Category: Finance

Whereinflation is back to normal

Inflation is coming down. But it’s been three crazy years since COVID arrived in 2020 and set the economy on a series of wild swings that still haven’t completely abated. So what’s back to normal? And what isn’t?

The annual inflation rate is now 4.9%, down from a peak of 9% last June. Before COVID, it was around 2.3%. So overall inflation is still more than double the pre-COVID level. But the Consumer Price Index includes dozens of spending categories and some of them are back to pre-COVID trend lines.

The following two charts show the price changes in several

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Getting the best bang for your buck with your tax refund

Canada Government Tax Refund Checks with Canadian flag in the background, Canadian Government benefit checks

As Canadians receive their tax refunds, they’ll have to choose where to allocate it to make the most of the cash.

It’s tempting to go out for a nice dinner or even plan a weekend getaway after receiving your tax refund, depending on how big it is.

Unfortunately, getting the best bang for your buck when it comes to allocating that lump sum of money is a little more, well…boring.

“Number one, pay off credit card debt. You will not get a better return for your money than paying down credit card debt,” said Becky Western-Macfadyen, a financial coaching program

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Canadian banks hit with downgrades as economic storm clouds gather

Looming recession leads some analysts to hand out downgrades and slash outlooks

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Published May 10, 2023 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 3 minute read

Bank towers in Toronto's financial district.
Bank towers in Toronto’s financial district. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/Financial Post

Canadian bank stocks may be running out of runway amid an uncertain outlook and potential recession looming on the horizon, leading some analysts to slash outlooks and hand out downgrades.

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Lument Finance Trust Announces Quarter-End Earnings Release and Investor Call Dates

Published: may. 9, 2023 at 5:00 PM EDT|Updated: 29 minutes ago

NEW YORK, May 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Lument Finance Trust, Inc. (NYSE: LFT) (“we”, “LFT” or “the Company”) announced today that it expects to file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, May 11, 2023after the market closes, and invites investors and other interested parties to listen to its live conference call via telephone or webcast on Friday, May 12, 2023 at 8:30 am eastern time.

The conference call

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Have your say: Are you jumping into the housing market?

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Read the full story here: What’s the maximum number of years I can lock into a fixed-rate mortgage in Canada?

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DEUS Finance lost $6M following stablecoin hack

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Deus Finance has lost over $6 million due to a security breach on its stablecoin DEI (DEI). The hacker exploited a vulnerability in the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) on May 5, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield.

A bot initiated the hack on the BSC, which led to a loss of more than $1.3 million. The attacker also targeted the Arbitrum network, with ARB/ETH deployments losing over $5 million. Twitter users claimed the token contract had a basic implementation error as the root cause.

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NexGen Energy Receives Strong Support for Rook I Project Financing in Excess of US$1 Billion

VANCOUVER, BC, May 1, 2023 /CNW/ – NexGen Energy Ltd. (“NexGen” or the “Company”) (TSX: NXE) (NYSE: NXE) (ASX: NXG) is pleased to announce that it has received significant initial interest from prospective financial institutions, including commercial lenders and export credit agencies, for providing project financing for the Rook I Project (the “Project” or “Rook I”). To date, NexGen has received non-binding expressions of interest totaling over US$1 Billion in available debt for the Project, subject to acceptable financing terms and conditions as well as satisfactory due diligence (including environmental and social reviews) and the entering into of definitive

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Are banks the new meme stocks?

Amateur trader Matt Kohrs said he lost nearly $30,000 betting on the recovery of First Republic, a bank seized by regulators last Monday. Burnt by the trade, the 28-year-old decided it made more sense to bet that regional lenders would decline.

He took short positions in PacWest (PACW), Western Alliance (WAL), Zions (ZION) and SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of regional banks.

Thus so far his unrealized gains are more than $17,000, according to screenshots of his positions shared with Yahoo Finance on Friday, after investors pushed down the stocks of numerous

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