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November 24, 2024

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In this StockCharts TV video, Mary Ellen reviews the broad-based rally that pushed the Equal-Weighted SPX to new highs. She also shared base breakouts and downtrend reversal candidates in the now hot Retail space, and takes a close look at 3 old school stocks that are seeing AI-related growth.

This video originally premiered November 22, 2024. You can watch it on our dedicated page for Mary Ellen on StockCharts TV.

New videos from Mary Ellen premiere weekly on Fridays. You can view all previously recorded episodes at this link.

If you’re looking for stocks to invest in, be sure to check out the MEM Edge Report! This report gives you detailed information on the top sectors, industries and stocks so you can make informed investment decisions.

The police chief in a small town in central Mexico took his own life Friday as troops closed in to arrest him as part of anticorruption raids that also detained several other top police commanders and a mayor in other towns.

The massive, near-simultaneous raids, which federal officials called “Operation Swarm,” took place in two rural towns in the State of Mexico, west of Mexico City, as well as in two populous suburbs right on the edge of the country’s capital.

The federal Public Safety Department said the seven officials arrested “were linked to criminal groups.” and were accused of “crimes like extortion, kidnaping and homicide.” It was not clear if formal charges had been filed against them yet.

State prosecutors said the police chief of the one of the rural towns, Texcaltitlan, killed himself with his own weapon as marines, National Guard and soldiers closed in to try to arrest him on unspecified charges.

And troops also arrested the mayor of the nearby town of Amanalco on “various charges,” and also detained the town’s police chief and another local official. They also arrested the police chief of the town of Tejupilco, farther south.

The area around those towns has long been dominated by the violent La Familia Michoacana gang, which deals in drugs, kidnapping and extortion.

While some of the raids targeted rural areas, authorities also detained the assistant police chief of Naucalpan, a sprawling suburb of 775,000 inhabitants on the northwest edge of Mexico City.

Later, they announced the arrest of a top police chief in the suburb of Ixtapaluca, to the east of Mexico City, which has about 370,000 inhabitants.

Gangs and drug cartels have long infiltrated, intimidated or bribed local officials into working for them, often going so far as to take a cut of the municipal budget or use local police forces to warn them or protect them from federal raids. Sometimes, police officers simply profit freelance from the drug trade.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday issued a finalized version of a rule saying it will soon supervise nonbank firms that offer financial services likes payments and wallet apps.

Tech giants and payments firms that handle at least 50 million transactions annually will fall under the review, which is meant to ensure the newer entrants adhere to the laws that banks and credit unions abide by, the CFPB said in a release.

The CFPB said that seven nonbanks qualify for the new scrutiny. That would include payments services from Apple, Google and Amazon, as well as fintech firms, including PayPal and Block, and the peer-to-peer services Venmo and Zelle.

While the CFPB already had some authority over digital payment companies because of its oversight of electronic fund transfers, the new rule allows it to treat tech companies more like banks. It makes the firms subject to “proactive examinations” to ensure legal compliance, enabling it to demand records and interview employees.

“Digital payments have gone from novelty to necessity and our oversight must reflect this reality,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The rule will help to protect consumer privacy, guard against fraud, and prevent illegal account closures.”

A year ago, the CFPB said it wanted to extend its oversight to tech and fintech companies that offer financial services but that have sidestepped more scrutiny by partnering with banks. Americans are increasingly using payment apps as de facto bank accounts, storing cash and making everyday purchases through their mobile phones.

The most popular apps covered by the rule collectively process more than 13 billion consumer payments a year, and have gained “particularly strong adoption” among low- and middle-income users, the CFPB said on Thursday.

“What began as a convenient alternative to cash has evolved into a critical financial tool, processing over a trillion dollars in payments between consumers and their friends, families, and businesses,” the regulator said.

The initial proposal would’ve subjected companies that process at least 5 million transactions annually to some of the same examinations that the CFPB conducts on banks and credit unions. That threshold got raised to 50 million transactions in the final rule, limiting the expanded powers from roughly 17 companies to just seven, the agency said Thursday.

Payment apps that only work at a particular retailer, like Starbucks, are excluded from the rule.

The new CFPB rule is one of the rare instances where the U.S. banking industry publicly supported the regulator’s actions; banks have long felt that tech firms making inroads in financial services ought to be more scrutinized.

The CFPB said the rule will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

It is not known whether the incoming Trump administration will decide to change or kill the new rule, but it is possible that expanded oversight of tech companies aligns with future CFPB leadership.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS