Aurelia Butler

The posts on his Facebook page and YouTube channel, which were titled “I’M BACK!,” show a CNN video announcing Trump’s election as president in the 2016 race against Hillary Clinton. It then fades to a ‘Trump 2024’ screen. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Trump says in the video.Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc’s YouTube restored Trump’s channel earlier on Friday. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) had reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts earlier this year.His Twitter account was reinstated in November by the platform’s new owner Elon Musk but Trump has yet to post on Twitter.Trump powered his improbable 2016 presidential campaign through his use of social media. His return gives him access to key vehicles for political fundraising, allowing him to reach a combined 146 million followers across three major tech platforms as he makes another run for the presidency in 2024.”We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election,” YouTube said in a tweet, referring to its move to restore his account.Trump’s campaign team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.His campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital in January that being back on Facebook “will be an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters.”The former president founded his own social media platform called Truth Social in late 2021, which he relied on to communicate with supporters during his ban from Twitter and Meta.YouTube banned Trump in 2021 for violating its policy against inciting violence after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.Opponents of Trump’s return point to his messages on Truth Social, where he has nearly 5 million followers, as evidence that he still poses the same risk that led to his suspensions.Trump’s return to YouTube and Facebook is happening just as the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is considering criminal charges related to hush-money payments made to a porn star during Trump’s 2016 campaign, charges that Trump and his allies are arguing without evidence are politically motivated.Trump also faces a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York state, alleging a decade-long scheme to manipulate more than 200 asset valuations and Trump’s net worth to win better terms from banks and insurers. Trump has called the suit a witch hunt. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund said its executive board on Friday approved rule changes that would allow the IMF to approve new loan programs for countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty” – a move expected to pave the way for a new Ukraine loan program.The changes to the IMF’s financing assurances policy would apply to countries experiencing “exogenous shocks that are beyond the control of country authorities and the reach of their economic policies,” the IMF said in a statement.Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion for more than a year, is seeking an IMF financing package of around $15 billion. But the Fund’s rules designed to deal with country economic crises did not allow for non-emergency loans to countries facing such massive uncertainties, such as from major wars or multi-year natural disasters induced by climate change. The IMF said the rule revisions would address key barriers to such loans by allowing official bilateral creditors and donors to provide upfront assurances about repayment to the IMF and delivering debt relief to the borrowing country.The IMF statement did not mention Ukraine specifically, but the rule changes have been designed alongside negotiations with authorities in Kyiv over new financing. The Fund said on Wednesday that its staff had made “very good progress” in talks with Ukraine over the previous week on policies that could underpin a new IMF lending program for the war-torn country.A source close to the discussions said IMF staff and Ukrainian authorities were expected to reach agreement on a new financing package as early as next Tuesday.In a statement, the board said loans to countries facing exceptionally high uncertainty “would require careful judgment about whether such a program would be feasible and credible given its likely risk characteristics and be consistent with legal and policy requirements for Fund lending.” More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Whipsawed U.S. stocks have gained an unexpected ally in recent days – a historic plunge in bond yields.U.S. government bond yields fell steeply this week, with some durations marking their biggest drops in decades, as investors bet the Federal Reserve would likely curb its aggressive rate hike trajectory to avoid exacerbating financial system stress following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY).The volatility in fixed income markets has unsettled investors, and falling yields can reflect expectations that the Fed will cut rates because of a hit to growth. At the same time, the drop in yields has so far been a boon for equities, especially tech and other large growth stocks whose relatively strong performance helped support the benchmark S&P 500 . The index finished up 1.4% for the week, with strength in technology stocks outweighing sharp declines in bank shares.While the banking crisis has stirred recession fears, “it’s the interest rate move that’s a … tailwind for stocks right now,” said Charlie McElligott, managing director of cross-asset macro strategy at Nomura.The near-term trajectory of yields will likely hinge on next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. Signs that the central bank may prioritize financial stability and slow or pause its rate increases could pull yields even lower. Conversely, yields could rebound if the Fed signals that bringing down inflation – which remains high despite a barrage of rate increases – will continue to be job one.”The market is not quite sure how the Fed is going to look at this,” said Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions.For now, futures markets indicate that investors are assigning a 60% probability of a 25 basis point rate increase at the Fed’s March 21-22 meeting, with rate cuts to follow later in the year – a sharp turnaround from the hawkish expectations that prevailed earlier this month.”For the first time during this Fed tightening cycle, the Fed now has to balance its inflation-fighting credibility with financial market stability,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street (NYSE:STT) Global Advisors.Treasury yields fell to historic lows after the Fed cut rates to support the economy at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, fueling a stock market rally that saw the S&P 500 double from its March 2020 trough at one point.As the Fed began tightening monetary policy a year ago to fight inflation, Treasury yields began to rise, offering investors an increasingly attractive alternative to equities. Two-year yields, which recently stood at 3.85%, hit an over 15-year high of 5.08% earlier this month. The recent drop in rates has helped stocks regain their appeal, according to some metrics. The equity risk premium, or the extra return investors expect to receive for holding stocks over risk-free government bonds, has rebounded to where it stood in early January but still remains near its lowest level in over a decade, according to Refinitiv data.Other metrics show stocks remain expensive by historical standards. The S&P 500 trades at 17.5 times forward earnings estimates compared to its historic average P/E of 15.6 times, according to Refinitiv Datastream.The rally in interest-rate sensitive areas such as tech stocks appears to signal that the market expects rates to continue to fall as a widely feared recession nears, Nomura’s McElligott said.The S&P 500 information technology sector and communication services sector rose over 5% and nearly 7%, respectively, for the week, buoyed by strong gains in megacap stocks Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc.Some investors, however, are skeptical of stock valuations. Bob Kalman, senior portfolio manager at Miramar Capital, said the Nasdaq 100 should trade at no more than 25 times forward earnings given current interest rates, below its current 27.3.”People have this muscle memory to buy mega-cap tech whenever they get nervous,” Kalman said. “But the Fed hasn’t backed off its rhetoric that they know they must overshoot because inflation is a much larger concern in the economy than a couple of bank failures.” More

Rival ratings agency Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) also said that Saudi Arabia’s plans will support it amid volatile oil price cycles and a global transition to sustainable energy. Moody’s changed its outlook on the kingdom to “positive” from “stable”, and reaffirmed its “A1” rating.Oil prices have been volatile amid Western sanctions against Russia, supply constraints and most recently, financial fears that have gripped the market following the turmoil in the U.S. banking sector.Saudi Arabia’s reform plans complement its “longstanding position as the world’s largest oil exporter, with spare installed capacity providing it the ability to adjust production swiftly when market conditions change, in the current environment of reasonably strong global energy prices,” S&P said.The ratings agency, which previously had a “A-/A-2” rating on Saudi Arabia, forecast a slow rise in the kingdom’s oil production through 2026. More