US President Joe Biden has said he will respect a jury’s decision to find his son guilty of gun crimes, after a week-long trial that laid bare a tumultuous time for the family.
The 12-person jury found Hunter Biden, 54, guilty of lying about his drug use on a form while purchasing a handgun in 2018. He faces possible jail time following the verdict, which marked the first criminal prosecution of a sitting president’s child.
His conviction on all three felony counts comes as President Biden campaigns for re-election in November, and less than two weeks after his...
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have added a green-eyed tabby from Pennsylvania to the White House family, the first feline tenant since President George W. Bush’s controversially named cat India.
HONG KONG, April 27: European and Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday ahead of a big week of key events including the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, Joe Biden's State of the Union address and earnings from tech titans.
While trading floors are geared up for a rocket-fuelled surge in economic activity in the second half of the year and into the next thanks to vaccinations and the easing of lockdowns, investors are in wait-and-see mode for now.
The Fed's gathering, which concludes Wednesday, is broadly expected to see it reassert its pledge to maintain ultra-loose policy until its goals on unemployment and inflation are met, though its statement will be parsed for an idea about the state of the US
economy.
The central bank's meetings are a crucial focus of investor interest as they continue to fret that the expected strong recovery will send prices soaring and force policymakers to raise the record low interest rates that have been a pillar of the global rally.
"From what I can tell, the Fed is very close to meeting its objectives, but remains committed to keeping key short-term interest rates at or near zero through 2023," said markets strategist Louis Navellier.
"The truth of the matter is the Fed can never raise key short-term interest rates much, otherwise it risks blowing up the federal government's budget deficit, which is expected to cross above $30 trillion soon. So we will likely remain in an ultralow interest rate environment for the rest of our lifetimes!" Hilary Kramer, of Kramer Capital Research, was also upbeat.
"I am a bull," she told Bloomberg TV. Fed boss Jerome Powell "is going to make sure he keeps rates low, he's going to lag behind rather than trying to get ahead of inflation".
The release of earnings from Wall Street giants including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet will be closely watched, with forecasts on the strong side.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both ended Monday at record highs. But Asia struggled to follow suit with most markets swinging in and out of positive territory. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Jakarta and Manila were all in the red but Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai and Bangkok edged up. Shanghai was marginally higher.
London rose soon after the open but Paris and Frankfurt dipped. Oil prices rose after taking a hefty hit in recent days on worries about the impact on demand from the frightening spread of the coronavirus in major consumer India, with a meeting of OPEC and other major producers also in focus.
Wednesday also sees Biden make his first State of the Union address to Congress, during which he could unveil a $1.8 trillion American Families Plan that would provide national child care, paid family leave and free community college, paid for with higher taxes on the rich.
1657504636_1200.jpeg)
1643419033_1200.jpeg)
