Author: Money Mechanics

Key Takeaways If you want to invest like Warren Buffett, the first thing to focus on is strong businesses at fair prices. Hold core stocks for years and let compounding work, while ignoring short-term ups and downs in the market. Focus on companies with durable “moats”—advantages like strong brands, loyal customers, or unique technology. Warren Buffett’s approach to investing sounds deceptively simple: buy great businesses, pay a fair price, then hold them for a long time while compounding does the work. Even though he’s been running the same playbook for decades, his principles still apply today. The hard part is…

Each week, in our Ask the Editor series, Joy Taylor, The Kiplinger Tax Letter Editor, answers questions on topics submitted by readers. This week, she’s looking at questions on the state and local tax deduction. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Tax Letter or subscribe.)1. How did the OBBB affect the SALT deduction?Question: What changes did the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) make to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction? Joy Taylor: The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) imposed a $10,000 federal cap on the deduction for state and local taxes claimed by itemizers on Schedule…

Stock futures moved higher Friday morning as investors prepared for the release of labor market data that will factor into the Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision on interest rates.  Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were recently up 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell less than 0.1%. Stocks are coming off a winning session on Thursday, when the benchmark S&P 500 closed at a record high and the other two major indexes finished the day fractionally below new highs of their own. Market participants are bracing for the release of the August…

US President Donald Trump’s nominee to join the Federal Reserve has vowed to uphold central bank independence, bond traders are banking on revenue from Trump’s tariffs to bolster US public finances, and Nasdaq is trying to combat a number of suspected “pump and dump” scams. Plus, the “Amazon of Africa”, Jumia, is still trying to prove that it can be a profitable business after six years on the public market. Mentioned in this podcast:Stephen Miran vows to uphold Fed independence but says Donald Trump ‘entitled’ to a view on monetary policyBond investors count on Trump tariff revenues to rein in…

Nvidia Corp. NVDA shares traded lower Friday after Broadcom Inc. AVGO delivered stronger-than-expected quarterly results and confirmed a landmark partnership with OpenAI that could intensify competition in the artificial intelligence hardware market.While Nvidia dominates the industry with its general-purpose GPUs that train large-scale AI models, Broadcom has carved out leadership in networking chips and custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for hyperscale data centers.With cloud providers increasingly demanding tailored solutions, Broadcom’s bespoke hardware is emerging as a quiet but significant challenge to Nvidia’s GPU supremacy.Also Read: Broadcom Stock Jumps After Nvidia Forecasts Massive AI DemandFor its fiscal third quarter, Broadcom reported…

Gold’s upward momentum has paused as traders adopt a cautious stance ahead of today’s U.S. non-farm payrolls report. Support levels: $3540 remains the immediate support. A decisive break below could expose $3522, with deeper downside toward $3513 and potentially $3483–$3476 if that zone fails. Resistance levels: Upside gains are capped at $3560. A break above may extend targets toward $3575, $3585, and $3607. Fundamental DriversRecent U.S. labor market weakness—reflected in sluggish payroll expectations and rising jobless claims—has fueled speculation that the Fed may cut rates later this month. This uncertainty has lifted demand for safe-haven assets, providing strong support for…

Italy — a perennial favorite of the rich and famous — is attracting a new wave of ultra-wealthy arrivals looking to take advantage of its investor friendly environment, thriving real estate market and low tax regime.As many other countries clamp down on the super-rich, Italy has been bucking the trend; its accommodative flat-tax regime has enticed hordes of big spenders drawn to luxury living and Milan’s increasingly bustling business scene.And despite doubling the one-off charge paid by high-net-worth individuals on their foreign income to 200,000 euros ($233,000) in 2024, this has done little to detract demand for la dolce vita.”They…

Investors are clearly bullish about former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor’s AI agent startup Sierra. Sierra, which helps enterprises build customer service AI agents, announced it raised a $350 million funding round on Thursday. The round, led by earlier investor Greenoaks Capital, values the startup at $10 billion, according to a company blog post that confirmed an earlier report from Axios on Wednesday. Sierra was founded in early 2024 by Taylor and longtime Google alum Clay Bavor. The company claims to have landed hundreds of customers, including SoFi, Ramp, and Brex, among others, in its 18 months of operation. Sierra has…

Key Takeaways Severe weather has the potential to put trillions of dollars of real estate in danger in coming years, a new study found. Realtor.com says just over a quarter of homes in the U.S. face severe or extreme risk from flooding, hurricane winds, or wildfires. The trend is making home insurance harder to find and more expensive for some Americans. More than a quarter of homes across the U.S. are vulnerable to a severe or extreme weather risk like flooding, hurricane winds, or wildfires, amounting to about $12.7 trillion worth of homes in danger of weather damage, per a…

Key Takeaways C3.ai replaced its CEO as the struggling artificial intelligence software provider reorganizes its operations.The company also posted a bigger loss and lower revenue than analysts expected.C3.ai withdrew its full-year guidance because of the changes the company is undergoing. Shares of C3.ai (AI) dipped Thursday, a day after the artificial intelligence software provider replaced its CEO, posted weak results, and withdrew its guidance as it restructured its struggling business. The company said Stephen Ehikian replaced Thomas Siebel as of Sept. 1. C3.ai called Ehikian a “recognized innovator in the enterprise software industry” who most recently held the position of…