Author: Jeffery Carter

Robert Lewandowski’s penalty sends Barcelona to the top of LaLiga with a 1-0 win against Rayo Vallecano.Barcelona returned to the top of the Spanish league on goal difference after Robert Lewandowski’s first-half penalty secured a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano. The Catalan club took advantage of weekend slip-ups by Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid to move on to 51 points on Monday, the same as Madrid and a point clear of Atlético. Madrid drew 1-1 at Osasuna on Saturday, and Atletico was held by the same score at home by Celta Vigo. “We shouldn’t fall into the trap of looking…

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said it’s important to understand that a trade is not the same as an investment.Trades are made with short-term goals in mind, while investments are about gains in the long term, he said.According to Cramer, investors make trades based on a specific catalyst, or some future event they think might drive a stock higher, like anticipated news about a drug company’s product receiving FDA approval. He emphasized that trades have a limited shelf life.Regardless of whether investors predict the outcome of a catalyst successfully, they should be prepared to sell when the moment has passed, he added.”Hopefully,…

Maria Korneeva | Moment | Getty ImagesAs millions of taxpayers file returns, many worry that certain claims could boost their chances of being picked for an IRS audit. After an infusion of funding, the agency said it aimed to more than double the audit rate for the wealthiest taxpayers. But the IRS’ future priorities are unclear amid changing leadership and a Republican-controlled Congress and White House. Still, some areas can be “low-hanging fruit for the IRS,” said Mark Baran, managing director at financial services firm CBIZ’s national tax office.    More from Personal FinanceYour tax return could be ‘flagged for audit’ without these key formsNearly 1 in 5 eligible…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed DOGE to the Pentagon, where Elon Musk will face an accounting system that has never passed an audit and decades of rampant price gouging by defense contractors.On Thursday, Trump floated cutting the defense budget in half – after things “settle down” with Russia and China. It was a sharp turn from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments earlier the same day that “nobody can or should test the extent of America’s willingness to invest in national security.”Defense policy experts say the Pentagon’s $850 billion budget is in sore need of oversight – investigators regularly uncover billions…

As a personal finance writer, my social media feeds are flooded with content from personal finance influencers — or “finfluencers” — offering users the best tips for paying down debt, getting rich quick, and the like. While some of this advice can be useful, I sometimes come across tips that make me do a double take. And not in a good way. Here are some of the worst pieces of financial advice I’ve come across on my feeds — plus a few tips for avoiding bad money advice on social media. Read more: Check kiting goes viral on social media.…

Perplexity has become the latest AI company to release an in-depth research tool, with a new feature announced Friday. Google unveiled a similar feature for its Gemini AI platform in December. Then OpenAI launched its own research agent earlier this month. All three companies even have given the feature the same name: Deep Research. The goal is to provide more in-depth answers with real citations for more professional use cases, compared to what you’d get from a consumer chatbot. In a blog post announcing Deep Research, Perplexity wrote that the feature “excels at a range of expert-level tasks—from finance and…

Moderna on Friday posted fourth-quarter revenue that beat estimates, but lost more than expected for the period, as the biotech company continues to slash costs and demand for its Covid vaccine falls. It marks another quarter of growing pains for the company, which is racing to launch new products and recover from the rapid decline of its once-booming Covid business. Shares of Moderna climbed more than 3% on Friday. Moderna posted a net loss of $1.12 billion, or $2.91 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2024. That compares with net income of $217 million, or 55 cents per share, reported for…

Check out the companies making headlines in postmarket trading: Reddit — The social media platform slid 17% after Reddit’s user numbers fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. Daily active uniques averaged 101.7 million for the fourth quarter, reflecting growth of 39% year over year but missing analysts’ call for 103.1 million, per StreetAccount. Separately, Reddit beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines for the fourth quarter. The Trade Desk — The advertising technology stock plunged 25% after posting revenue of $741 million in the fourth quarter, which was below the consensus forecast of $759 million from analysts polled…

President Joe Biden after he signed the Social Security Fairness Act at the White House on Jan. 5 in Washington, D.C. Kent Nishimura | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesThe biggest changes to Social Security in years were signed into law on Jan. 5.For more than 3.2 million individuals, that will mean bigger benefit checks. And in some cases, the change will qualify them for Social Security benefits.The new law, the Social Security Fairness Act, repeals two provisions that previously reduced Social Security benefits for individuals who receive pension income based on work where employers were not required to withhold Social…

SAN FRANCISCO — Mac McClung brought out the props for the slam dunk contest – a car, a ladder, a hoverboard.And despite his limited NBA experience – the 6-2 high-flyer from the G League jumped, floated and wowed the crowd with his creativity for another All-Star slam dunk contest victory Saturday at Chase Center. McClung is the first player to win the event three consecutive times and was asked if it would be fair to consider him the greatest dunker ever.“That’s not for me to decide,” McClung said.Miami’s Tyler Herro won his first 3-point contest and prevented Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard from…