Author: businessinvestopedia.com

Americans will likely splash around in the backyard pools they already have this summer, but they’re unlikely to spend much on new ones. Pool installations were part of a home-improvement boom that swept across the country as Americans stayed indoors during the pandemic, but recent signs suggest demand is slowing as families with extra cash are shifting their money away from renovations and toward vacations.Pool Corp., a national pool-equipment distributor with a market capitalization of roughly $11 billion, said last week that it expects new pool construction to be down 15% to 20% this year. Some local builders around the…

India’s largest private lender HDFC Bank on Thursday said its total loans rose 53 percent year-on-year to Rs 24.87 trillion in the first quarter from Rs 16.3 trillion in the same period last year.Excluding the impact of the bank’s merger with erstwhile HDFC on July 1, 2023, the bank’s total loans grew 15% year-on-year.Advances under the bank’s control (gross amount through interbank participation instruments, bill rediscounting and securitisation/transfer) stood at Rs 25.7 billion as on June 2024.During the quarter, retail loans increased by about Rs 18,600 crore, commercial and rural bank loans increased by about Rs 7,200 crore, while corporate…

Crypto investors have had a kind of deja vu as Bitcoin prices have barely moved for months. But data shows that demand for the cryptocurrency is gradually recovering, which could soon be reflected in prices. Bitcoin has struggled this year around $70,000, but the struggles were exacerbated last month when miners began selling large amounts of Bitcoin to cover operational costs following weeks of sluggish transaction fees and a sharp cut in miners’ block rewards during the halving. Some large mining companies have begun using their Bitcoin reserves to earn yield or hedge risk. Now, according to CryptoQuant, the forced…

Digitally native Genius Bank began offering its first product, personal loans, about a year ago. Its second product, a high-yield savings account with an annual interest rate of 5.25%, was launched in November. But don’t call them beginners. Jenius is backed by a Japanese megabank. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is a bank with hundreds of years of history. Banking Dive caught up with Jenius Bank President John Rosenfeld to discuss what has driven the bank’s growth over the past year and what the bank is excited about going forward. Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.…

Burn Rate: At the very least, Polkadot can be appreciated for its transparency. On Tuesday, the blockchain project published a lengthy report detailing its spending over the past six months, including copies of spreadsheets and invoices. But good deeds always pay off, and Twitter users criticized the project’s multimillion-dollar spending on marketing, advertising, sponsorships, events, influencers, and other activities. At the highest level, the project is spending $87 million of its own DOT tokens on various activities in the first half of 2024, and at this pace, it will burn through its current $245 million fund in about two years,…

The real estate market crash is creating opportunities for long-term investors, according to UBS. Real estate was the only one of the 11 major S&P 500 groups to fall in 2024, dropping 4.7%. UBS analyst Jonathan Woloshin noted in a note last week that significant uncertainty remains in the commercial real estate (CRE) market, including interest rate trends and questions about refinancing $2 trillion in debt maturing between 2024 and 2026. But capital is still available, he said, and the declining supply of new retail, multifamily and industrial properties points to a strengthening business base from 2025 to 2030. There…

Welcome to a new episode of ET Market Watch! Your daily dose of market updates, stock movements, trends and more. I’m your host, Neha V Mahajan. Let’s get started: Sensex and Nifty:The Sensex index hit an all-time high of 80,000 levels on July 3, while the Nifty 50 index also crossed the 24,300 level.Today’s gains were mainly led by banking and financial stocks, with HDFC Bank in particular rising on hopes that its weighting in MSCI will be increased in the August review.The Sensex hit an all-time high of 80,074.3 and closed at 79,986.80, up 0.69 percent. The Nifty hit…

A look at companies garnering attention in midday trading: Paramount Global – The media and entertainment stock surged more than 9% on news that Skydance Media has signed a tentative merger agreement with controlling shareholder National Amusements. CNBC reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that Paramount Global’s special committee is reviewing and voting on the agreement. Tesla – The electric car company rose another 6%, bringing its gains for the week to 24%. The gains came after Tesla reported better-than-expected deliveries in the second quarter. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives raised his 12-month price target for the Elon Musk-led…

A handful of stocks heavily weighted to the U.S. market are poised for strong gains in the coming period. All three major stock indexes are off to a strong start in the first half of 2024. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 15%, lagging behind the Nasdaq Composite’s 18% gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.8%. Traders remain optimistic about the artificial intelligence boom driven by Nvidia. The chipmaker’s rise helped propel the broader market to an all-time high in 2024. These moves come as traders assess inflationary pressures, which are easing and could give the Fed ample room to…

Private payroll growth fell slightly in June, signaling a possible slowdown in the U.S. labor market, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP.Businesses added 150,000 jobs this month, below the upwardly revised 157,000 in May and the Dow Jones consensus forecast of 160,000. The total was the smallest monthly gain since January.The employment total would have been much lower if not for a hiring boom in the leisure and hospitality industry, which added 63,000 jobs, by far the largest increase among sectors measured by payroll company ADP.Other sectors that saw increases included construction (27,000), professional and business services (25,000),…