Nicolas Cage To Star In ‘Butcher’s Crossing’ Movie Adaptation
WASHINGTON — American actor Nicolas Cage plays a buffalo hunter in a film adaptation of the John Williams novel “Butcher’s Crossing.”Reports suggest that the upcoming movie is being helmed by Gabe Polsky, who has directed documentaries like “Red Army” and “Red Penguins.” Shooting for the film will begin in the US in October. The movie is based on the 1960 transcendentalist novel by Williams, which explores man’s relationship with the natural world and details a largely untold but significant chapter in American history. Cage, an Oscar winner in the 1990s and early 2000s, was one of the biggest Hollywood stars. The actor and his wide-ranging career are getting the big-screen treatment via a unique drama from Lionsgate titled “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” in which Cage plays himself — and as the version of himself. Cage also stars in “Pig,” where he plays a wronged truffle hunter searching for his kidnapped pig.
thewestsidegazette.comFed's Williams say high market prices justified by economic growth and low rates
New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Friday that high prices for stocks and other assets are justified in light of a growing economy and low interest rate landscape. Fed policy of low rates and continued asset purchases often is cited as a driving factor in prices for risky assets. "Those combined will give you high asset valuations." Williams also addressed the high levels of monetary and fiscal stimulus that have been provided during the Covid-19 pandemic. Really, what I want to see is an economy that gets back to full strength as soon as possible."
cnbc.comChristmas tree sales are telling a holly, jolly economic story
John Williams, left, and his dad Terry, right, both of Salem, carry a large Christmas Tree out of the field together at Tucker Tree Farm in Salem, Oregon, November 29, 2020. Alisha Jucevic | ReutersTree retailers are having a spirited season this year, as Americans staying closer to home due to the coronavirus pandemic are turning the holiday spirit up a notch. Christmas trees are helping paint a bit more optimistic narrative. "People are staying at home and getting a really big tree," Evercore analyst Ed Hyman said in a note. Indeed, each year Americans will buy between 25 million and 30 million real Christmas trees along with another 10 million to 20 million artificial ones, according to Statista.
cnbc.comFederal Reserve says key bank lending rate will be phased out by June 2023
An interest rate that banks around the world use as a benchmark for short-term borrowing will be phased out and eventually replaced by June 2023, the Federal Reserve announced Monday. The Fed was joined by regulators in the U.K. in announcing the plans for the London Interbank Offered Rate, commonly referred to as Libor. According to the announcement, banks should stop writing contracts using LIBOR by the end of 2021, after which the rate no longer will be published. Contracts using LIBOR should wrap up by June 30, 2023, the directive said. Libor is calculated from an average of banks that participate in overnight lending to each other.
cnbc.comHeading home for the holiday? Get a virus test, colleges say
University of Utah student Abigail Shull takes a rapid COVID-19 test at the University of Utah student testing site Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020, in Salt Lake City. Now, many students are heading home for Thanksgiving, raising the risk of the virus spreading among family, friends and other travelers. Only about 100 colleges initially tested all students once or twice a week, regardless of symptoms, as part of their back-to-school plans. The few institutions that already regularly test students even without symptoms don’t have to change much. “We, of course, have health services and we have nurses, but they’re working like dogs and there’s not enough of them.”For students, testing availability can be a relief.
Carnegie Hall to remain closed through April 5
NEW YORK – Carnegie Hall has extended its closure due to the coronavirus pandemic through April 5. The decision announced Thursday leaves only the possibility of performances at the very tail end of the hall’s 2020-21 season. Carnegie has been closed since March 12 and last June has canceled performances through Jan. 6. The venue has shifted some of its programming online. Among the events canceled early next year were a planned night of the music of film composer John Williams, performances by the New York Pops and the Shanghai Chinese and Vienna orchestras.
New York Fed President Williams says the economy won't be back to 'full strength' by end of 2020
New York Federal Reserve President John Williams told CNBC on Friday he sees some parts of the economy coming back online but doubts growth will return to normal this year. That echoed comments from Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker, who spoke to CNBC on Thursday. "But I don't see the economy getting back to full strength by the end of the year." The central bank official spoke ahead of what looked like a big day on Wall Street. While Williams expressed some optimism about the longer-term growth prospects, he sees "some tough days ahead" and "horrible" second-quarter economic data.
cnbc.comUnthinkable a few weeks ago, Wall Street sees a chance of rates falling as low as zero this year
With the Federal Reserve expected to act soon in response to the coronavirus scare, there's a chance that the central bank could take policy back to where it was during the financial crisis. Goldman Sachs economists said Sunday that they see the Fed cutting rates by 50 basis points by its March meeting or sooner, and probably 100 basis points this year, a forecast about in consensus with current market pricing. But as short-term rates keep going lower, there's a chance they could go all the way to near zero where they were during the financial crisis. "One of the recurring themes in optimal monetary policy near the zero lower bound is that when growth risks occur with policy rates within the neighborhood of zero, then the central bank should act early and aggressively," JPMorgan's chief U.S. economist, Michael Feroli, said in a note. "This suggests to us that there is a reasonable chance (we subjectively put the odds at one-in-three) that policy rates return to zero before the end of the summer."
cnbc.comNY Fed's Williams says it would take a 'material' change in economy for Fed to adjust stance
The Federal Reserve will have to see a substantial change in economic conditions before making any shifts in its monetary policy, New York Fed President John Williams said Wednesday. "Monetary policy is in a good place," Williams told CNBC's Steve Liesman. The Fed cut rates three times this year in a near-complete reversal of its 2018 policy moves. "With the rate cuts that we did this year, we created a situation where monetary policy is supportive and accommodating growth," Williams said. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said after the meeting that he wants to see persistently higher inflation before hiking rates again.
cnbc.comFed's Williams says repo operations working well and should stay in place 'just as long' as needed
New York Fed President John Williams said the short-term lending market is functioning well, and the Fed should keep its repo operations in place just as long as needed. The Fed started overnight and longer-term open market operations to keep the market liquid and has said it would continue those operations over the new year. The Fed has said it would continue to conduct open market operations in the repo market into January. Williams noted the size of the Treasury market is growing significantly and that the repo market is growing as well. More generally, we're seeing changes in market structure around the repo market.
cnbc.comCondolences pour in after shooting death of Alabama sheriff
Law enforcement agencies in Alabama and beyond posted messages of condolences on social media Sunday in the aftermath of the fatal weekend shooting of a sheriff in the state. Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham initially told news outlets that Williams was shot at a gas station. The state law enforcement agency canceled the emergency alert early Sunday, saying Johnson was taken into custody. Bob Riley 's appointment of a white law enforcement officer to replace the county's deceased sheriff. Al-Amin was wanted and later convicted in the fatal 2000 shooting of a Fulton County sheriff's deputy in Atlanta.
chicagotribune.comJobs data, manufacturing report, Exxon earnings: 3 things to watch in the markets Friday
Economists are estimating 75,000 jobs created in October, according to Dow Jones, a slowing from the 136,000 jobs added in September. The ISM U.S. manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 47.8 in September; any reading below 50 signals a contraction. Energy companies Chevron and Exxon Mobile both report quarterly earnings before the bell on Friday. Wall Street is expecting Exxon's earnings to plummet by more than 50% from a year ago, according to Refinitiv. Dominion Energy and Sempra Energy also report earnings on Friday.
cnbc.comWilliams says the Fed has the tools to fight a recession and can use them 'more quickly' next time
New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said the central bank has the tools to fight another recession and could deploy them even more aggressively next time around. Williams indicated the Fed has enough stimulative methods even as its benchmark interest rate is now below 2%, leaving little room for major cuts. Specifically, he said monetary policymakers could use asset purchases, or quantitative easing, as well as forward guidance, or public statements on the intention to keep rates lower for an extended period time, both of which helped pull the economy out of the Great Recession.
cnbc.comFed's Williams: 'We were prepared' for the overnight funding jolt last week
New York Fed President John Williams said Monday that the central bank acted quickly during last week's jolt to overnight lending markets and that the issue appears resolved for now. LIBOR is used as an international benchmark for overnight lending. Rates in the overnight repo market, where banks go to fund their day-to-day operations, surged Monday night amid a liquidity crunch, pushing the Fed's own funds rate above the top end of its target range. "We were prepared for such an event, acted quickly and appropriately, and our actions were successful. Friday's announcement on open market operations to address potential quarter-end funding pressures on interest rates followed this same approach: quickly diagnose the problem, develop the right action plan, and execute that plan," Williams added.
cnbc.comIf the Fed cuts rates this week, it could widen a growing rift within the central bank
"You've already had [Boston Fed President Eric] Rosengren come out and say he doesn't think a rate hike is justified. Rieder said he puts odds of about 40% on a half percentage point cut. Partly that is why I think there is a better than 60% chance" for a quarter point cut. That and other comments caused a shift in market views to expect a greater probability of the the more aggressive 50 basis point rate cut. George, speaking to the Wall Street Journal, said this month that she was prepared to be flexible but didn't see reasons for a rate cut.
cnbc.comSince 1990, the stock market does this every time in the trading week before Fed starts cutting rates
Investors could not be any more confident that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates when its Federal Open Market Committee meets for two days on July 3031. The CME FedWatch tool puts the probability of a rate cut at 100%. The only question market traders have now is how big the cut will be. Three in four traders expect a rate cut of 0.25%; one in four think the Fed will double up, cutting rates by 0.50%. In late 2015 the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2006.
cnbc.comDow climbs higher as hopes grow for bigger rate cut
Andrew Burton/Getty Images(CNN) - The Dow and the broader stock market climbed higher at Friday's open, driven once again by hopes of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. On Thursday, investors got excited about the possibility of a bigger-than-expected interest rate cut. New York Fed President John Williams on Thursday said policymakers should take preventative measures at the first signs of economic slowdowns. The market took this to mean that a bigger interest rate cut was on the way. Expectations of a half-percentage-point cut at the Fed's next meeting in two weeks more than doubled to 60% in response.
Week ahead: Earnings, GDP expected to show sluggish growth as investors await rate cut
Drew Angerer | Getty ImagesSluggish economic and earnings growth will be a theme in markets in the week ahead, as investors await a Fed interest rate cut at the end of the month. More than a quarter of the S&P 500 companies report earnings in the coming week, the second big week of the second quarter reporting season. Slower economyAs earnings growth was muted in the second quarter, so was the pace of economic gains. If growth comes in as expected, it would be the first quarter where growth was under 2% since the first quarter of 2017. "If the Fed fails to move, you're going to end up with an increasingly stronger dollar," which impacts corporate earnings, Roth said.
cnbc.comTrump wades into debate over controversial Fed speech Thursday, calls for end to tight policy
President Donald Trump weighed into a simmering debate over Federal Reserve interest rate policy, saying Friday that the central bank needs to end its "crazy" tightening moves. In a series of tweets, the president addressed an unusual controversy stemming from a speech Thursday that New York Fed President John Williams delivered. Market participants initially took Williams' remarks as indicative that the central bank was prepared to cut rates aggressively, by perhaps a half a percentage point. Williams never said in the speech that the Fed raised "far too fast & too early," as Trump suggested. In his speech, Williams said that when faced with "economic distress," the Fed should "act quickly" and "keep interest rates lower for longer."
cnbc.comThe market hopes the Fed will make an even deeper cut to rates later this month
That may make the idea of a so-called insurance rate cut later this month, an attractive option for the Fed chair, who looks determined to cut interest rates even as the domestic economy appears to be showing some signs of strength. We had an extraordinarily strong retail sales report; a 0.3% gain in core CPI month over month. Traders increased their bets on Thursday that the Fed could cut even deeper later this month. "This is a Fed that is data independent.They are not cutting interest rates because of incoming data. Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida, speaking on Fox Business News, said cutting interest rates quickly is a good strategy.
cnbc.comFed's Williams hints at more aggressive rate cuts: 'Better to take preventative measures'
Central bankers need to act quickly and forcefully when rates are low and economic growth is slowing, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Thursday. But not when interest rates are in the vicinity of the ZLB," he said in prepared remarks. However, he said that when faced with low rates and slowing growth, the best strategy is to "take swift action" and "keep interest rates lower for longer." "The expectation of lower interest rates in the future lowers yields on bonds and thereby fosters more favorable financial conditions overall. This will allow the stimulus to pick up steam, support economic growth over the medium term, and allow inflation to rise," he said.
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