stimulus

Stimulus checks are working: Walmart U.S CEO

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

The debate on whether the stimulus checks arriving to the digital bank accounts of U.S. consumers are working rages on in the halls of Congress and on Wall Street. But from the perspective of America’s largest retailer Walmart (WMT), the newfound cash infusion to household balance sheets are working as designed.

They are helping people spend a little more on daily essentials, perhaps after a recent job loss, or encouraging people to splurge, if they are still employed.

“I think it helped,” Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner — who oversees more than 4,700 U.S. stores — said about the checks on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.

“We were softer in Easter than what we had expected to be and weren’t sure if that’s where things were going to be for some time. A few days after the stimulus checks began to land, people were settling in at home. Call it

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Republicans and Democrats already agree on this stimulus fix so get it done, says Barbara Corcoran

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran hasn’t been shy with her criticism of the government’s aid for small businesses during the coronavirus shutdown.

When she saw the startups she’s backed struggle to apply for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, she called the Small Business Administration’s efforts “horrendous.”

But now, after a second round of funding and the ire of the public guarding against large corporations taking money they otherwise might not need, the program seems to be working more efficiently in getting government money to small businesses looking to keep employees on their payroll.

And business owners are pushing for two key tweaks to the program. First, businesses wish to use the government funding over a period of time longer than just the mandated eight weeks. Second, businesses are also asking to no longer dedicate at least 75% of PPP money to payroll costs and instead are looking to direct some funds

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Stimulus checks may be yanking the economy out of the next Great Depression

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Newly sent out stimulus checks from lawmakers may be having their desired effects: boost consumer spending — which makes up about 70% of the U.S. economy — and yank the U.S. economy out of a severe recession this summer.

“As the [first] quarter progressed, we saw a second phase related to entertaining and educating at home. Puzzles and video games took off. Parents became teachers. Adult bicycles started selling out, as parents started to join the kids. An overlapping trend then started emerging related to DIY and home-related activities. Think games, home office, exercise equipment and the like. It was also clear, a lot of people were taking a do-it-yourself approach as they bought items like bandanas and sewing machines to make masks,” explained Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on his company’s first quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

McMillon continued, “We could see customers looking to improve their indoor and outdoor

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More stimulus checks from Trump are needed to prevent a stock market plunge: strategist

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

After a rally in stocks since late March fueled on pure hope around the pace of economic recovery post the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the markets may be starting to cry out for their latest pound of flesh to keep stocks moving higher.

And the needed flesh will probably not come in the form of negative interest rates from Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell (which he promptly downplayed this week). Nope. So what the market — which has been hit with a fresh round of profit-taking this past week — probably wants is another round of stimulus checks from the Trump administration mailed straight to the mailboxes of struggling U.S. consumers in the hopes they go out and spend. Many strategists believe the first round of checks — which are still being shipped out — have either gone into savings or used to pay bills.

“What we need is

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Consumers are refinancing loans as a form of personal stimulus

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Americans are using historically low interest rates to refinance their loans as a form of personal stimulus during the pandemic.

“Mortgage volume is at record levels, and has been for quite some time and continues to crest upwards in terms of demand,” Brendan Coughlin, head of consumer banking at Citizens Bank, told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.

“It’s a form of stimulus, if you will, with rates at historic lows, consumers can restructure their debt and get some payment savings,” he added.

The same trend is playing out with student loan refinancing where rates have plummeted.

“Twenty-five to 35-year-olds are taking advantage of rates dropping very, very substantially to lock in those historic low rates and get themselves some cash payment savings,” said Coughlin.

“So consumers are hunkering down on spending, but they’re taking advantage of the low rates to stimulate better health in their personal balance sheets.”

Coughlin also

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