17-18 policy meeting.
Fed officials are widely expected to cut the influential fed funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point, but financial markets are pricing in an outside chance of a larger half-point cut, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data. “Barring some extraordinary surprises, there should be nothing in this report that would deter the Fed from making a rate cut and quite possibly a large one,” Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research think tank wrote in a commentary.
A larger cut would boost the economy, potentially bolstering the increasingly shaky job market, but it would also take some of the downward pressure off inflation.
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Instablog9ja
2 hrs
13
Selena Gomez has revealed that she “can’t carry” children due to medical reasons.
The 32-year-old singer shared with Vanity Fair on Monday that she had to grieve the loss of her ability to become a mother naturally. “I haven’t ever said this,” she explained, “but I, unfortunately, can’t carry my own children.”
She went on to explain, “I have a lot of medical issues that would put my life and the baby’s in jeopardy. That was something I had to grieve for a while.” Although her path to motherhood will look different, the actress is determined to become a mother one day.
“It’s not necessarily the way I envisioned it. I thought it would happen the way it happens for everyone,” she said. “I’m in a much better place with that now. I find it a blessing that there are wonderful people willing to do surrogacy or adoption, which are both huge possibilities for me.”
She expressed gratitude for alternative paths to motherhood, saying, “It made me really thankful for the other outlets for people who are longing to be moms. I’m one of those people. I’m excited for what that journey will look like, but it’ll look a little different.”
Through surrogacy or adoption, Selena insists the child will be hers, saying, “At the end of the day, I don’t care. It’ll be mine. It’ll be my baby.”
Investopedia
2 hrs
9
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When the Federal Reserve meets next week, market participants will closely watch how members vote on interest rates to inform how policy may move in the months ahead — and they'll take special note if the vote isn't unanimous.
The fed funds rate has been at a more than two-decade high for more than a year, an effort to tame inflation that was spurred by the pandemic's initial shocks. Recent reports have shown price pressures moving closer to the Fed's 2% annual goal, causing several Fed officials to signal that it's time to cut rates.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell will likely try to get everyone on board for at least a quarter-point rate cut when the central bank meets later this month. However, Powell and others may press for an even larger cut because of recent weakness in the labor market.
“Fed Chair Powell does not need a unanimous consensus to commence rate cuts at the upcoming September meeting," said Kathy Bostjancic, senior vice president and chief economist at Nationwide, in an email. "But he likely prefers to have it, especially for the first rate cut."
The FOMC has 12 voting members, including the seven governors and five of the 12 regional bank presidents, who vote on a rotating basis. Votes at Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings are often unanimous, even when there is disagreement over the course of action.
The last dissenting vote at the FOMC came in 2022, when then-Kansas City Fed President Esther George voted against a three-quarter point interest rate increase, arguing instead for a smaller hike of 50 basis points.
Minutes from the most recent Fed meeting, in July, showed several members discussed cutting interest rates, but none dissented during the vote to keep current rates intact.
“Practically speaking, the committee members engage closely between meetings to work toward a consensus, but there are no guarantees,” said Jeffrey Roach, LPL Financial's chief economist.
Getting all members of the Federal Reserve on the same page can help send a message to markets that Fed officials are in agreement about its actions. A divided vote could raise questions about whether the central bank believes it is taking the right action and what is motivating Fed officials.
“Consensus has been a way to keep the Fed from getting politicized,” Betsey Stevenson, a former Labor Department economist, wrote on X. “They can see what's happening on the Supreme Court, and if I was on the FOMC, I think I would prioritize the fight for consensus.”
While unanimity isn’t needed to proceed, it could boost market participants' confidence in the Fed's ability to keep a recession at bay. This could be relevant if Powell wants to push for an even larger half-percentage point rate cut at the September meeting.
“It would be difficult,” said Dan North, senior economist with Allianz Trade Americas, on whether Powell could rally consensus behind a larger interest rate cut. “It would be with a lot of dissent, and that would look bad."
Powell may be willing to take that risk, wrote Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG.
“Powell is worried more about the labor market than his peers. He wants to nail a soft landing. The question is how hard he pushes for a half percent cut and how many dissents he is willing to take to get it,” Swonk wrote on X.
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Instablog9ja
3 hrs
11
The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has declared that those found guilty of corruption should not enjoy state pardon.
He also advised law enforcement agencies against conducting shoddy investigations, urging them to ensure they have their facts straight before summoning anyone for questioning.
According to a statement made available to newsmen by his media aide, Kamarudeen Ogundele, the AGF spoke at a roundtable organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for state Attorneys General in Abuja on Monday. The AGF stated, “I will suggest in our next constitution review exercise that we exclude those found guilty of corruption from benefiting from the powers of ‘Prerogative of Mercy’ to serve as a deterrent to others.”
Fagbemi emphasized that the cooperation of all stakeholders, especially the Attorneys General, is crucial in the fight against corruption. He advised them to avoid nepotism, political witch-hunting, rivalry, and bigotry in their efforts to combat corruption, particularly to please their governors.
He also stated that there should be no justification for rationalizing corruption or crimes, adding that their legal opinions on cases must be based on facts as practiced in advanced countries. The AGF remarked, “We should not give in to public sentiment. In Nigeria, we are polarised along political lines.”
Fagbemi then advised participants and anti-graft agencies to conduct thorough investigations of cases before arresting suspects to avoid media trials. “Let us be thorough and take our time before inviting someone for questioning. Don’t do a shoddy job,” he said, and cautioned against filing excessive charges against defendants just to generate public frenzy. “Nobody wants a 50-count charge. Make it five or six and be sure. Make sure you get him (the suspect) in,” the Minister concluded.
