Stocks regain some of their footing; IRS report card for 2024 has ‘good news’
Wall St. firm up after latest sell-off
NEW YORK — Wall Street held firmer on Jan. 8, a day after strong reports on the economy hurt U.S. stocks by stirring up worries that inflation and interest rates may remain higher than expected.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent Wednesday to recover a bit of its 1.1 percent slump from the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3 percent, and the Nasdaq composite edged down by 0.1 percent.
In the bond market, which has been the bigger focus for Wall Street recently, the moves were also more modest.
The main event this shortened week is Friday’s jobs report. The stock market will be closed Thursday to observe a National Day of Mourning for late former President Jimmy Carter.
Top Fed official backs new rate cuts
WASHINGTON — A top policymaker at the U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday that he still supports cutting interest rates this year, despite elevated inflation and the prospect of widespread tariffs under the incoming Trump administration.
Christopher Waller, an influential member of the board of governors, said he expects inflation will move closer to the central bank’s 2 percent target in the coming months. And in some of the first comments by a Fed official specifically about tariffs, he said they likely won’t push up inflation this year.
“My bottom-line message is that I believe more cuts will be appropriate,” Waller said in Paris at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“If, as I expect, tariffs do not have a significant or persistent effect on inflation, they are unlikely to affect my view,” Waller added.
His remarks are noteworthy because the impact of tariffs is a wild card this year for the U.S. economy. Financial markets have weighed down in recent months partly on fears that inflation may continue to be an issue, and that tariffs could make it worse.
Yet Waller suggested that he is more optimistic about inflation than many Wall Street investors.
IRS watchdog releases its annual report
WASHINGTON — An independent watchdog has found the IRS has improved its overall taxpayer service through Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, but it still faces delays processing claims from a pandemic-era tax credit program and is slow to resolve certain identity theft cases.
National taxpayer advocate Erin M. Collins said Jan. 8 in her 2024 annual report to Congress that for the first time since she took the job in 2020, she can begin the report “with good news.”
Collins said “the IRS has made major strides” through multiyear funding but service “remains far from perfect.”
IRS chief Daniel Werfel said “things are trending in a very positive direction” in terms of performance in taxpayer service.
Requests for jobless aid fall for week
NEW YORK — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in nearly a year last week, pointing to a still healthy labor market with historically low layoffs.
The Labor Department on Jan. 8 said applications for jobless benefits fell to 201,000 for the week ending Jan. 4, down from the previous week’s 211,000. This week’s figure is the lowest since February of last year.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out the week-to-week ups and downs, fell by 10,250 to 213,000.
Strike that crippled Utah slopes ends
PARK CITY, Utah — Ski patrollers at the biggest U.S. ski resort have reached a deal with Park City Mountain Resort in Utah to end a strike that put a wrench in operations during the busy holiday season and into the new year.
A joint statement released by the executive board of the ski patrollers’ union said a vote was scheduled for Wednesday on an agreement “that addresses both parties’ interests and will end the current strike.”
“Everyone looks forward to restoring normal resort operations and moving forward together as one team,” it said.
The deal would run through April 2027. No other details were released.
About 200 ski patrollers went on strike on Dec. 27 over wages they said were too low for high living costs. The resulting thin staffing at Park City left many runs closed and caused long lines for ski lifts.
Exxon sues Calif AG over recycling claims
SAN FRANCISCO — Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, months after Bonta sued the oil and gas giant alleging that it deceived the public for half a century by promising the plastics it produced would be recycled.
The company said in its lawsuit that Bonta, the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay and the Surfrider Foundation conspired to defame it with statements regarding the efficacy of its plastic recycling technology.
Exxon is seeking unspecified damages and retractions of “defamatory statements” from Bonta and the groups.
The California Department of Justice called the lawsuit “another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception” and said Bonta looks forward to “vigorously litigating” the case.
In its lawsuit filed in September, Bonta’s office said that less than 5 percent of plastic is recycled into another plastic product in the U.S. even though the items are labeled as “recyclable.”
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