Author: Money Mechanics

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the AI Stocks Analysts Are Tracking Closely. On September 16, TD Cowen raised the price target on the stock to $270 from $240 while maintaining its Buy rating on the shares. The rating affirmation follows the firm’s GenAl Public Cloud Survey. The 2025 GenAI Public Cloud Survey has revealed that Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is the second-place choice for companies considering additional cloud providers. Survey results demonstrate that Google Cloud Platform, or GCP, had a solid showing. However, there is still a gap between GCP and market leaders Amazon’s (AMZN) Amazon Web Services, or AWS,…

Ty Cobb, a former attorney for the White House under President Donald Trump‘s administration, has drawn a comparison between the suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel and the tactics employed by the Nazis.Cobb sees a similarity between ABC’s suspension of Kimmel and the Nazis’ strategy of removing comedians from German airwaves back in 1939. The suspension was a result of threats made by Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission’s chair, towards Kimmel and ABC, following remarks made by the comedian about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin.The indefinite suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” by ABC was met with approval by Trump. Cobb voiced his…

In-brief analysis August 13, 2025 Even without accounting for electricity interruptions resulting from major events such as hurricanes, customers in Puerto Rico experienced on average 27 hours of power grid interruptions per year between 2021 and 2024. By comparison, electricity customers in the mainland United States generally experience about two hours of electricity interruptions per year without major events. Hurricanes and other major events add to the outage time customers experience. In August 2024, Hurricane Ernesto affected at least 1 million customers in Puerto Rico. On average in 2024, customers in Puerto Rico went without…

Pending home sales are up just 0.8% from a year ago, with many house hunters hoping rates will drop substantially more. But if that were to happen, sellers would regain the upper hand and home prices would likely rise more.  The median U.S. home-sale price rose 2.2% year over year during the four weeks ending September 14, the biggest increase in five months.  This week’s median monthly housing payment is $2,590, up slightly from last week’s nine-month low but still near the lowest level of 2025. Payments increased despite the weekly average mortgage rate dropping to 6.35%, the lowest level…

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News today and said that an agreement has been reached — but not signed — that would see TikTok’s U.S. operations spun out under majority American ownership. Leavitt said Americans will hold six of seven board seats in the restructured TikTok, and the short-form video app’s algorithm will be U.S.-controlled, according to Bloomberg. “So all of those details have already been agreed upon, now we just need this deal to be signed and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days,” Leavitt said. Bloomberg also reports that a senior…

Key Takeaways If you have a mortgage on your home, your lender probably requires you to have homeowners insurance.Insurance companies sometimes cancel existing homeowners insurance policies for a variety of reasons.Reasons for cancellation can include failure to pay premiums, excessive claims, and issues relating to the condition of the property, among others.Homeowners should take immediate action if their policy is canceled and try to obtain new coverage to replace it.If the homeowner fails to obtain coverage, the lender may buy it and charge them for it. Having your homeowners insurance canceled isn’t exactly great news, but there is no need…

Key Takeaways The new $895 annual fee requires that we get at least $75 per month in value just to break even.Quarterly credits, such as those for Resy ($100) and Lululemon ($75), expire if unused, making it something of a chore to track what to spend and when.The hotel credit jumped from $200 annually to $600 (split into two $300 semi-annual credits), potentially covering the entire fee—a real boon for two people who travel frequently. If you have an American Express (AXP) Platinum card, you probably got the same bad news my wife and I did today: The annual fee…

A minefield game, red flags and black minesgettyAs baby boomers age and continue to live longer than any previous generation, it seems as though the more we know about what’s ahead, the better prepared we will be to face the uncertainties of being an elder. Unfortunately, there is evidence showing that most people aren’t very knowledgeable about their own aging and therefore are making some uneducated assumptions and poor choices. As a society, that leaves us in a very vulnerable position, with a high probability of encountering some devastating minefields in the very near future.Minefield #1 – Lack of knowledge…

Key Takeaways Long-term unemployment has climbed to 25.7% as of August 2025, the highest in over three years, signaling tougher conditions for job seekers. Extended unemployment strains people’s savings, while also making it harder to reenter the labor force due to skill erosion and employer bias. Experts recommend networking, skill-building, and trying out contract work as strategies for landing a new role. The number of people considered long-term unemployed—or unemployed for 27 weeks or more—has ticked up this year, signaling a more competitive labor market for job hunters. As of August 2025, the percentage of long-term unemployed was 25.7%, the…

Key Takeaways Retailers may reduce discounts some this holiday season, a pattern that was spotted during Prime Day by companies that serve the ecommerce sector.Promotions may start sooner this year, and some 40% of surveyed consumers plan to start shopping by October, according to Simon-Kucher, a consulting firm.Many merchants are pulling back on promotions due to tariffs and other expenses. Already planning your holiday shopping? You’re not alone. But even early birds might need to look harder for deals this year. Retailers are likely to pull back on promotions, leading to a 2% year-over-year drop in the number of orders…