For: April 7, 2025
>>Ahead Of The Bell: Stock Futures Plunge
(Undated) -- U.S. stock futures are on the decline ahead of a new trading week on Wall Street. Dow Jones Industrial, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures all fell roughly four percent Sunday. This comes after the Dow saw back-to-back losses of over 15-hundred points for the first time ever last week, while the S&P took a six-percent nosedive Friday, the worst since March 2020. The markets have been taking a steady beating over concerns President Trump has ignited a global trade war with his new tariffs. At Friday's closing bell the Dow fell two-thousand-and-231 points to 38-314. The S&P 500 lost 322 points to 50-74. The Nasdaq plunged 962 points to 15-587.
>>Oil Futures Slide Over Recession Fears
(Undated) -- Oil prices are down as fears over a recession mount. Ongoing trade tension between the U.S. ad China are stoking fears of a reduced demand for crude oil. At last check Brent futures were down more than two percent to 64-dollars-and 17 cents a barrel while West Texas crude futures were down about the same to 60-64 a barrel. At one point during trading, prices fell more than three percent, hitting their lowest levels since April 2021.
>>FOMC Meeting Minutes, Weekly Unemployment, CPI All Out This Week
(Undated) -- There's a lot to focus on this week in business news, aside from just the stock market. We'll start things off today with word on consumer credit. The National Federation of Independent Business optimism index is out the following day. Minutes from the Federal Reserve's March meeting will be released on Wednesday. Weekly jobless claims come out Thursday along with the closely-watched consumer price index - a key measure of inflation. The week comes to a close with the latest producer price index data on Friday.
>>TikTok Gets Another Extension, Avoiding Ban
(Washington, DC) -- TikTok is getting a 75-day extension. President Trump made the announcement on Truth Social after a finalized deal to sell TikTok to a new company fell through following his tariff announcement. Chinese-owned ByteDance had until April 5th to divest from the app or face being banned in the U.S. It was expected that China would approve a proposed deal that had been in the works for months. However, it was then reported over the weekend that ByteDance told the White House China would no longer approve the deal unless there were negotiations on tariffs.
>>Study Says NJ Least Federally Dependent State
(Trenton, NJ) -- A study by the financial website WalletHub says New Jersey is the state that is least dependent on federal funding for areas including education, transportation and healthcare. WalletHub analyzed all 50 states according to the return on taxes paid to the federal government, its share of federal jobs and the share of state funding that comes from the federal government. California and Delaware come right behind New Jersey, while the states that are most dependent on federal aid are Alaska, Kentucky and West Virginia.
>>Mega Millions Raises Ticket Price, Overhauls Lottery
(Atlanta, GA) -- The Mega Millions is making major changes. The price of a ticket jumped to five dollars with Saturday's launch of a new version of the multi-state lottery game which now features a "built-in random multiplier." Also, a new prize structure will begin with the April 8th drawing. Lottery officials say the changes include bigger prizes across the board and better odds to win the jackpot. Mega Millions estimates the average jackpot win in the new game will top 800-million-dollars.
