06-04-a-Market Top Wires

State Farm proposes home insurance price hike after $1 billion spent on LA fire claims– www.washingtonexaminer.com
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State Farm wants to raise home insurance rates for Californians by an average of 22% after the company paid out roughly $1 billion in claims due to the Los Angeles fires.

As the largest home insurance company in the United States, State Farm covers 20% of the area devastated by the fires in Los Angeles County, which the company said ranked as “the costliest disasters in the history of State Farm General.” In Altadena alone, 6,000 homes, or around 40% of all residential units, were destroyed by the fires, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.

Ecuador announces 27% tariffs on Mexican goods – WTHITV.com
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Ecuador will apply a 27% tariff on Mexican goods to “ensure fair treatment” of Ecuadorian producers, President Daniel Noboa said on Monday.

In a post on X, Noboa said he is open to signing a free trade deal with Mexico, but “not when there is abuse,” though did not elaborate. The president said that until a free trade deal is struck, a 27% tariff will apply to goods imported from Mexico.

Ecuador imported $541 million worth of goods from Mexico in 2023, Mexican government data shows. The biggest single import was medication, representing 12.6% of the goods sold from Mexico to Ecuador that year.

US bans medical debt from credit reports as Biden nears exit | Health News– www.aljazeera.com
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Consumers in the United States will no longer have medical debt appear on their credit reports under changes that will make it easier for millions of Americans to obtain loans.

The new rule means that lenders will be barred from using medical information in their lending decisions, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said on Tuesday.

Under the change, an estimated $49bn in medical debt will be struck from the credit reports of more than 15 million Americans, the CFPB said.

The consumer watchdog said that its research showed that medical debt is a poor predictor of whether a loan will be repaid and that it expects the change to result in the approval of approximately 22,000 additional mortgages every year.

“People who get sick shouldn’t have their financial future upended,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement.

Biden Stops Japan’s Nippon Steel From Buying U.S. Steel– legalinsurrection.com
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President Joe Biden officially blocked Japan’s Nippon Steel from buying U.S. Steel.

In his statement, Biden cited national security and authority given to him under the Defense Protection Act of 1950 as to why he blocked the $14.1 billion deal:

We need major U.S. companies representing the major share of US steelmaking capacity to keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests. As a committee of national security and trade experts across the executive branch determined, this acquisition would place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted Wednesday, marking its longest losing streak in nearly half a century as the Federal Reserve issued a lackluster economic forecast.

Closing down 1,123 points, or 2.6%, the blue-chip index has now declined for 10 consecutive days, a sequence last witnessed during the presidency of Gerald Ford from Sept. 20 to Oct. 4, 1974, according to CNN. This downturn began after the Fed’s policy statement revealed expectations of only two interest rate cuts in 2025.

The central bank forecasts that inflation will remain above its target for a prolonged period, dashing expectations for swift economic recovery, CNN reported. Despite the Dow’s fall, the broader market has shown resilience, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite consistently approaching or holding near-record highs.