A little explanation about some headlines we saw last week:
Some borrowers getting student loan debt relief - $39 billion in student debt relief for 804,000 borrowers. Borrowers on income-driven repayment plans are eligible for forgiveness after a certain number of months of repayment, generally equating to 20 or 25 years.
AT&T and telecom getting hammered - A lot of these telecom companies have a lot of debt on their balance sheet. That's one negative. The other, new negative is that some of their old network cabling have lead components. Obviously, this is an environmental concern. Remediating the lead will be incredibly costly for these companies.
Tech stocks and index weighting - The NASDAQ 100 will undergo a special reweighting. Some companies' stocks currently hold too much weight in the index. For example, Microsoft has over 12% of the index, instead of the 4.5% it started with. Overweighted positions could be a negative consequence for the diversification of the index.
Not enough housing available - Starter homes don't exist anymore. There's too much demand and not enough supply so prices are going up. Not to mention that the cost to build homes is inflated already.
Labor market is tight - This is good and bad. Good for workers because a constricted talent pool increases wages. Bad for employers because job vacancies can't be filled with qualified candidates. Bad for the FED because a healthy labor market might force their hand to increase rates some more even though the economy as a whole might not be able to tolerate it.
Soon, politicians might not be able to directly own stocks - Love this one. Elected officials in Congress and the Executive Branch might not be able to own stocks directly. A bill was proposed that would not allow people currently serving their term in office to own public companies. A welcomed change for us citizens because a clear conflict of interest may soon be outlawed.
If you have any questions about these topics and why they matter with regard to your finances, please ask.