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January 2025

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Occupied West Bank rocked by day of violence as gunmen kill three Israeli settlers and reprisal attacks reported

6 Mins Read

Multiple Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have been reported in parts of the occupied West Bank after gunmen killed three settlers and injured eight others earlier on Monday in the latest explosion of violence there.

While tensions have been rising in the West Bank for years, the October 7 attacks by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza has ushered in a volatile new chapter in the occupied territory.

Attacks on Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers, emboldened by their country’s offensive in Gaza and support from Israel’s right-wing government, have increased – while there have also been attacks against the settlers.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli vehicles were targeted on Route 55 in Al-Funduq, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, according to Israeli authorities. The road, which snakes through the northern West Bank, passes through the Jewish settlement of Kedumim.

Two women in one car were shot dead and a man in a second car 160 yards away died of gunshot wounds, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said.

A further eight people were injured in the attack, including the bus driver, who was shot in his limbs and abdomen, according to the MDA.

The deadly shooting sent tensions soaring and within hours the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported multiple attacks on Palestinians.

On the incident in Hajja, the Israeli military said they received several reports on Monday evening of “Israeli civilians who entered the village” and had “caused damage to property” and Israeli came to the scene.

Two more incidents were reported southeast of Ramallah where Israeli settlers set fire to an agricultural room in the town of Turmus Ayya on Monday evening, according to security sources who told WAFA. Meanwhile Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones near Bethlehem, according to WAFA.

‘Settle accounts’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation following the attack by gunmen earlier in the day. In a statement on X, he pledged to “find the abhorrent murderers and settle accounts with them and with all those who aided them. No one will get away.”

Netanyahu is expected to hold a cabinet meeting on Tuesday and discuss the West Bank.

While there has been no claim of responsibility yet for the shooting, it has been praised by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and been labelled a “terrorist attack” by Israel.

Speaking at the scene, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief Herzi Halevi said the “clock is ticking” for the attackers, and vowed to track down those responsible, make the route safer, and intensify Israel’s “intense and wide-ranging” operations “against terrorism” in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli authorities later identified the two women as Aliza Reiss and Rachel Cohen – two civilian residents of Kedumim, both in their 70s – and the man as Yaakov Winkelstein, a police investigator from Ariel, a settlement south of the site of the attack.

Rephaela Segal, assistant mayor of Kedumim, described the women as “young in nature” and said Cohen had been volunteering as a special education teacher in her retirement. Reiss was a counselor at a high school in a nearby settlement, Karnei Shomron, and both were traveling to Karnei Shomron at the time of the attack, Segal said.

This isn’t the first time in recent months that violence has broken out in this part of the West Bank. In August 2024, a group of 30 armed Israeli settlers attacked Jit, a Palestinian town just 10 minutes from Kedumim. They fired bullets, tear gas and set homes and cars on fire, according to residents who witnessed the attack.

Volatile new chapter

Recent international focus on the region has been largely on Israel’s military operations in Gaza. But another major escalation of violence has been playing out around 60 miles away in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where 3.3 million Palestinians are living under Israeli military occupation surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers. Such Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law and by much of the international community.

According to the UN, more than 500 Palestinian civilians were killed in the West Bank during 2024, with children bearing much of the violence. The UN said in December that 2024 had been a deadlier year for Palestinian children in the West Bank than the prior seven years combined. Since the October 7 attacks in 2023, at least 169 children have been killed by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the UN.

Meanwhile, 2024 was the third-deadliest year for Israelis in the West Bank since data collection began in 2008, according to the UN, which recorded the deaths of 34 Israelis – 15 soldiers and 19 civilians. Of those civilians, seven were settlers.

In August, the US announced sanctions against an Israeli organization, Hashomer Yosh, allegedly responsible for supporting settler violence in the West Bank against Palestinians, according to a State Department spokesperson.

Attacks have also come as the Israeli government ramped up approvals of Israeli settler housing. In July, Israel’s government approved a large land seizure in the occupied West Bank – the biggest since the 1993 Oslo Accords set out a path for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, according to the Israeli rights group Peace Now. The area was converted to state land, according to a document from the body, but the official notice wasn’t posted until days after, Peace Now said.

On Wednesday, the Israeli government is due to hold a construction planning meeting to discuss Israeli settlements housing approvals, the sixth consecutive week of Settlement Contruction Planning Meetings, according to Peace Now.

“The shift to weekly planning meetings represents both a normalization and intensification of settlement construction,” Peace Now said, adding that if the coming plans are approved, “the six-week total will reach 2,377 housing units. At this rate, 2025 could set new records, with projections exceeding 1,500 units per month,” Peace Now said, adding that it’s as a result of “policy changes” that have been introduced by Netanyahu and the current government.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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In Business

The fight over credit card swipe fees enters a new year with no end in sight

6 Mins Read

Many small businesses are breathing a bit easier as inflation has cooled and the race for workers slows. But consumers’ steady embrace of credit cards is taking a growing bite out of their margins.

Gene-Christian Baca, the owner of Walter’s Hot Dogs in Mamaroneck and White Plains, New York, estimated that he now pays $50,000 a year in costs associated with processing credit card transactions, a sum he says has ballooned with rising card processing rates and more customers paying with cards over cash.

“Every year, 3% of all of our sales is washed away just to credit card processing,” he said.

A Visa credit card inserted into a card reader in Tiskilwa, Ill., on Sept. 18, 2018.Daniel Acker / Bloomberg via Getty Images file

Merchants have long shouldered these “swipe fees,” the catchall term for businesses’ payments to banks and card companies each time customers swipe. While a federal rule caps debit card swipe fees at 21 cents per transaction, those for credit cards can be much higher.

And as many shoppers ditched cash for plastic cards or mobile payment apps, businesses have seen credit card transactions swell. They made up 32% of all U.S. consumer payments in 2023, up from 24% in 2019, according to a Federal Reserve study. Cash shrunk its share to 16% over the same period, down from 26%.

Spending on American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa cards in the U.S. soared to $5.25 trillion in the first half of 2024, up from around $4.98 trillion during the same period in 2023, according to data provided to NBC News by the Nilson Report, which covers the payments industry.

These shifts in customer habits have added to many businesses’ costs. Merchants paid an average of 2.26% in swipe fees for transactions using the Visa and Mastercard credit card networks in 2023, the latest year with available data, according to Nilson. The two companies accounted for more than $100 billion of the $172 billion in total U.S. swipe fees in 2023, Nilson said, and Visa accounted for 52% of credit card spending on the four major card networks.

Some of Visa’s fees are now going up. The card network raised two of the credit card swipe fees it charges banks and processing companies on Jan. 1. The move comes amid growing pushback from critics, including some lawmakers, who say swipe fees are excessive and frequently get passed on to shoppers.

“Most likely, higher swipe fees from Visa would mean higher prices for people at the store eventually,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. “It’s unclear as to how quickly that would happen, but generally speaking, when these fees tend to go up, merchants would tend to pass those extra costs along to consumers.”

The Merchants Payments Coalition, an advocacy organization backed by leading restaurant, retail and other trade groups, estimates Visa’s additional fees will total $100 million per year.

“That seems like not a lot, but it increases the amount of every single transaction, and that really adds up over time,” said Doug Kantor, a member of the Merchants Payments Coalition’s executive committee and general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores.

The Merchants Payments Coalition says the $172 billion in swipe fees in 2023 set a record and estimates they cost the average family more than $1,100. The group is pushing for more transparency with credit card fees, more competition among networks and lower fees.

Visa says its changes are meant to make the network better. When confronted by policymakers about some of its swipe fees, the company has said that it “has no incentive to set [them] at levels that are too high or too low.”

A Visa spokesperson told NBC News in a statement: “We are constantly enhancing our network to better serve the businesses and consumers that increasingly choose to transact with us. Everything we do is designed to make paying and being paid with Visa more convenient, secure and reliable.”

The Electronic Payments Coalition, an advocacy group supporting card networks including Visa, says average swipe fees haven’t changed much over the last decade even as sales have increased. The organization has also noted that businesses incur distinct costs by handling cash. Those can range from operating cash registers to paying bank account fees.

Businesses handle swipe fees differently. Some, like Walter’s Hot Dogs, bake the costs into their prices. Others are trying to entice customers to use cash. Patz Deli in Manchester, New Hampshire, charges customers a 4% convenience fee for credit card transactions to cover the costs of processing fees and credit card equipment.

“It’s a cost that we don’t necessarily have to take on ourselves because it’s not our credit card,” said owner Pat Burns. “It’s your choice to use it, not ours, but we’re the ones who get charged for it.”

He said the deli introduced the convenience fee within the last couple of years as it faced mounting pressure from taxes, wages and other expenses.

“At the end of the month, by the time you bring home any type of money, 10 other people have already had their hands in it,” Burns said. “Even just a little bit like on the credit cards, 3, 4% goes a long way helping small businesses stay afloat.”

Consumer experts recommend using cash for small transactions, using rewards cards to make the most of each purchase and paying in person rather than over the phone when possible. Phone transactions often result in a higher fee for businesses due to security risks.

The fight over swipe fees has reached Congress. The Credit Card Competition Act, a bipartisan bill spearheaded by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., aims to boost competition among credit card processing companies — something the Merchants Payments Coalition says is essential.

But the bill has stalled. Several groups supporting banks, credit card networks and credit unions are opposing the measure, saying it would harm small businesses and consumers, in part by limiting rewards.

“Swipe fees are definitely a really contentious thing and have been a battlefield between credit card issuers and networks and merchants for a long time,” said LendingTree’s Schulz. “It feels like that battle is really only going to keep going on for the next little while.”

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

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In World news

Lawsuit alleges Fox Sports ex-host harassed hairstylist and offered her $1.5M for sex

3 Mins Read

A woman who worked as a hairstylist for Fox Sports alleges in a lawsuit that former host Skip Bayless made repeated, unwanted advances toward her — including an offer of $1.5 million to have sex with him.

Attorneys for Noushin Faraji, who was a hair stylist at Fox for more than a decade, are seeking unspecified damages from Bayless, Fox Sports and its parent company, Fox Corporation, according to a copy of the lawsuit filed Friday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles.

The complaint claims Fox executives fostered a hostile work environment that allowed senior managers and on-air personalities including Bayless to abuse workers without fear of punishment.

The Associated Press does not generally identify, in text or images, those who say they have been sexually assaulted or subjected to abuse unless they have publicly identified themselves as Faraji has in filing the lawsuit.

An attorney for Bayless, Jared Levine, did not immediately respond to AP’s telephone and text messages seeking comment. Email and phone messages left at Bayless’s talent company were not immediately returned.

Bayless could not be reached directly for comment.

Fox Sports said in a statement that it takes the allegations seriously but had no further comment given the pending lawsuit.

Faraji claimed that the advances by Bayless, which began in 2017 and continued until last year — included lingering hugs, kisses on the cheek and comments from Bayless that he could change Faraji’s life if she had sex with him.

In 2021, she claims in the suit, Bayless offered Faraji $1.5 million for sex and, after she refused, later threatened her job.

“Ms. Faraji knew that he was trying to pressure her into having sex with him, but she kept repeating that she was a professional that had to be kind to all talent,” the lawsuit says.

Bayless worked for Fox Sports until 2024 when his show was canceled after its ratings plummeted with the departure of his co-host, Shannon Sharpe.

Faraji said she was fired in 2024 based on “fabricated” reasons. The lawsuit said she initially remained quiet about her treatment at Fox, believing she could be in danger if she went public.

The suit also claims Fox employees were not paid their full wages or overtime. It seeks class-action status on behalf of other workers who allegedly were impacted.

In 2017 Fox Sports fired its head of programming amid a probe of sexual harassment allegations.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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In Stocks

Stock Market Ends the Week Strong: Could It Spark a Bullish January?

6 Mins Read

Has it been a while since the broader market indexes closed in the green? It certainly seems that way.

After what looked like a weak start to the new year, the stock market showed us it still had legs. The week’s trading day ended with the broader stock market indexes all closing in the green. But in the first half hour of the trading day, things didn’t look great. There was a lot of choppy movement, but it settled down and went higher and finished strong. Nine of the 11 S&P sectors closed higher with Consumer Discretionary at the top (more on that below).

Friday was the last day of the Santa Claus Rally. While Santa skipped Wall St. this year, Friday’s price action in the S&P 500 ($SPX) left investors optimistic. The S&P 500 was able to hold on to its November lows (see the daily chart of S&P 500 below), which is an encouraging sign. But we’re not out of the woods yet.

FIGURE 1. S&P 500 HOLDS ABOVE NOVEMBER LOWS. Friday’s price action was encouraging but increasing breadth would be more confirming of a turnaround.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Thursday’s price action was nerve-wracking — there was a time when the index was trading below its November lows. Fortunately, it recovered and closed a little above it. Friday’s close was encouraging, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.26%, hitting resistance at its 50-day simple moving average (SMA). But the market breadth indicators in the lower panels need to be stronger. The S&P 500 Bullish Percent Index is at 41, the NYSE Advance-Decline Line is declining, and the percentage of S&P 500 stocks trading above their 200-day moving average is 56.

Friday’s MarketCarpet based on the performance of the S&P 500 shows that heavy-weighted large caps such as NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG and GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), and Tesla Inc. (TSLA) ended the day higher.

FIGURE 2. MARKETCARPET FOR JANUARY 3. Most of the higher market cap stocks closed higher on Friday.Image source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

TSLA had a massive move rising 8.10% closing the gap between December 31 and January 2. TSLA is a stock to monitor, especially since it has a deep connection with the new administration set to take office on January 20. The stock bounced on Friday after five down days.

NVDA’s stock price also had an impressive rally on Friday after consolidating since early November. These two stocks, TSLA and NVDA, helped the Consumer Discretionary and Technology sectors take the top two positions in Friday’s sector performance.

Overall, Friday’s price action was a ray of hope that perhaps the January Barometer  — as the S&P 500 goes in January, so goes the year — might be the one out of the trifecta that can come through. The January Barometer was devised by Yale Hirsch and has an 83.3% accuracy rate.

Steel, Beer, and Used Cars

While many tech stocks saw big gains, it wasn’t the same for US Steel Group (X). President Biden blocked the takeover of the company by Nippon Steel, resulting in a 6.53% drop in the price of X.

Alcoholic beverage companies didn’t have a great day either after US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, said alcoholic drinks should include cancer risk warnings on their labels. Shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP), Boston Beer Co. (SAM), and Constellation Brands (STZ) all fell on Friday.

Shares of Carvana (CVNA) fell over 11% after Hindenberg Research accused the company of accounting manipulation. Although Carvana denied the allegations and the stock received an upgrade from J.P. Morgan analysts, it didn’t help lift the stock price. CVNA’s stock price fell 17.53% (see chart below).

FIGURE 3. WEEKLY CHART OF CVNA STOCK. Two sets of Fibonacci retracement levels are drawn on the chart, one from a previous high to low (blue) and another from a more recent low to high (red).Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Carvana had a high StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) score, and we’ve covered the stock in our past SCTR Reports. Once the SCTR score fell below the 90 level on December 23, it raised a red flag. Combine that with a break below the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement from a previous high to low (blue line) and a relative strength index below 70 and you have a clear sell signal.

It will be interesting to see how this story develops. If things clear up and CVNA can show that it didn’t engage in accounting manipulations, the stock price could turn around and rise quickly.

Yields, US Dollar, Oil

The bond market had a choppy day. The 10-year yield closed at 4.596%, which hurt bond prices. The US dollar surged on Thursday but pulled back a bit on Friday. The chart of the Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP) displays that Friday’s price action was within Thursday’s range. There’s no sign of a weakness in the US dollar, which continues to remain strong.

FIGURE 4. DAILY CHART OF INVESCO DB US DOLLAR INDEX BULLISH FUND. The dollar has been rising steadily since October.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Crude oil prices rose today. The United States Oil Fund (USO) was up 1.83% on Thursday and up 1.29% on Friday. Oil prices have been going sideways since October but recent price action shows that it may be breaking out of its slump.

For a short trading week, that’s a lot of moving parts. Although stocks closed higher on Friday, there’s still not enough clarity on the charts to show a reversal. Next week could tell a different story.

End-of-Week Wrap-Up

  • S&P 500 down 0.48% for the week, at 5942.47, Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.60% for the week at 42,732.13; Nasdaq Composite down 0.51% for the week at 19,621.68
  • $VIX up 1.13% for the week, closing at 16.13
  • Best performing sector for the week: Energy
  • Worst performing sector for the week: Materials
  • Top 5 Large Cap SCTR stocks: Applovin Corp. (APP); Palantir Technologies (PLTR); Reddit Inc. (RDDT); Astera Labs, Inc. (ALAB); MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR)

On the Radar Next Week

  • December PMI
  • November Factory Orders
  • November JOLTS Report
  • December ISM Services
  • December Non-Farm Payrolls
  • FOMC Minutes
  • Fed speeches from Cook, Barkin, Schmid, and Bowman

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

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In World news

Mexico opens possibility of receiving non-Mexican deportees from Trump

2 Mins Read

Mexico opened the possibility Friday of receiving non-Mexican migrants deported by the United States after initially saying they would push President-elect Donald Trump to return other nationalities directly to their countries of origin.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said during her daily press briefing that in cases where the US would not return migrants to their countries “we can collaborate through different mechanisms.”

She did not offer details, but Mexico could limit it to certain nationalities or request compensation from the US to move the deportees from Mexico to their home countries.

“There will be time to speak with the United States government if these deportations really happen, but we will receive them here, we are going to receive them properly and we have a plan,” she said. Sheinbaum had prefaced her comments by saying Mexico is not in favor of them.

Trump has promised to begin massive deportations. Critics have observed that there will be logistical challenges to significantly ramping up from the already high deportation numbers.

The deportations would be immediately felt in northern Mexico’s border cities, which struggle with high levels of organized crime and where non-Mexican migrants would make easy targets for kidnapping and extortion.

That happened during Trump’s first term, when thousands seeking US asylum were forced to wait out the process in Mexico. Many thousands more migrants who crossed into the US were sent back to Mexico under a public health provision held over from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In December, Sheinbaum had said she planned to ask Trump to deport non-Mexicans directly to their home countries.

Mexico, like any other country, is not obligated to accept non-Mexican migrants, but it has agreed to do so in the recent past, especially from countries like Cuba and Venezuela, which often refuse deportation flights from the United States, but may accept them from Mexico.

Mexico temporarily stopped deportations in December 2023 due to a lack of funds and they were substantially reduced during 2024 compared to 2023 and 2022.

Mexico wants to host a meeting of the region’s foreign ministers this month to discuss immigration.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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In Stocks

Block and Loaded: Targeting Gains in SQ

4 Mins Read

As digital payments and fintech services continue to reshape the global economy, Block, Inc. (SQ) stands out as a potential beneficiary of this shift. A favorable technical signal and an attractive fundamental backdrop present a compelling bullish thesis for SQ. In this article, we will explore the reasons behind this positive outlook and discuss a strategy you can use to capitalize on it — all identified instantly through the OptionsPlay Strategy Center on StockCharts.com.

Technical Analysis

A closer look at SQ’s chart reveals several bullish indicators:

  • Breakout and Retest of Support. After breaking above the $84 resistance area in November, SQ has since come back to retest this level as support.
  • Strong Risk/Reward Setup. The successful retest suggests a favorable risk/reward, where the downside risk is far more limited than the upside potential to our upside target of $150.

FIGURE 1. SQ STOCK DAILY CHART. The stock is retesting its $84 area as support.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Fundamental Analysis

From a fundamental perspective, SQ’s outlook remains promising:

  • Attractive Valuation. Despite Block’s strong growth prospects, the company is currently trading at a 30% discount relative to its peers.
  • Robust Growth Metrics. SQ’s expected 44% earnings per share (EPS) growth is nearly three times higher than its peers’ 13%, highlighting the company’s potential for earnings expansion. Projected 11% revenue growth outstrips the industry median of 7%, confirming the company’s ability to expand its top line.
  • Recent Earnings Insights. Block’s Q3 2024 results showed robust growth in gross profit and a significant turnaround in net income, fueled by the strength of its Cash App and Square ecosystems. While there were some concerns around revenue shortfalls and ongoing regulatory scrutiny of Cash App, the company remains optimistic about continued margin expansion into 2025, forecasting at least 15% overall gross profit growth and new initiatives to drive further gains.

These fundamentals suggest that SQ is well-positioned to capitalize on the continued rise of digital payments, offering investors a potentially rewarding opportunity at current valuations.

Options Strategy

To leverage SQ’s bullish outlook, the OptionsPlay Strategy Center suggests selling the Feb 14 $86/80 Bull Put Spread @ $2.30 Credit.

This entails the following:

  • Sell: February 14, 2025, $86 Put at $4.60
  • Buy: February 14, 2025, $80 Put at $2.30
  • Net Credit: $2.30 per share ($230 total per contract)

FIGURE 2. DETAILS OF A PUT VERTICAL SPREAD IN SQ STOCK.

Trade Details

  • Maximum Potential Reward: $230
  • Maximum Potential Risk: $370
  • Breakeven Point: $83.70 (strike of the sold put minus the net credit per share)
  • Probability of Profit: ~56.46% (if SQ closes above $83.70 by February 14, 2025)

By selling a higher strike put and buying a lower strike put, you collect a premium upfront and benefit if SQ stays above the breakeven price at expiration. This strategy offers a balanced approach to potential upside while containing risk.

Unlock Real-Time Trade Ideas With OptionsPlay Strategy Center

This bullish setup in SQ was identified almost instantly using the OptionsPlay Strategy Center at StockCharts.com. By running a Bullish Trend Following scan, the platform highlighted SQ and structured the optimal options trade without the need for extensive research or guesswork.

FIGURE 3. THE BULLISH TREND FOLLOWING SCAN HIGHLIGHTED SQ AS A POTENTIAL OPTIONS TRADING CANDIDATE.

Subscribing to the OptionsPlay Strategy Center provides you with:

  • Automated Market Scans. Quickly spot the best trading opportunities aligned with your market outlook.
  • Optimal Trade Structuring. Leverage data-driven tools to craft high-probability, risk-defined strategies.
  • Time-Saving Insights. Eliminate hours of manual analysis — receive real-time alerts and ideas within seconds.

Don’t let valuable opportunities slip away. Subscribe to the OptionsPlay Strategy Center today, and elevate your trading with the guidance and clarity you need to make informed decisions. Find the best options trades swiftly, every single day, and empower your investing journey with this cutting-edge tool.

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He says he won Venezuela’s presidential election. Now he’s returning to South America as his rival prepares for inauguration

2 Mins Read

Venezuela’s exiled former presidential candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, returns to South America Friday in a show of defiance as Caracas prepares to inaugurate current President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in office since 2013.

González’s first stop: a meeting with Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires on Saturday. Milei has been a vocal critic of the Venezuelan regime, calling Maduro a “criminal” after Venezuela expelled Argentina’s diplomats in the aftermath of the contentious election, which was marred with allegations of vote rigging.

It is unclear where else González plans on going during his tour; he has previously pledged to return to Venezuela to inaugurate his own government.

The former diplomat fled the country in September and sought asylum in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest by Venezuela’s public prosecutor’s office, amid a crackdown on the country’s opposition movement.

The warrant capped off a fractious few months, which saw Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), a body stacked with Maduro allies, formally declare the longtime strongman the winner of the July 28 election -– without providing voting tallies.

The official results attracted widespread skepticism from abroad as the opposition insisted that it had won, releasing tens of thousands of voting tallies gathered from across the country, that they said proved González won by a landslide.

The United States and Argentina, among others, have gone on to recognize González as Venezuela’s rightful president-elect.

But Maduro has repeatedly dismissed claims that the vote was stolen, and says he is ready to begin a new term on January 10.

For González, returning to Venezuela would be filled with risk. On Thursday, Venezuela’s Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (CICPC) offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to González’s arrest, it said on Instagram.

CICPC said González is wanted for several crimes, including conspiracy, complicity in the use of violent acts against the republic, usurpation of functions, forgery of documents, money laundering, disregard for State institutions, instigation to disobedience of the law and criminal association.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Ad revenue should stabilize for media companies in 2025 — if they have sports

7 Mins Read

The advertising market has positive momentum going into 2025 — especially for media companies with sports rights and tentpole live programming.

Sports and live events such as awards shows reigned supreme in conversations with media executives who weighed in on their expectations for the advertising market in the year ahead. The end of the uncertainty surrounding the election has helped the outlook improve, too, they said.

And despite consumers fleeing the traditional TV bundles, with more ad dollars going toward streaming, executives emphasized that traditional TV is still important in discussions with advertisers, especially when it comes to sports.

Overall, executives said they expect stability in the market and are hoping to move past the slowdown in ad spending in recent years.

“Normalization is the right way to say it with the advertising market,” said Mark Marshall, NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships. “With the election settled, a lot of companies feel the uncertainty over that has gone away.”

He added that the company has seen more so-called scatter market budgets come in during the fourth quarter, which is what the industry calls the buying and selling of ads closer to their airdate versus ads that are bought further out.

“Our first quarter is looking really strong. I think that any election year is challenging for anyone in the fourth quarter because a lot of marketers end up sitting on their hands since the airwaves and digital are crowded,” said Dan Porter, CEO of sports media company Overtime. “I think that’s true for us and it’s true for everyone.”

Yet despite the uptick in ad revenue following the election and the forecast stability, Natalie Bastian, global chief marketing officer at Teads, said she expects a lot of the same trends.

Bastian noted that 2024 included major moments like the Summer Olympics and presidential election, which strengthened TV ad revenue. She expects the same budgets to carry over into the new year, however.

“What we’ve heard in general from some of our closest partners … media budgets aren’t growing, and so there’s just more selection into where [advertisers are] spending their money,” said Bastian. This makes sports and live programming that much more important to media companies.

Overall, the global advertising industry is expected to surpass $1 trillion in total revenue for the first time this year, excluding U.S. political advertising, and will grow 7.7% in 2025 to reach $1.1 trillion, according to a recent report from GroupM, WPP’s media investment group. Advertising on digital platforms — which includes retail media as a segment — is what’s driving that increase.

TV, considered “the most effective form of advertising,” is expected to grow nearly 2% in 2025 to $169.1 billion in total global ad revenue. In comparison, ad revenue for “pure-play digital,” which excludes “the digital extensions of traditional media” like streaming but includes platforms like YouTube and TikTok, is expected to grow by 10% to $813.3 billion globally in 2025, according to GroupM.

Sports keep attracting big audiences and advertisers, leading media companies to pay hefty sums for the rights to games.

Commercials during live sports generated 24% more engagement than other programming, according to EDO, an advertising data company.

“Live event coverage will continue to be a cornerstone of media engagement, and streaming services must step up their game,” said Tim Hurd, vice president of media at Goodway Group. “As more streaming platforms dive into sports, the challenge will be to keep viewers engaged, not just by offering content, but by enhancing the overall experience with personalized, non-disruptive ad units.”

Comcast’s NBCUniversal said the Summer Olympics in Paris generated a record $1.2 billion in ad revenue. It appeared to have paid off, with the company reporting a total audience delivery of more than 30 million people on NBC’s TV and streaming platforms.

Fox Corp. executives have said the company already sold out of Super Bowl ads for this coming February, which reportedly cost about $7 million each. The 2024 Super Bowl had an estimated 123.7 million viewers.

And Disney said it had sold out of ads for its Christmas Day NBA games two weeks before they aired. The company added that it’s “pacing up substantially” for the full NBA season when it comes to ad revenue compared with last year, and that it’s “already seen early movement” for the postseason in the scatter market.

The audience for women’s sports, driven by the WNBA in particular, also ramped up in the last year, meaning more opportunities for advertisers.

“This is beyond Caitlin Clark, even though she is a massive catalyst,” said Josh Mattison, Disney Advertising’s executive vice president of digital revenue pricing, planning and operations. “This was a transformational year in terms of audiences.”

The audience for the WNBA hit a record in 2024, and consumers were 16% more likely to engage with ads during these games compared with last year, according to EDO. But while advertisers spent $8.5 billion on sports TV ads in 2024, women’s sports only made up 3% of that number, according to EDO, leaving plenty of room for growth next year.

The growing popularity of women’s sports and its importance for media companies was evident this month when Netflix secured the U.S. rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. The streaming giant has been bulking up its sports portfolio, as have its peers across the legacy and digital media space.

While consumers are cutting the cord and streaming services are now snapping up sports rights, linear TV’s audience still significantly outpaces streaming.

“There’s still declines in linear TV in a lot of markets, but not in all markets,” said Kate Scott-Dawkins, GroupM’s global president of business intelligence, noting there are international markets that are seeing growth. “When we talk about total TV, there is still a lot of opportunity and hopefully a renewed appreciation for how effective that can be as a medium [for advertisers].”

Amy Leifer, DirecTV Advertising’s chief ad sales officer, said the company predicts continued growth in programmatic ad spending, or automated digital ad buying, in streaming.

“Despite the shift towards streaming, linear TV still holds a significant advantage in terms of ad impressions, generating six times more than streaming,” said Leifer.

Executives said they have been talking with advertisers about how to look at linear and streaming together when disbursing ad dollars.

Leifer said DirecTV Advertising’s mantra is that “TV is TV,” no matter the distribution method. “Our focus for 2025 is to unify digital and linear television advertising by adopting a comprehensive approach and developing convergent TV solutions,” she added.

Both Marshall of NBCUniversal and Mattison of Disney said advertisers used to be focused on linear “versus” streaming. That’s not the case anymore.

“The pitch [we made to advertisers] last year is you really can’t look at one versus the other. When it’s rolled out into one platform, it’s how do you look at digital and linear together. That’s made a huge difference,” said Marshall, noting that older audiences are more present on linear TV, while younger generations have gravitated toward streaming.

Marshall said that NBCUniversal’s Peacock “hasn’t been cannibalizing linear,” because there’s little overlap between the content on both distribution outlets. “It’s actually two distinct, different audiences,” Marshall said.

Mattison noted Disney’s expansive sports portfolio and its various platforms across linear and streaming, with TV networks like ABC and ESPN, and streaming service ESPN+, which has content being added to Disney+, have been an advantage.

“The convergence [of the streaming apps] is really good for consumers, which leads to growth for advertisers,” he said. “We’re fortunate we spent years building our streaming ad tech, and we’re able to maximize audience reach as well as targeting and performance.”

“Maybe a few years ago it was linear versus streaming. I think now it’s linear AND streaming,” Mattison continued. “They’re kind of planned together. It’s true on both the media side and the advertiser side.”

Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

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In Stocks

Strongest Top 3 S&P 500 Stocks: Will They Lead the Pack in 2025?

4 Mins Read

The Santa Claus Rally may be iffy, but a 23.31% gain in the S&P 500 ($SPX) for the year isn’t too shabby. It was a stellar year in the stock market, especially for the top 10 weighted stocks in the S&P 500, and that’s worth making a toast as we close out 2024.

In terms of the performance of S&P 500 stocks, Palantir Technologies (PLTR), Vistra Corp (VST), and NVIDIA (NVDA) took the top 3 spots. But performance is just one measure, and there are several other benchmarks. One that’s worth considering is strength, and, as the year winds down, let’s look at which S&P 500 stocks ended the year as the technically strongest ones.

In the Sample Scan Library, if you run the S&P 500 Stocks under Predefined Groups and sort the results by the StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR, pronounced S-C-O-O-T-E-R) from highest to lowest, PLTR takes the crown, followed by United Airlines Holdings Inc. (UAL) and then Tesla Inc. (TSLA). Let’s look at each of these stocks more closely.

PLTR Stock’s Ride to the Top

When PLTR’s stock went public in 2020, it was volatile — there was a lot of chatter about the stock in the media. But in 2022, the stock went through a slump. In 2023, it started showing signs of resurfacing, gaining strength, getting clobbered, and reviving itself before making its way to the top of the performance and strength category.

The daily chart below shows that PLTR’s stock price has had a SCTR score above 76 since early June 2024. During that time, the stock price stayed above its 50-day simple moving average (SMA), except for in August when it dipped below it for two trading days.

FIGURE 1. PLTR STOCK ENDED THE YEAR WITH THE HIGHEST SCTR SCORE. The stock has been in an uptrend since mid-2024.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

PLTR stock was up 340.59% for the year and ended the year with a SCTR score of 99.7.

UAL Stock Takes Off

Airline stocks, in general, were hit hard by COVID-19, and the recovery has been slow. However, the resumption of travel by US consumers in 2024 helped many airline stocks, especially UAL.

After trading relatively sideways from 2020 to mid-2024, UAL’s stock price started a steep ascent in mid-September 2024. It crossed above its 50-day SMA and has remained above it for the year, hitting its altitude and now cruising at that level with some turbulence (see daily chart of UAL).

FIGURE 2. DAILY CHART OF UAL STOCK PRICE. Since September 2024, UAL has ascended steeply and hit cruising altitude.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

 The SCTR score has remained above 76 since September 16. UAL stock gained 134.34% in 2024 and ended the year with a SCTR score of 99.1.

TSLA Stock’s Wild Ride

TSLA is a stock that has been front and center in investors’ minds and is one of the most actively traded stocks in the S&P 500. The price gained traction towards the end of 2019 and, even though it had a rough 2022 and a pretty choppy 2023, TSLA’s stock has shown its might towards the second half of 2024 (see daily chart of TSLA).

FIGURE 3. TSLA STOCK’S A LITTLE CHOPPY. Although it has had its ups and downs, the stock rallied during the last quarter of the year.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Since the end of October, TSLA’s SCTR score has remained above 76 and the stock price has remained above its 50-day SMA. TSLA’s stock price gained 62.52% in 2024 and ended the year with a 98.4 SCTR score.

The Bottom Line

Will these three stocks — PLTR, TSLA, and UAL — remain strong in 2025? Be sure to add them to your ChartLists so you can keep an eye on their performance.

If the SCTR score remains high, consider adding positions when price pulls back and reverses with a follow-through. If the stocks show signs of weakening, it’s time to reevaluate. Identify which stocks are taking their place, analyze each one, and determine if adding the strong ones can add muscle to your portfolio.

Scanning for S&P 500 stocks with high SCTR scores is relatively simple to do in StockCharts. There are many other scans to explore in the Sample Scan Library. The nice thing is the scans are already built for you — coding skills are not necessary! It’s something to consider for 2025.

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

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In World news

Investigators arrive at South Korean president’s residence to carry out arrest warrant

3 Mins Read

South Korean investigators have entered the home of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol to enforce an arrest warrant for him, Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday morning local time.

The embattled president is wanted for questioning in multiple investigations, including accusations of leading an insurrection – a crime punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty – after he suddenly declared martial law in early December.

A court on Tuesday approved the warrant for Yoon – the first time such a move has been taken toward a sitting president, deepening a dramatic showdown between investigators and the president. In response, the presidential security team said that “(s)ecurity measures will be taken in accordance with due process for matters related to the execution of warrants.”

Yoon, himself a former prosecutor, has refused to answer three summonses by investigators in recent weeks asking for his cooperation, according to South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office (CIO).

A large police presence could be seen around the presidential residence in Seoul on Friday, many officers wearing jackets and face masks in the cold weather while flanked by police vans. Retractable gates were also set up, blocking pedestrians from entering the area around Yoon’s home.

The leader was stripped of his presidential powers last month by a parliamentary vote to impeach him, which came after some members of his own ruling party turned on him following his refusal to resign over his short-lived decree.

But the suspended president has remained defiant in the face of investigations and an impeachment trial underway by one of the country’s highest courts, vowing to “fight to the end” for the country.

The statement, which was shared with supporters gathered outside his residence earlier this week, was his first public comment in weeks after largely staying away from public light in the fallout of his widely condemned decree.

Yoon declared martial law in a surprise late night address on December 3, claiming opposition lawmakers had “paralyzed state affairs” and that the move was necessary to “safeguard a liberal South Korea” from the threats posed by “anti-state elements.”

Members of the National Assembly, including some of Yoon’s own party members, voted to reverse the martial law some six hours later. Yoon’s order faced fierce backlash from the public and lawmakers across the political spectrum, reviving painful memories of the country’s authoritarian past.

In the weeks since, the country has been embroiled in political disarray with parliament also voting to impeach its prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo, just weeks after it voted to impeach Yoon. The finance minister Choi Sang-mok is now acting president.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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