Wal-Mart’s recent acquisition of Jet.com seems to be upping its e-commerce presence and could be “poking the bear” of Amazon, Barclays analyst Karen Short told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Wednesday. Short reiterated her position on Wal-Mart in a Barclays note entitled “Poking the Bear — Why WMT Remains our Top Pick” on Wednesday, keeping her overweight rating with a price target of $82 on the stock. “Jet brings a whole level of expertise and sophistication that Wal-Mart.com or Wal-Mart wouldn’t have

The battle over rising drug prices has become a full-blown he-said-she-said. Drug companies have pointed the finger at middlemen in the health-care system, saying they not only benefit from rising drug prices but contribute to their increases. Those middlemen — namely, pharmacy benefits managers (or PBMs) — have said the only parties responsible for drugs’ list prices are the manufacturers. It focuses on PBMs and manufacturers, list prices, rebates and discounts. Drug companies argue that PBMs h

Not only does cooking require time, effort and creativity, but things come up and food often goes to waste, despite your best intentions. My solution: Meal planning before I grocery shop so I’m only buying exactly what I need. I previously wrote about my meal planning strategy for Business Insider. It became a crucial way to help me reduce costs while I completed a challenge to save half of my discretionary income for a month. Not only does this method help me save, it also helps reduce kitchen

Jim Cramer rang the lightning round bell, which means he gave his take on caller favorite stocks at rapid speed:JetBlue Airways: “No. It’s had a good run, but we are not going to invest in Jetblue.” If we’re going to be in that area, we’re going to go with a good balance sheet and a good dividend. GW Pharma is, I’d say, the most, let’s say, well-known and able to withstand any pressure, the pressure being legalization. Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – Instagram – VineQuestions

“In retrospect, though, it meant very little, except as a panic, a panic that gave you a great chance to buy.” Hedge fund traders are always on the lookout for trades to the downside, which often result in winning bets for the funds. Still, Sunday’s elections will undoubtedly move the needle in concrete ways for French businesses, especially considering two of the election’s four front-runners. If you do hold, know that hedge fund trading may drag stocks and interest rates down, and that the dec

United Airlines said on Wednesday it plans to testify at an upcoming U.S. House Transportation Committee hearing on commercial airline industry consumer issues after a passenger was dragged off an April 9 flight in Chicago to make room for crew members. A spokesman for the House of Representatives panel did not say who the committee plans to call as witnesses. She declined to say who would testify for United. In the carrier’s first quarter earnings call this week, United again apologized repeate

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visits Indonesia on Thursday as part of his 10-day visit to Asia, and a range of topics will be on the docket. While both sides agreed to eliminate unfair trade practices, there were no concrete agreements on bilateral trade relations. Despite this, Sumpter said that the bilateral trade talks will continue throughout Pence’s Asia tour. “Washington is very intent on pursuing bilateral trade negotiations, not only with Japan, but with other trade partners in the regi

China is cutting taxes this year by 380 billion yuan ($55 billion) in efforts to encourage spending and boost growth. The value-added tax system will be reduced from four brackets to three, and the tax rate for products including natural gas and farm items will be cut to 11 percent from 13 percent. Tax breaks are increasing for small and medium-sized businesses with annual income of 500,000 yuan or less, according to a State Council statement. The government is also rolling out incentives to boo

Last week, Trump said health care comes before tax reform, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said his original target of August for tax reform was too aggressive. Goldman Sachs economists, in a note Wednesday, said it appears the timing of tax reform is slipping again. To the muni market, both individual and corporate tax reform are important. … On the corporate tax side, I don’t think the corporate tax rate is going to go to 15 percent. “As the tax reform debate heats up we could conceivab

Brazil is still attracting a stream of foreign direct investment even after a corruption scandal involving its meat industry, the country’s finance minister said Wednesday. With just 21 in 4,800 meat processing plants involved, Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said the quality of his country’s beef doesn’t worry him. “I don’t worry about that, I think that is pretty safe,” he told CNBC. Addressing the series of scandals and corruption investigations in Brazil of late, Meirelles said

“Getting old before getting rich is one the biggest medium-term structural challenges in developing Asia and (Latin America). “Unfavorable demographics could lower potential GDP growth rates and hamper development… Aging affects a population’s productive capacity, consumption patterns and investment.” The need to increase government revenue as the countries age means imposing higher taxes on the shrinking working population or expanding the tax base, tax specialists told CNBC. Yet, social and me

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday will sign a directive asking for a speedy probe into whether imports of foreign-made steel are hurting U.S. national security, two administration officials said on Wednesday. The law allows the president to impose restrictions on imports for reasons of national security. There are national security implications, one of the officials said, from imports of steel alloys that are used in products such as the armor plating of ships and require a lot of expertis

Fox News losing star host Bill O’Reilly might not hurt the network as much as people think. “I think a lot of numbers are being overreported in terms of what the ad revenue is from O’Reilly’s show,” DiClemente told CNBC. Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox announced on Wednesday O’Reilly was being removed from the network. “After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the Company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel,” the

Vitor Gaspar, the director of the International Monetary Fund’s fiscal affairs department, shared his thoughts on the state of global fiscal policy with CNBC on Wednesday. Still, he said, the expected stimulus to come out of the United States under President Donald Trump will likely have a significant impact on the country’s debt. For France, Gaspar said “the first priority” should be for the government to focus on public expenditure — to “rationalize” the public expenditure side. There’s an opp

I visited Yamanashi, to take the SCMaglev for a test run, unaware of the demand for tickets to get on board. With the train only open to the public roughly 40 days out of the year, rail fanatics consider the ride a golden ticket of sorts. That is, until the train starts to reach speeds of 310 mph. By the time the wheels retract, lifting the train off the tracks, it feels like a plane taking off. Wayne Rogers, chairman and CEO of The Northeast Maglev (TNEM), the private company promoting high spe

Republican leadership appears willing to extend the April 28 deadline to fund the government or face a shutdown, according to two GOP sources, to give lawmakers more time to reach a compromise on a spending bill. Congress will reconvene Monday after a two-week Easter recess, and the sources said there simply may not be enough time to reach consensus before the clock runs out. In that case, Republicans would be willing to adopt a temporary measure that would keep the government running for about

Defense and aerospace industry mergers slowed in the first three months of the year compared with the fourth quarter but activity should pick up for the remainder of 2017, predicts a new report. “Despite a relatively soft start to the year, we are optimistic that deal activity will recover and return to prior year levels,” the PwC report said. “Defense spending increases and geopolitical factors will certainly play a part in the prevalence and magnitude of dealmaking through the rest of 2017.” O

Using what’s known as trended data is the biggest change. The phrase means credit scores will take into account the trajectory of a borrower’s debts on a month-to-month basis. “This is a really big deal,” said John Ulzheimer, an expert in credit reports and credit scoring. Ulzheimer said taking trended data into account has long been considered by the credit score industry, but hasn’t been implemented on a meaningful scale. An important metric in calculating credit scores has been the portion of

Meanwhile, OPEC, Russia and other producers agreed in December to a six-month deal to cut 1.8 million barrels from the world market, helping boost oil prices to the mid-$50s. But oil prices have waned whenever supply worries re-emerge. The OPEC numbers are bigger, and it’s much sooner. “The oil prices haven’t fully kicked in down here,” said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS. “It’s bearish for gasoline in particular, to the extent the end product value comes down and pulls down the

The dollar inched lower against a basket of major currencies on Thursday, suffering from a solid performance by the euro before the first round of French presidential elections and from an improvement in sentiment towards Britain’s pound this week. The biggest mover overnight was the New Zealand dollar, jetting higher after inflation surged past 2 percent to its highest in five years, bolstering the case for a rise in kiwi interest rates over the next year. Attention is largely focused on the Fr