Author: Money Mechanics

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.The SanDisk ExtremeFit USB-C flash drive (512GB) is on sale for $99 during Amazon’s last day of its Prime sale. That’s $20 off the regular price of $119, but this offer won’t last much longer. The ExtremeFit lives up to its name as one of the smallest external storage devices I’ve ever seen — about the size of a mouse dongle. It comes in several storage configurations, from 128GB up to 1 TB. Luckily, the most practical size is the one that’s on sale: 512GB for $99, which is 17% off. Also: Prime Day is…

(Oil & Gas 360) By Greg Barnett, MBA – A June 2026 Perspective on the Monthly Energy Review, the Short-Term Energy Outlook, and the Global Forces Behind Your Gasoline Bill.     The June 2026 edition of the Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Energy Review (MER) arrives with remarkably little drama. U.S. energy production remains strong. Consumption remains relatively stable. Exports continue to absorb excess supply. Coal continues its long decline while natural gas, liquids, and renewables carry the system forward. In many respects, the report looks like a continuation of trends that have been developing for more than a decade. Yet a…

Stocks opened lower Friday as tech stocks slumped on reports that artificial intelligence (AI) giant OpenAI is considering delaying its initial public offering (IPO). And while the main equity indexes were in positive territory by lunchtime thanks to strength in defensive sectors, including healthcare and consumer staples, momentum faded into the close.Late Thursday, The New York Times reported that advisers to OpenAI are encouraging CEO Sam Altman to delay the ChatGPT parent’s offering until 2027. This comes amid recent volatility in SpaceX (SPCX, +0.2%), which went public earlier this month in the biggest IPO ever.OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO paperwork…

Qualified charitable distributions from traditional IRAs by those ages 70½ and older are more valuable thanks to significant changes to charitable contribution deductions made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It is important to take two steps now.First, if you have not maximized your QCD benefits for 2026, do so before December 31.Second, carefully plan how to use QCDs for your charitable giving in 2027. Here is a summary of the OBBB changes in charitable giving. The doubling of the standard deduction from the 2017 tax law was made permanent and indexed for inflation. Since charitable contributions can be…

The judge in the trial of the suspected arsonist behind the deadly Palisades fire declared a mistrial on Friday, saying jurors were hopelessly deadlocked on a verdict.Arson suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, faces three federal counts: arson, malicious destruction by means of fire, and timber set aflame. Prosecutors allege that he ignited the Jan. 1, 2025 Lachman fire, which was later destroyed and re-ignited on Jan. 7 during the Santa Ana windstorm.The subsequent Palisades Fire killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes, devastating the Pacific Palisades community located west of Santa Monica.U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang declared a mistrial…

Quick Read WEN surged 6% to $7.74 on a viral meme campaign, but short interest near 26% and cooling sentiment signal the rally could reverse sharply. Wendy’s value case rests on a trailing 10x P/E and 8% yield, but Q1 same-restaurant sales fell 8% and net income dropped 42%. Insiders Peter May and Bradley Peltz each bought Wendy’s shares at $7.14 in April, with Q2 earnings on August 14 as the next real test for the turnaround. Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Wendy’s didn’t make the cut.…

In-brief analysis June 26, 2026 An increase in electricity generation from small-scale solar in New York has decreased the midday demand for metered electricity, amid overall declining load in the state. The trend is particularly notable in the early spring (March and April), when solar generation has an outsized impact because demand is relatively low and conditions for solar generation are favorable. Rooftop and other photovoltaic (PV) systems with less than 1 megawatt (MW) of generating capacity are not typically metered by a utility. As this type of solar generating capacity has increased, midday…

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (FL) speaks on Day 3 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 17, 2024. Mike Segar | ReutersThe U.S. House on Tuesday voted 358-32 in favor of an affordable housing bill aimed at lowering costs for homebuyers and reining in institutional investors, sending the package to President Donald Trump’s desk.The legislation, dubbed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, is a rare bipartisan measure in a deeply divided Congress. It advanced out of the Senate on Monday night by a vote of 85-5, after months of debate and different…

Xprize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis has joined a growing list of tech executives who think that global surveillance is a good idea, saying, “[h]umans behave better when they’re being watched.” Diamandis shared his opinion in a post on X this week, and went much deeper on his beliefs on his Substack, where he described, essentially: Big Brother, but good. “Radical transparency is coming. A future where you can know anything, anytime, anywhere. A future where no one can hide,” he wrote on Substack. “We are wrapping the planet in an ‘Sensor Ecosystem’: a living, multi-layered sensing system that runs from…

Article published at 9:00 a.m. CTJJ Kinahan is Senior Vice President, Head of Retail Expansion and Alternative Investment Products at Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe).Key Takeaways:Tech extends Thursday lossesOil prices unsteady amid threats to Strait of Hormuz transitApple, Microsoft shares shaky after price hikesErratic trading could rule the day again, as tech stocks command the limelight after a topsy-turvy week in which investors worldwide continue to question the wisdom of the AI boom given returns on investment are still in question.The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is on another downward slide in the early going, on track to finish the week after…