Monthly Archives: September 2021

During Thursday's latest Nintendo Direct event, acclaimed video game designer Miyamoto Shigeru announced that the company's upcoming feature length animation project in conjunction with American film studio, Illumination now has a firm North American theatrical release date of December 21st, 2022.

While release dates for Europe, Japan, and other markets have yet to be revealed, Miyamoto did share the studio's key character casting decisions. Chris Pratt will voice Mario. "He's so cool," Miyamoto commented. Anya Taylor-Joy, star of Netflix's hit series Queen's Gambit will portray Princess Peach while It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Charlie Day will voice Luigi. Jack Black will of course be the voice behind series villain, Bowser, while Keegan Michael-Key has been cast as Toad. And, for some reason, Seth Rogan will be in this too as Donkey Kong? The company is also bringing back long-time voice actor Charles Martinet who has portrayed Mario and the rest of his cohort in a number of games to date to fill in on various cameos throughout the film.

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The full faith and credit of the U.S. government will be in jeopardy next month...ish.

The looming debt ceiling means that without an intervention by Congress the government wont be able to pay its bills soon. A default could be catastrophic for the U.S. economy. But what makes matters worse is that nobody is quite sure when the limit will actually be reached.

It's so hard to predict because technically the debt limit has already been passed. A limit of $28.5 trillion was reimposed Aug. 1, but the Treasury Department has been able to stave off a default through a process called extraordinary measures. What that essentially means is moving money around and being strategic on paying bills only as they are absolutely due.

The Treasury Department will have no means to pay Americas bills unless Congress acts.

On Friday, a fresh projection from the Bipartisan Policy Center found that we will hit the debt limit between Oct. 15 and Nov. 4.

Right now there is a little bit of a game of political chicken taking place, Brian Levitt, global market strategist at Invesco, recently told Yahoo Finance.

Here are all the recent predictions as to when the U.S. might default if the standoff in Congress continues.

Billions of dollars flow into the U.S. Treasury every day mostly in the form of tax revenues and billions more flow out to pay the governments bills. The exact timing of debt limits have been difficult to predict for decades because its just hard to keep track of all the money and know when it will arrive in U.S. coffers.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during an event at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in September. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Those in the prediction business have found things even more challenging this time around with the massive new government spending programs enacted to combat the effects of the coronavirus pandemic to take into consideration.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sounded the alarm last weekend in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, and warned of a debt default at some point next month. If Congress fails to act, she wrote, then sometime in Octoberit is impossible to predict precisely whenthe Treasury Departments cash balance will fall to an insufficient level, and the federal government will be unable to pay its bills.

Yellen added that a default would cut off vulnerable Americans from programs like Social Security as they confront the ongoing pandemic, and we would emerge from this crisis a permanently weaker nation.

The Bipartisan Policy Center tracks the debt limit X Date. This week's estimate of a likely default between Oct. 15 and Nov. 4 is a further refining of its estimate from two weeks ago, when the group estimated the date would fall between mid-October and mid-November.

No one can be certain of the X Date, but we know its coming within a matter of weeks, Shai Akabas, the centers director of economic policy, noted in a statement.

The group also released a new analysis Friday showing a complicated array of payments that Treasury is managing each day to stave off a default. Outside analysts are tracking these flows of money to arrive at their projections but "no onenot even the Treasury secretarycan know precisely when the X Date will arrive" the report notes.

The report laid out what payments from Social Security benefits to pandemic assistance would be missed if X date arrives and Treasury doesn't have the funds. The default could also cost millions of jobs in the economic upheaval that would likely follow a default.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stands after finishing a brief statement to warn that Republicans will block the House-passed measure to keep the government funded and suspend the federal debt limit, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Independent research firm Wrightson ICAP tracks Treasury Department outlays closely, and in a recent commentary said the crunch date would likely be somewhere around Oct. 25 or 26. The firm thinks, absent Congressional action, there is a low probability the Treasury will be able to meet its obligations into November.

Finally, the Congressional Budget Office, the agency that provides financial information to Congress, estimates the debt limit to be reached sometime in October or November. Once the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government will see delays of payments for government activities, a default on the governments debt obligations, or both.

Congress has never allowed a default before, but it's gotten close. In 2011, a stalemate over the debt limit was resolved in time but immediately afterwards, the U.S. credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor's, which reduced the rating from AAA to AA+.

Part of what makes the situation so maddening to observers in Washington and on Wall Street is that the debt limit has little to do with current spending debates and more to do with political brinkmanship. The question is whether the government will fulfill the payment obligations it agreed to in the past.

In her op-ed, Yellen noted the current debt limit situation is based on Trump-era spending. She said things would be the same right now even if the Biden administration hadnt authorized any additional new expenditures since January.

To solve the crisis, Democrats are trying to push a measure that would address a debt limit alongside another looming deadline a possible government shutdown at the end of this month.

The House of Representatives passed the measure and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a Senate vote on Sept. 27 at 5:30 pm ET. Republicans objected to the dual approach of the Democrats and vowed to block it.

If it is indeed stalled on Monday, lawmakers will need to scramble to address a government shutdown by the end of next week and the debt limit likely coming a few weeks after that.

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) speaks during a news conference on the debt ceiling at the U.S. Capitol on September 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other Senate Republicans say they will not vote to pass the continuing resolution that was recently voted on by the House of Representatives, which would fund the government for the new fiscal year and includes an increase to the debt ceiling. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Republicans have taken the position that the only approach to solve the debt limit issue is for Democrats to raise the ceiling using the budget reconciliation process, without any Republican votes.

In a joint statement about the plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted that the proposal to include a suspension of the debt limit through December 2022 would provide an amount of time commensurate with the debt incurred as a result of passing last winters bipartisan $908 billion emergency COVID relief legislation which was supported by Republicans and signed into law by then-President Trump.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Tex.), the Ranking Member on the House Ways and Means committee, said in a recent Yahoo Finance interview that Democrats haven't had a conversation with us all year on any of these key issues, so our thinking is they must be wanting to go it alone. Brady sees no chance of Republican support unless Democrats bring forward a plan to curb spending going forward.

We need some guardrails that really returns us to normalcy, he said.

This article was updated on Sept. 24, 2021 to add information from the Bipartisan Policy Center's new analysis.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

Democrats want $273 billion in tax credits to achieve Bidens climate goals

Here are the key retirement provisions in the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill

Social Security expert details the worst case' scenario and why millennials are most vulnerable

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For many Americans, social security benefits are a major source of income after retirement. In 2021, an average of 65 million Americans will receive monthly social security benefit checks totaling over $1 trillion paid during the year, according to the Social Security Administration.

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See: How Does Social Security Get Calculated?Find: 5 Social Security Benefits You Can Claim Online

While the average retiree receives $1,557 per month in benefits, the maximum you can receive per month is $3,895, as GOBankingRates previously reported. However, how much you receive depends on numerous factors.

How long have you worked? The Social Security Administration calculates your benefit amount by taking an average of your earned wages over the 35 highest-earning years of your career adjusting for inflation over the years.

Think means youll need to have worked at least 35 years during your life, GOBankingRates reported, and times you werent working will result in a lower average and less money.

To be eligible for maximum benefits, you must have consistently had earnings that have equaled or exceeded the SSAs maximum taxable earnings limit throughout your career. For 2021, the maximum limit is $142,800 per year, although the amount changes yearly to account for cost-of-living adjustments.

Even if you dont consistently earn the maximum limit, noted that you can still boost your benefit amount by increasing your income.

Another important factor is when you plan to file for benefits. While you can file for social security benefits as early as age 62, waiting longer can earn you more money. If you wait until the age of 70, you are more likely to receive more benefits. You could potentially collect hundreds of dollars more per month if you wait until at least 70.

See: 5 Social Security Benefits You Can Claim OnlineFind: Next Years Social Security Checks Could Get Biggest COLA Bump in 13 Years

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However, even if you were on track for maximum benefits eligibility, by filing at the age of 62, you would only receive $2,324 per month. Waiting those 8 years makes a big difference.

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If history is any guide, then investors shouldn't sell all their stocks and move into cash and gold amid fear of another government shutdown.

"History shows that U.S. government shutdowns generally have not meaningfully impacted equity returns," points out David Kostin, Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist, in new research. Kostin crunched the numbers, and they support his view.

The S&P 500 posted median returns of -0.1% on the dates of budget authority expiration, 0.1% during the shutdown periods, and 0.3% on the dates of resolution in the 14 government shutdowns since 1980, Kostin said. One exception, however, was the most recent very contentious government shutdown in December 2018. The S&P 500 dropped 2% on the day spending authority expired, Kostin notes.

In all but three times going back to 1980, the S&P 500 generated positive returns during the government shutdown period.

Most sectors in the S&P 500 have held up surprisingly well amidst shutdowns, Goldman's research shows. The energy sectors has tended to fare the worst, while consumer discretionary has performed the best.

Stocks have done OK during prior government shutdowns, Goldman Sachs' research shows.

Goldman isn't on board though with investors completely ignoring the risks to stocks over a potential looming shutdown.

"Our political economist has ascribed increasing risk to the upcoming debt limit and sees parallels to the experiences in 2011 and 2013. The S&P 500 fell in 2011 but rallied throughout the 2013 debt limit experience. 2011 was plagued by the European debt crisis, S&Ps downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt, and declining economic growth. In contrast, the macro environment was more favorable in 2013," Kostin warns.

To be sure, the debate around the debt ceiling and any would-be shutdown is nearing a head.

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On Tuesday, the Democrat-led House passed a short-term government funding bill that maintains funding through Dec. 3. It also includes a provision to suspend the debt limit through Dec. 16, 2022.

But, the bill is likely to die on the floor of the Republican-controlled Senate, despite Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warning of "catastrophe" if the debt ceiling debate isn't settled.

"The U.S. has never defaulted. Not once. Doing so would likely precipitate a historic financial crisis that would compound the damage of the continuing public health emergency. Default could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost," Yellen said in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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(Bloomberg) -- When researchers flew over an Energy Transfer LP facility in the Permian Basin of West Texas two months ago, a NASA-designed sensor on their airplane detected a colossal plume of methane pouring into the air.

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Over the next two weeks, they returned twice and found large amounts of the powerful greenhouse gas each time. It was just one of many persistent methane emitters discovered by an aerial survey conducted by the Environmental Defense Fund over the largest U.S. oil field in July and August.

The invisible leak was later calculated at more than a ton per hour, with a short-term impact on the atmosphere equivalent to about 47,000 idling cars.

Halting methane leaks has become one of the most important fronts in the fight against climate change, and companies across the U.S. energy industry have been pledging to curb their emissions of the gas. But the study released Thursday shows a shocking amount of pollution continues.

Methane is the chief component of natural gas and packs more than 80 times the planet-warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. It often escapes undetected by companies that produce and transport natural gas, and in some cases methane is intentionally vented to prevent equipment failure.

The results of the flyovers dont appear to show much progress compared to a similar survey conducted in 2019, said David Lyon, a senior scientist at EDF. Emissions are still very high, so theres still a lot of opportunities for companies to reduce.

EDF found emissions at a total of 533 different locations, including 149 persistent ones, where plumes were spotted in the same place on at least two different days. Energy Transfer and Targa Resources Corp., both Texas-based pipeline operators, were among those with the highest numbers of persistent sources at 11 and 16, respectively.

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In all, emissions from persistent locations made up about 45% of all methane EDF detected over the course of the survey. EOG Resources Inc. had the highest number of persistent locations among oil and gas producers, with eight sites that had a plume on more than one day during the survey.

An Energy Transfer spokeswoman said she couldnt speak to the accuracy of the survey data. The company complies with an air permit in place at the compressor station found emitting methane and regularly monitors the facility for emissions, she said.

A representative for EOG said the company believes its methane-emissions performance in the Permian compares favorably against others in the industry and that it would review the data for accuracy. Targa didnt respond to a request for comment.

The EDF survey used an airplane operated by Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit that partners with NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its able to see only the largest plumes of gas, sometimes referred to as super-emitters.

The best way for companies to eliminate these super-emitters is to perform their own regular inspections, Lyon said. Some companies conduct their own aerial surveys to hunt for leaks, while others use stationary monitors at their sites.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules require companies to inspect oil and gas wells regularly for leaks, but those rules apply only to new facilities. The agency is currently drafting rules that would apply to older facilities, but it hasnt yet said whether those rules would extend to low-producing oil and gas wells. Many industry groups oppose methane regulations on low producers, arguing that inspection costs could make these wells uneconomic.

EDF said its findings bolster the case for including low-producing wells, which made up about one-tenth of the emissions sources it identified.

When it comes to cracking down on methane emissions, oil and gas industry groups said this month that they actually favor direct regulation over a proposed fee that Democrats have introduced as a way to pay for their $3.5 trillion spending plan. A coalition of trade groups and local chambers of commerce called the measure punitive and said taxing methane emissions from oil and gas facilities would threaten Americans access to cheap energy.

Any impact from such a fee on drillers bottom line would depend heavily on how methane emissions are measured, Citigroup Inc. analysts wrote in a note to clients this week. Thats because methane estimates based on satellite images and aerial surveys tend to show far higher counts than what companies self-report to U.S. regulators.

(Updates to include comment from EOG in the 10th paragraph)

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Worlds Top Shale Oil Field Is Still Spewing Methane by the Ton - Yahoo Finance

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The United States has historically been one of the most credit-worthy countries in the entire world. U.S. Treasury bonds are considered some of the safest financial instruments in international markets, and their movements are used as a benchmark for movement within the global economy.

See: Heres How Much You Need To Earn To Be Rich in Every StateFind: 10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Check Out

The U.S. is also a debt nation we all have some form of it, be it with monthly credit cards, student loans and mortgages. Its hard to think of a world where you cant just go to a bank and get a mortgage for your first house or open up even a low-limit credit card but the reality is the U.S. is a privileged place in terms of the free-flowing credit most of its citizens run on.

That could change in the next 10 days. During President Donald Trumps presidency, the national debt climbed over $8 trillion largely fueled by massive tax cuts and emergency pandemic spending. The Biden administration, thus far, has increased the countys debt by about another $3.5 trillion with the American Rescue Plan stimulus relief bill and other economic recovery efforts during the ongoing pandemic.

The government fiscal year ends Sept. 30 and a new budget will need to be agreed on in order to fund the spending that has already happened.

Using this year as an example, the government essentially took out a $3.5 trillion loan against itself in order to pay for things like stimulus payments, business relief, etc. Now, it is time to pay that loan back this is done in the form of bonds. The government agrees on a certain level, or debt ceiling, of debt to issue in the form of Treasury bonds. These bonds are then sold into the open market at monthly auctions held by the Treasury itself. This, plus taxes you pay, raises the revenue needed for things like government spending.

The government is now asking for the amount, or limit/ceiling, of these bonds to be increased so that they can pay off their debts. There is much conflict in the government as to whether or not this should happen, but the important thing to know is that should there be a vote No in raising the limit of bonds to issue, the U.S. will default for the first time in its history.

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In short, all of the loans that maintain your daily life mortgage, credit card, car loan could get more expensive. One of the reasons debt is so cheap in the U.S. is because of its creditworthiness, which could change if it defaults. U.S. Treasuries are usually bought by banks, increasing the money supply into the economy and keeping money easy and cheap. If more bonds are not issued into the marketplace, banks will have to tighten the reins and lending will get more expensive.

U.S. Treasury Chair Janet Yellen recently warned of the extent to which average Americans can be affected in a piece for the Wall Street Journal. Yellen stressed that In a matter of days, millions of Americans could be strapped for cash. We could see indefinite delays in critical payments. Nearly 50 million seniors could stop receiving Social Security checks for a time. Troops could go unpaid. Millions of families who rely on the monthly child tax credit could see delays. America, in short, would default on its obligations.

See: Didnt Get Your Child Tax Credit? Heres How to Track It DownFind: Social Security Benefits Might Get Cut Early What Does It Mean for You?

She added that it could also trigger a financial crisis with a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and that our current economic recovery would reverse into recession with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.

The government has until Sept. 30 to reach a decision.

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The US Has 10 Days Before It Defaults On Its Debt What That Could Mean For You - Yahoo Finance

Investing app Robinhood (HOOD) said Wednesday it will provide a crypto wallet for customers, letting them send and receive crypto assets off its platform. Officially live in early 2022, the service gives an entirely new set of retail investors keys to the crypto sector. With this added access comes risks for customers and the chance the company is changing how users interact with its platform.

The announcement comes after reports that Robinhood is publicly beta testing a wallet service, something customers have requested over the past year.

Robinhood Markets. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Almost all cryptocurrency exchanges allow customers to transact on and off their platform. Robinhood still hasnt given that functionality to customers. Unlike ACH bank transfers for fiat currencies, crypto transactions place greater responsibility on users because blockchain-based transactions are permanent. Most exchange-based wallet services offer a copy/paste feature that reduces mistakes in sending on-chain transactions. However, misplacing just one digit in a wallet address during a crypto transaction sends a users money to the wrong address permanently.

A lot of our crypto customers are new to crypto and havent actually transacted on-chain, Christine Brown, Robinhood Cryptos Chief Operating Officer told Yahoo Finance. We spent a lot of time working on our safety features and wanted to make sure that our experience is up to par with what our customers would expect.

Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev celebrate after ringing the bell on Robinhood Markets IPO Listing Day on July 29, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Robinhood)

A crypto wallet allows users to send and receive cryptocurrency to and from other wallet addresses. Previously, Robinhood held all its customers' cryptocurrency and users could not take their holdings off the platform.

The wallet service comes as Robinhood rolls out more crypto trading features, such as the ability to place recurring buy orders to dollar cost average into a coin, a strategy that helps investors reduce volatility. Brown said Robinhood is looking to add more crypto assets for later this year and into 2022.

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Shares of Robinhood have declined steadily since spiking at the beginning of August. The stock is now at $42, about 21% higher than its July IPO close.

Similar to how it treats stock trading on its platform, Robinhood doesnt charge fees for buying and selling crypto. Paired with a digital wallet, the company is looking to use 0% transaction fees as a competitive advantage in the crypto space.

If Im looking to buy an NFT, Robinhood might be the most competitive place to get a price on Ethereum (ETH) then send it off the platform, said Brown. "We have a healthy ambition to bring a whole lot of crypto benefits to our users. This is just the start."

In the last year, hiring on the companys crypto side quadrupled to about 80 employees. One reason is because crypto is becoming a major source of revenue for the company. Details from Robinhoods latest earnings release showed 60% of customers bought or sold crypto in the previous quarter and for the first time ever, more new customers placed their first trade in crypto rather than equities. The report also showed that Robinhood's revenue from cryptocurrencies increased to $233 million in the second quarter, up from $5 million in Q2 2020. Robinhood reported 21.3 million people actively use the platform for trading.

Getting more heavily involved in the crypto sector allows Robinhood to access potentially billions of dollars flowing through the more than $2 trillion asset class, but it also exposes the company and its customer base to greater risks, said Collin Plume, CEO and founder of the crypto IRA investment platform, MyDigitalMoney.

If the tax reporting of crypto coming in and out is not tracked appropriately, it does expose them to a potential liability. It also exposes them to potential ransomware attacks for clients and themselves, said Plume. "Overall, it is worth the risk for this company and they have always been willing to take risks to grow."

Plume also claimed that to say Robinhood receives no commission on its trading is misleading because "there is no way a business can run without any profit."

How Robinhood can generate profit without charging commissions is a hotly debated topic. Ultimately, a major chunk of its revenue comes from the equities brokerage model that Robinhood used to pioneer 0% commission trading. Most competitors have since adopted this model called payment for order flow (PFOF). In the PFOF model, Robinhood routes orders to various market makers like Citadel Securities or Virtu Financial each time customers buy and sell a stock and are paid by those market makers according to order volume.

While the model is now the industry standard for competitive trading platforms, investors and U.S. officials have criticized payment for order flow, suggesting it is a major ingredient in a trading experience that encourages the quantity of customer trades above all else.

Vladimir Tenev, CEO and co-founder of Robinhood, is shown on an electronic screen at Nasdaq in New York's Times Square following his company's IPO, Thursday, July 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

In its July IPO filing, Robinhood reported just how important the brokerage model is to its business, saying its revenue tripled to $959 million from 2019 to 2020, with three-quarters of that money coming from rebates it earned sending orders to market makers through payment of order flow.

David Keller, Chief Strategist at the financial charting company, StockCharts suggested a simpler reason for why the crypto is also so great for the platform's business.

Market corrections tend to be a tailwind for brokers as customers are motivated to trade as volatility increases, said Keller.

Robinhood maintains that the PFOF model gives customers best execution of orders at market price, saving them the commission fee. Since the Reddit-driven meme stock frenzy at the beginning of the year when Robinhood was forced to halt trading due to heightened liquidity requirements in stocks like GameStop and AMC, details about the business model came to light, causing some customers to leave the platform. Robinhood now discloses how it makes money on its website.

Because of payment for order flow, the customers are their real product, said 20-year-old Maverick Lewis. A college student who previously used Robinhood to trade cryptocurrencies and stocks, Lewis cashed out all his crypto holdings on Robinhood several months ago to open an account with Coinbase and buy it all back again.

A crypto wallet feature on Robinhood would have saved Lewis fees, time and a potential tax headache but Lewis said hes not going back to the platform because the business model doesnt value customers.

While the market structure between equities and crypto is not the same, some crypto exchanges also use PFOF in combination with charging commission fees.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter covering the cryptocurrency and stock markets.

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In this article we will take a look at the some of notable stocks on the move today. You can skip our detailed analysis of these stocks and go to read Why These 5 Stocks Are On the Move on Wednesday.

It's a bullish day on Wall Street as all three major indexes are in the green. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow are up around 1% while the NASDAQ has rallied around 0.7%. Although the Evergrande situation in China remains unresolved, there is less fear and investors are now more focused on the Fed meeting.

Among the stocks that's on the move include FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY), MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM), Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN), Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX), Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC). Let's examine why each stock is moving and how elite funds are positioned among them.

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Why do we care about hedge fund fund activity? Insider Monkeys research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 86 percentage points since March 2017. Between March 2017 and July 2021 our monthly newsletters stock picks returned 186.1%, vs. 100.1% for the SPY. Our stock picks outperformed the market by 86 percentage points (see the details here). Thats why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to. You can subscribe to our free newsletter on our homepage to receive our stories in your inbox.

10. MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) has rallied almost 6% due to sentiment around Chinese stocks improving. Other gambling stocks such as Las Vegas Sands have also rallied today and many Chinese stocks are also higher. Macau is a big market for MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) and any potential improvement in China's economic situation in the future could benefit Macau and Macau gaming stocks. Keith Meister's Corvex Capital was long more than 15.6 million shares of MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) for the June 30, 2021 filing period.

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9. Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) is up around 7.3% due to the broader market rally and WTI prices rallying around 1.6%. Given that it produces oil, Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN)'s profits are affected by oil prices. If oil prices rally, Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) could potentially benefit.

50 elite funds we track were long Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) at the end of the second quarter, down 2 from the prior quarter.

8. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) is up around 4.4% likely due to sentiment around the future of China's property market improving at least today. Many other stocks related to China's property market have rallied on Wednesday as well and there is less fear over the systematic risks surrounding China Evergrande Group.

Because China imports a lot of copper and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)'s business depends a lot on copper prices, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) stock is affected by what's occurring in China.

The number of elite funds we track that were long Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) rose to 76 in Q2, 2021 from 68 in Q1, 2021.

7. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has fallen around 3.7% after the company provided an update on how Apple's privacy policy changes could affect its ad business. In a blog post, Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) wrote, "As we noted during our earnings call in July, we expected increased headwinds from platform changes, notably the recent iOS updates, to have a greater impact in the third quarter compared to the second quarter." Given the uncertainty, some investors apparently sold Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) although the stock continues to have long term tailwinds.

Of the around 873 top funds we track, 266 were long Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) in the second quarter, making it the second most widely held smart money stock in our database.

6. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is up around 2.8% due to the broader market rally and potentially due to the Fed meeting which is expected to focus on the timetable of the taper. With a leading commercial bank, Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) benefits from higher rates, if and when that should occur. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) has done well in 2021 with a year to date rally of more than 33%.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was a major holder of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) with a holding of 1,010,100,606 at the end of June 30.

Like MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM), Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN), Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX), Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) and Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) are also on the move.

Click to continue reading and see Why These 5 Stocks Are on the Move on Wednesday.

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Why These 10 Stocks Are on the Move on Wednesday - Yahoo Finance

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.)

* Energy, bank stocks lead market declines

* All eyes on Fed's policy meeting later this week

* Major airlines mixed as U.S. relaxes travel rules

* Indexes down: Dow 2.23%, S&P 2.24%, Nasdaq 2.63% (Adds comment, details; updates prices)

By Devik Jain

Sept 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks sharply dropped on Monday as risk-off sentiment gripped investors on concerns over the pace of global growth and a possible spillover from China Evergrande's troubles, ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting later this week.

The Nasdaq tumbled as much as 2.9% in afternoon trading, led by declines in growth names including Microsoft Corp, Google-owner Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Tesla Inc.

"The potential default of the Chinese property developer could have far reaching and unexpected consequences. There's the X-factor, the potential that ripples from one collapse could erode other sectors," said Danni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell.

"If the Chinese economy is dented, what happens to demand for those nice-to-haves like a shiny new Tesla. Shares in the car company have tumbled and the Nasdaq with them, in fact the tech heavy index makes for pretty grim viewing today."

All the 11 major S&P sectors declined. Economy-sensitive industrials, financials and energy dropped between 1.9% and 4%.

The banking sub-index shed 3.9%, tracking U.S. Treasury yields as worries about the default of Evergrande appeared to affect the broader market, with commodities slipping and investors flocking to the perceived safety of bonds..

Wall Street's main indexes have been hurt this month by fears of potentially higher corporate tax rates denting earnings and have shrugged off signs inflation might have peaked.

The S&P 500 is down 4.6% from its intra-day record high hit on Sept. 2 and is on track to snap a seven-month winning streak.

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"This is just an environment where there's been a lot of money that has been rewarded for excessive risk taking. And now we're seeing a little bit of that risk come off... this is classic profit taking," said Dennis Dick, a trader at Bright Trading LLC.

"I still think a big reason for (today's selloff) is the White House and the Biden administration talking about raising the capital gains rate."

All eyes on Wednesday will be on the Fed's policy meeting, where the central bank is expected to lay the groundwork for a tapering, although the consensus is for an actual announcement to be delayed until the November or December meetings.

At 13:30 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 772.43 points, or 2.23%, at 33,812.45, the S&P 500 was down 99.47 points, or 2.24%, at 4,333.52.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 396.26 points, or 2.63%, at 14,647.71, set for its worst day since May 12.

Strategists at Morgan Stanley said they expected a 10% correction in the S&P 500 as the Fed starts to unwind its monetary support, adding that signs of stalling economic growth could deepen it to 20%.

The CBOE volatility index, known as Wall Street's fear gauge, hit its highest level in over four months.

Airline carriers traded mixed after the United States relaxed travel restrictions on air passengers from China, India, Britain and many other European countries who have received COVID-19 vaccines in early November.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 8.44-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 5.54-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 19 new highs and 165 new lows. (Reporting by Devik Jain and Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Maju Samuel and Sriraj Kalluvila)

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US STOCKS-Wall St tumbles over 2% on growth worries; focus turns to Fed - Yahoo Finance

Emerging green technologies could benefit a number of sectors and be instrumental in achieving global net-zero emissions, a goal that top U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said would be the greatest market transformation since the Industrial Revolution.

These green tech innovations which include carbon capture & storage (CCS), nextgen batteries, green mining, and ocean tech were part of the 14 "moonshot" technologies laid out in a recent Bank of America note.

Other technologies consisted of 6G, brain computer interface, emotional artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic biology, immortality, bionic humans, eVTOL, wireless electricity, holograms, and the metaverse. In all, these technologies represent a market size of over $6 trillion by 2030, according to BofA.

14 moonshot technologies for the future. (Source: BofA Global Research)

The researchers emphasized the accelerating pace of innovation and underscored how a few major disruptors have driven long-term trends in the last three decades. Just 1.5% of all stocks have created all net wealth since 1990, the report noted.

To bring any one of these future tech ideas to mainstream use requires innovation, adoption, and government support. The inverse of this is that the largest risks to these technologies are delayed scientific and technological development, prohibitive costs, and government regulation that limits their applicability.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) reached a major milestone recently when the world's largest facility for removing carbon directly from the air began operating in Iceland.

CCS will likely play a pivotal role in drawing down greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the U.N.'s body for assessing climate change uses carbon capture in all of its modeled pathways to limit global warming to 1.5C. Nations that continue to fall short of their climate targets early on may need to rely increasingly on carbon removal in the second half of the century.

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By 2030, according to the BofA report, "annual capex for CCS could reach approximately $25 billion or equivalent of $100 billion of cumulative investments. By 2040/2050, there could be $1 trillion in cumulative investments."

The Climeworks Orca carbon removal plant opened on September 8, 2021, in Hellisheidi, Iceland (Photo: Climeworks)

For the past 40 years, post-combustion carbon capture has been the most widely used carbon removal technology. But filtering out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere after it has been emitted has proven to be far more costly and energy-intensive than preemptively reducing emissions through renewable energy sources, which has made the technology somewhat controversial.

Here's how it works: At emission sources, such as power plants or steel-making plants, gases from combustion pass by a chemical solution that selectively filters out carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere. When the chemical sponge is saturated, the application of heat releases and compresses the carbon dioxide into a liquid where it can be stored, oftentimes deep underground in saline aquifers or depleted oil reservoirs. And after collecting up to 90% of carbon dioxide from power and industrial plants, alternative uses for carbon dioxide are being developed, such as fuel, fertilizer, enhanced oil recovery, and even carbonating beverages.

The upside of carbon capture and storage as a climate solution and market opportunity is that it has bipartisan policy support. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a key vote needed to pass the bipartisan infrastructure and $3.5 trillion reconciliation bills, expressed support for CCS. And proposals to expand tax credits and financing for CCS have already passed the Senate as part of the infrastructure plan.

Additionally, CCS has received significant buy-in from major oil companies like ExxonMobil (XOM) that face pressure to transform their businesses away from fossil fuels.

That said, an over-reliance on CCS risks negating emissions reductions should it give fossil fuel companies license to continue pouring planet-warming emissions into the air with coal, oil, and gas projects.

Sen. Joe Manchin speaks to an aide as he walks out of a Democratic policy luncheon in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

In the short run, battery improvements could increase "utility and applicability" for consumer electronics and mobility, BofA analysts noted, and in the long run, utility-scale batteries could meet higher power and longer duration needs to power entire energy grids.

Although promises of battery breakthroughs have fizzled in the past, "rising demand, investment and the urgent need to meet climate action goals could accelerate feedback loops between cost reduction, energy density improvement and better-value propositions," the report noted.

An Xcel Energy representative checks over chargers for EVs on display in the Xcel exhibit at the Denver auto show Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 in Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The key innovations for the next generation of battery technology involve advanced lithium-ion chemistry, material switching, solid-state batteries, batteries as structures, supercapacitors, and large-scale future energy storage. Solving challenges that current batteries face in one area, like longevity, often comes with trade-offs in other areas, like weight or size.

The growing adoption of electric vehicles, in particular, has generated demand for battery improvements, especially for lithium-ion batteries. The demand for EV batteries, for instance, is set to grow 28 times 2020 levels by 2030, according to the BofA APAC EV Battery Team, and the market size for EV batteries is expected to grow from $21 billion in 2020 to $354 billion by 2030.

In addition to advancing battery performance, scientists and engineers are working to find ways to make batteries with more abundant materials or to recycle metals in order to reduce the destructive environmental impacts of mining.

Battery technologies that are being developed. (Source: BofA Global Research)

Electric vehicles and their batteries require more minerals than their combustion engine counterparts, and the demand for rare minerals will increase with growth of EV market share. For instance, between 2020 and 2040, the International Energy Agency expects demand for nickel and lithium to grow by 40 times.

Advances in green mining aim to facilitate the production of batteries and other future tech that will enable the green transition. As the BofA analysts wrote, shifting from a carbon-intensive economy means becoming a metal-intensive one.

Yet, when it comes to mining the massive amounts of raw materials needed, the environmental costs and costs to the communities near mining operations cannot be ignored. This has led to a search for alternative means of extracting metals and minerals, from deep sea mining, agromining, wastewater mining, and asteroid mining.

Overall, the green mining market size could be worth $12.9 billion by 2024, according to Bloomberg and MarketsandMarkets estimates. (The market size in 2019 was $9 billion.)

Phyllantus balgooyi phloem green sap is rich in nickel. (Photo: Antony van der Ent)

The extent to which deep sea mining is truly 'green' remains up for debate. Scientists and conservationists have opposed deep sea mining on the grounds that it simply externalizes the environmental costs to the ocean and marine life.

Many of the other mining technologies are in the very early phases of research. Small-scale pilot sites in Malaysia have begun testing the efficacy of agromining, for example, which promises to grow metals on trees. Agromining harnesses certain plants' innate ability to soak up high concentrations of minerals from the soil.

Other nascent green mining technologies like wastewater mining are developing ways to extract lithium from briny wastewater discharged from desalinization plants. Currently, the process can take up to two years and yields less than 50% of the lithium from brines.

And if robots mining faraway asteroids for minerals seems far-fetched, that hasnt stopped NASA and a burgeoning deep space industry from exploring how to mine the asteroid belt, which has an estimated mineral wealth amount of $700 quintillion, according to the BofA report. However, as with anything space-related, this comes with enormous investment to retrieve and return minerals.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company, holds a nodule brought up from the sea floor, San Diego, June 8, 2021 (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The world's oceans support numerous industries and jobs. And when it comes to renewable energy, oceans are the worlds largest untapped source of energy, BofA noted.

As the population grows worldwide, so too will the demand for the oceans resources. The output of the blue economy could reach $3 trillion by 2030, or the equivalent of Germanys economy in 2010, according to BofA.

However, marine systems will continue to be stressed by climate change, which could impact the development of ocean industries and create feedback loops of worsening weather effects. That's why ocean tech focuses on preserving ocean health as a key priority for new technology and products.

One problem that ocean tech hopes to solve is feeding the growing population. By 2030, the worlds consumption of fish is expected to increase by 18% compared to 2018 levels. Developments in marine aquaculture the farming of fish in the open ocean or on-shore tanks could restore marine ecosystems while providing more sustainable seafood for consumption.

French oyster farmer Anne Marquet collects oysters bags at her oyster farm off the port of La Teste on December 1, 2020 in the bay of Arcachon. (Photo by PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty)

Some marine aquaculture startups have not only developed ways of farming seaweed and shellfish, they are researching ways to create new markets for these products beyond health foods for climatarians. For instance, biodegradable seaweed packaging may come to replace plastic packaging.

Another ocean tech industry, precision fishing, uses advanced analytics to observe and measure the oceans to avoid overfishing. The BofA analysts stated that the use of these tools can help provide six times more food in a sustainable manner, so we can have our fish and eat them too.

Companies such as Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) have already begun investing in ocean analytics and surveillance.

And the oceans could be a core source of renewable energy as new technologies unlock the energy potential behind tides, currents, waves, solar, salinity, thermal energy, and winds. Europe has been at the forefront of off-shore renewable installation, according to IRENA, with 70% of the world's offshore capacity located in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

And ocean renewable energy projects are likely to see a boost from more ambitious climate targets, as is the case with the EU Green Deal, which aims for 60 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050.

Grace is an assistant editor for Yahoo Finance and a UX writer for Yahoo products.

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Here's the best 'moonshot' green tech, according to Bank of America - Yahoo Finance