Lowe’s (LOW – Free Report) closed at $232.98 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.87% move from the prior day. The stock’s change was less than the S&P 500’s daily loss of 0.02%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.21%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.29%.
Shares of the home improvement retailer have appreciated by 1.28% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector’s gain of 1.42% and the S&P 500’s gain of 1.29%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Lowe’s in its forthcoming earnings report. The company’s upcoming EPS is projected at $2.94, signifying a 19.89% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $21.07 billion, down 5.7% from the prior-year quarter.
The specter of stagflation has returned. On April 25th, The Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that GDP only grew by 1.6% in the first quarter of this year, well below expectations.
Consumer spending on goods actually declined in the quarter as ordinary Americans are financially tapped out. The report also showed inflation remains stubbornly high, continuing a recent trend of resurgent inflation running about twice the Federal Reserve’s target rate.
American small businesses are the biggest victims of the stagflationary economy, which is being weighed down by big government policies. This was the most important storyline coming out of this Month’s National Small Business Week.
President Biden is claiming a small business “boom” under his administration. The reality is entrepreneurs grapple with a triple threat: a decelerating economy, soaring inflation, and escalating credit expenses due to his bad policies.
American consumers have a record $1.2 trillion of credit card debt. They are experiencing declining real wages and face a cost-of-living crisis. They can’t afford to keep up their discretionary spending, which small businesses rely on to survive and thrive.
Gen Z have been relentlessly mocked for spending money they don’t have on avocado toasts, designer bags and luxury holidays—and then complaining that they’ll never be able to save up enough for a house deposit. But in reality, research echoes that the youngest generation of workers really do have it worse financially.
A new study from credit reporting agency TransUnion found those in their early 20s are earning less, have more debt and see higher delinquency rates than millennials did at their age.
The research compared the credit usage of 22 to 24 year olds to millennials, who were 22-24 years old 10 years ago. It found that 20-somethings today are taking home around $45,500, while millennials at their age were earning $51,852 when adjusting for inflation.
Despite earning less, young people today are being forced to dig deep for basic necessities like food groceries and gas thanks to inflation, with interest rates currently at a 23-year high in the U.S.
Last week, President Biden said he would withdraw military aid to Israel if it commenced military operations to go into Rafah and go after Hamas. There were many reactions to this announcement because it seemed to perfectly encapsulate the incoherent Israel policy the Biden administration has been developing since Hamas’ brutal attack last October that touched off the war in Gaza.
On one hand, the American people are broadly supportive of Israel and the moral justification for this war. Lest anyone forget, Hamas is still holding American citizens hostage at this very moment. On the other, the hard-left grassroots that are an important part of the Democrat Party’s coalition are radically pro-Palestinian and eager to engage in street violence domestically to prove the point. It’s also worth noting that the hard-left shock troops aren’t just emblematic of the party’s activist heart — their efforts to destabilize colleges and worse are being funded by George Soros, the Tides Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and those that hold the purse strings for billions of dollars of funding for Democrats and their lefty causes.
The issue is drastically polarizing the Democratic coalition. For instance, normally America’s celebrities are engaged in overt social media campaigning for Democrats six months out from an election. Well, here’s a video of Jewish actor Michael Rapaport, an avowed Trump hater, unendorsing Biden in characteristically profane fashion.
During an episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” James Carville, a Democrat and political strategist, expressed his opinion that Speaker Mike Johnson and other “Christian nationalists” are a bigger threat to America than al-Qaeda. In a more recent rant posted on X, Carville urged young people to recognize the potential dire consequences of not voting for Biden in this year’s November election, at least as he sees it:
If Trump, and Roberts, and Alito, and Gorsuch, and Thomas, and Leonard Leo, and the Heritage Foundation — if they get a hold [of power], there will be no government left, there will be no rights left, you will live under theocracy, you’ll end up [with] Christian Nationalism. My advice to tell these young people is to get off your motherf**king a** and go vote because you should vote like your entire future, and the entire future of this United States depends on it because, quite frankly, it does, and that’s not an exaggeration.
Now Zakaria is telling Democrats that it’s time to face the ‘reality’ that Joe Biden is probably going to lose the election in November.
He comes right out and says that he personally doesn’t want Trump to win, but that barring some unforeseen event, Trump is likely to walk away with the win.
A political action committee for a ubiquitous home improvement company is doing some financial renovations in the wake of fraud, according to a new financial filing.
“The PAC has taken action to prevent this from happening in the future by closing that bank account and opening a new account,” said a report to FEC from May 8. “In addition, the PAC is using positive pay through the bank to prevent any future occurrences.”
The $7,500 charge was “fraudulent activity on the bank account and has been reversed,” the report said.
There’s been some chatter over social media that Virginia could be in play for the 2024 presidential election, despite how it’s gone for the Democratic presidential candidate every year since 2008. That being said, it’s only regarded as “Likely Democratic.” But, the campaign for former and potentially future President Donald Trump looks to be hopeful about every state, even and including the bright blue ones. On Monday, RealClearPolitics featured a conversation between reporter Phil Wegmann and co-founder Tom Bevan from Friday, with Wegmann discussing some of those hopes from the Trump campaign as it pertains to New York and New Jersey, specifically when it comes to reactions to antisemitic protests on college campuses.
As Bevan pointed out, especially since President Joe Biden had been in Wisconsin that week and Trump had been in Michigan andWisconsin, it looks like the race could come down to those two states, as well as other key battlegrounds. Polling released before and since then has shown that the race is particularly close and competitive in those two states as well as overall. Trump is leading Biden by +0.6 in Wisconsin and by +0.8 in Michigan, per RCP’s averages.
“It does seem that in this ‘Blue Wall’ of the upper Midwest, Trump’s leading, but not by very, very much. And that’s where they’re gonna spend the majority of their time and effort and money,” Bevan offered, as he also wondered “is that where the Trump folks think this race is going to be decided, in one of those two states,” when speaking to Wegmann about Wisconsin and Michigan.
House Republicans are teeing up a number of pro-law enforcement bills to hit the floor during National Police Week, looking to hammer home their law-and-order platform ahead of the 2024 election.
Lawmakers will vote on a slew of police-related legislation over the coming days, including bills to increase protections for law enforcement officers as well as resolutions denouncing the Biden administration over what Republicans consider to be “soft-on-crime” policies. The law enforcement bills will also include a number of provisions seeking to crack down on the rise of illegal immigration at the southern border, which has become a hot-button topic on Capitol Hill.
Governor JB Pritzker’s administration is shedding more light on plans to close a state prison in Chicago’s south suburbs as early as September, and possibly move another.
Capitol News Illinois reports top officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections on Friday laid out the agency’s plans to close and rebuild two state prisons that are in dire states of disrepair.
Pritzker announced the plan in March, but IDOC officials have been slow to release details. Now, the agency is acknowledging it’s aiming to close the Stateville Correctional Center at the end of summer.
Organized labor is pushing back on the plan. AFSCME Council 31 represents most state prison workers. The union’s Deputy Director Mike Newman cast doubt on the state’s assurances that prison employees would be guaranteed jobs at other facilities.
This is what happens when United States senators try to speak on topics they know absolutely nothing about.
Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland made an absolute fool of himself on X where he tweeted out his support for banning “high-ammo stocks”, whatever that is. Senator Cardin claims that we “owe it” to young people to strip them of their rights? Young people deserve senators that understand the Bill of Rights and at least make a basic attempt to understand the topics that they speak on. Instead we have Senator Ben Cardin.
It’s time to pass mandatory background checks, bans on assault weapons and high-ammo stocks.
We owe it to young people everywhere.
— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) May 12, 2024
Less than two weeks until its scheduled adjournment, state lawmakers and Gov. JB Pritzker appear to be at-odds in budget negotiations.
The Democratic governor is requesting legislative approval of a $52.7 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, accompanied with approximately $800 million in tax increases. Those increases, namely extending an expiring cap on losses that corporations can claim on taxes to gain $526 million and increasing the tax on sportsbooks’ revenues from 15% to 35% to collect another $200 million, are meeting resistance in Springfield.
Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at the Hoogland Center for the Fine Arts Thursday, May 2, 2024.
During a May 13 news conference, Pritzker said Democrats and Republicans — often clashing with the governor — were both raising concerns. Mathematically, however, he just needs Democratic backing since the party holds super-majorities in both the House and Senate.
The governor and Democrats have often been in lockstep throughout his first five years in office, yet tweaks to his budget proposals have occurred in prior budget negotiations. Pritzker said at an unrelated event in Chicago that he welcomes changes as long as they keep spending in-check.
“My one principle around this budget is its got to be balanced,” he said. “We’re not going to overspend, we’re not gonna start sweeping dollars from accounts that had been done before I became governor. And we’re not gonna go back to the old practices of, you know, making us a credit unworthy state.”
In preparation for legislative resistance, Deputy Gov. and former local state senator Andy Manar sent out a letter to department heads last week requesting their help in identifying $800 million in collective budget cuts. Their focus, he wrote, should be on items such as “grant programs and other discretionary spending that has increased in recent years.”
Others leading counter efforts to Pritzker’s spending plan include the Sports Betting Alliance, a nationwide advocacy group representing gaming interests such as DraftKings and FanDuel. The alliance claims the new rate will lead to an uptick in illegal offshore sports betting.
Last year, Illinois collected $150 million in tax revenues from sports wagering meaning the increased rate would bring in $350 million to the state’s coffers. Pritzker said the 35% is subject to the sportsbooks themselves and not on those placing bets, a point that he’s had to clarify with lawmakers.
Scheduled adjournment for the spring session is set for May 24, but lawmakers have built a contingent schedule tacking on a week in case negotiations are still ongoing. If negotiations are not wrapped up by the end of the month, a three-fifths vote in both chambers will be necessary. FY25 starts on July 1, 2024.
Jerry Nowicki of Capitol News Illinois contributed to this report.
Contact Patrick M. Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.
JEFFERSON CITY — Democrats blocked business in the Missouri Senate overnight, preventing Republicans from sending voters a ballot question that, if approved, would limit future changes to the state constitution.
Republicans brought up the plan shortly before 2:40 p.m. on Monday. Democrats then began holding off action through a talking filibuster, which reached the 15-hour mark at about 5:40 a.m. Tuesday.
Stakes are high: legislators face a 6 p.m. Friday deadline to complete regular business for the year. With the potential ballot question pending before the Senate, the chamber cannot act on any unrelated bills.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded to a Sunday article in Daily Mail that detailed the large number of cops ditching California for the pastures of Texas, which might not be greener but are certainly more friendly to law enforcement. Morale is low among peace officers in the Golden State as soft-on-crime woke district attorneys like LA’s George Gascón and Alameda County’s Pamela Price, along with criminal-loving measures like Proposition 47, make them feel undermined and unwelcome.
Thousands of them are getting out of Dodge, the outlet reported:
…the Golden State is hemorrhaging thousands of police every year, with numbers down by more than 5,000 since 2019.
There are now fears that high-crime Californian cities are suffering a brain drain in law enforcement, leaving the public unprotected as criminals run riot.
Ray Bottenfield, a former Santa Monica College Police Captain who retired to Hewitt, Texas, admitted it had become increasingly difficult to retain or recruit officers due to the lack of support from the state.
A fresh poll from The New York Times brought more bad news for President Biden as he struggles to catch up to former President Trump in the key battleground states that will decide November’s election.
The poll found Trump leading in five out of six swing states, with Wisconsin the lone place where Biden is ahead. More concerning for Biden is that the poll found the president is losing support among young voters and Black and Hispanic voters, all of whom are critical to his coalition to win reelection.
While Republicans took a victory lap, Democrats cautioned it was one poll nearly six months out from Election Day. But Biden allies acknowledged the president has work to do if he is to win reelection in November.
“With the usual stipulations about polls six months out, Biden is behind,” said Jim Kessler, co-founder of the left-leaning think tank Third Way. “They need to be in a better place on the border, crime and inflation to win. They have a story to tell on each and further actions they can take, but they need to get cracking.”
Former President Donald Trump’s team blasted the Joe Biden campaign for releasing a Mother’s Day attack ad.
On Sunday, the Biden campaign released an ad attacking the former president by asking the American people to “do the moms in their lives a favor” and vote against Trump come November.
“Happy Mother’s Day. At the Biden campaign, we are asking Americans to do the moms in their lives a favor. Stop Trump,” said the press release.
“Families depend on moms – and moms deserve a President they can depend on to protect their rights, work to lower their costs, and fight for them. Donald Trump wasn’t and isn’t that President, but Joe Biden is,” it added.
BRUSSELS — European Union nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system on Tuesday as campaigning for Europe-wide elections next month gathers pace, with migration expected to be an important issue.
EU government ministers approved 10 legislative parts of The New Pact on Migration and Asylum. It lays out rules for the 27 member countries to handle people trying to enter without authorization, from how to screen them to establish whether they qualify for protection to deporting them if they’re not allowed to stay.
Hungary and Poland, which have long opposed any obligation for countries to host migrants or pay for their upkeep, voted against the package but were unable to block it.
Mainstream political parties believe the pact resolves the issues that have divided member nations since well over 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq. They hope the system will starve the far right of vote-winning oxygen in the June 6-9 elections.
The UK government on Tuesday said it had summoned China’s ambassador Zheng Zeguang, a day after a British court charged three people in the latest Beijing-linked alleged espionage case.
The foreign ministry was “unequivocal in setting out that the recent pattern of behaviour directed by China against the UK, including cyber-attacks, reports of espionage links and the issuing of bounties is not acceptable”, a spokesperson said.
The UK government on Tuesday said it had summoned China’s ambassador Zheng Zeguang, a day after a British court charged three people in the latest Beijing-linked alleged espionage case.
The foreign ministry was “unequivocal in setting out that the recent pattern of behaviour directed by China against the UK, including cyber-attacks, reports of espionage links and the issuing of bounties is not acceptable”, a spokesperson said.
Vladimir Putin has continued his Kremlin reshuffle by ousting a military general, who was stripped from his bed and arrested by armed police in the early hours of the morning.
The leader of the Russian Defense Ministry’s personnel official was then “taken away for interrogation” in the latest of Putin’s cabinet purge. His arrest, however, is reportedly in connection with his previous job guarding military state secrets.
The former bodyguard, who once saved Putin from being eaten by a bear, has previously held a high position in the federal Protective Service, which guards Putin and other VIPs
The power vacuum that America left behind in Afghanistan is fueling a resurgence of Islamist terrorists who have the will, and perhaps the capability, to target the U.S. and its interests abroad, according to a major report by the United States Institute of Peace, which argues that the Biden administration should consider unleashing more military strikes against terrorist targets in the country.
BLINKEN: UKRAINE IN A TOUGH SPOT: After traveling covertly overnight by train from Poland, Secretary of State Antony Blinkenarrived in Kyiv this morning for meetings with Ukraine’s president and other senior officials to deliver a message of reassurance as Ukraine is facing serious challenges from an aggressive new Russian offensive that is threatening to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses in the north.
“While in Ukraine, Secretary Blinken will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to discuss battlefield updates, the impact of new U.S. security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments,” the State Department said in a statement announcing Blinken’s arrival. “He will emphasize America’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and democracy in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.”
In brief remarks before their first meeting, both Blinken and Zelensky admitted Ukraine is now in a tough spot, the result primarily of the six-month delay by the U.S. Congress in approving a $61 billion aid package, a delay that left Ukraine’s artillery and air defense systems greatly depleted.
