Raphael Stevens

Five House Democrats are still fighting for relief on the $10,000 limit on the federal deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT.
The lawmakers are urging colleagues to block IRS funds for enforcing state-level SALT cap workarounds via the fiscal 2023 appropriations bill.

Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference announcing the State and Local Taxes (SALT) Caucus outside the U.S. Capitol on April 15, 2021.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Despite roadblocks, five House Democrats are still fighting for relief on the $10,000 limit on the federal deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT. 
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., sent a letter to leaders of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, urging colleagues to deny the IRS funds to block state-level SALT cap workarounds.

Signed by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.; Tom Malinowski, D-N.J.; Katie Porter, D-Calif.; and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., the letter requests a provision be added to the fiscal 2023 appropriations bill.
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The letter specifically calls out legislation passed in New York and New Jersey that allows local jurisdictions to create charitable funds offering property tax credits to homeowners who contributed. The law would have allowed taxpayers who itemized deductions to claim a charitable write-off for their donations. 
However, the IRS and the U.S. Department of the Treasury barred this workaround in 2019, saying the receipt of a SALT credit in return for charitable contributions would constitute a “quid pro quo.”
“Congress didn’t give the IRS permission to interpret the tax law as they see fit, which they’ve done by dismantling the charitable tax deduction,” said Gottheimer, who co-chairs the SALT Caucus.

“We must do everything we can, including restoring the SALT deduction, to help cut taxes and make life more affordable for families and small businesses,” he added.

The $10,000 SALT limit, enacted by former President Donald Trump’s signature tax overhaul, has been a pain point for high-tax states, such as New York, New Jersey and California, because residents can’t deduct more than $10,000 in state and local levies on their federal returns.  
With a slim Democratic House majority, the SALT cap was a big issue in Build Back Better negotiations, and lawmakers in November passed an $80,000 SALT cap through 2030 as part of their spending package. But Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., blocked the plan in the Senate.
The push for SALT reform faced another setback in April when the Supreme Court rejected a challenge from New York and three other states to overturn the legislation.

Pushback on SALT relief

Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst for the Tax Foundation, described the latest move from SALT relief advocates as “an interesting approach” but expects resistance from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“The appropriations season is already a pretty turbulent time between both parties,” he said, pointing to ongoing disagreements about IRS funding and the agency’s direction.

Another concern may be the types of taxpayers attempting to take advantage of state-level SALT cap workarounds, who are often “on the more sophisticated side, which probably correlates with income,” Watson said.
Current workarounds in some states are only available to so-called pass-through businesses, with profits flowing to owners’ individual tax returns. SALT relief opponents have long argued that lifting the cap may primarily benefit wealthy households.
If repealed altogether, the top 20% of taxpayers may see over 96% of the relief, according to a Tax Policy Center report, affecting only 9% of American households. 

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The average price for gasoline in the U.S. is at a new all-time high.
Gas prices are climbing toward $5 this summer.
If you are planning to hit the road, there are ways to shield yourself somewhat from soaring prices during the peak driving season.

As the summer driving season nears, gasoline prices show no signs of slowing down.
The national average for unleaded gas hit a new high of $4.59 per gallon Thursday, according to AAA. For the first time ever, the average price was $4 per gallon or above in all 50 states this week, AAA data shows. Last year at this time, the price was $3.04 per gallon.

Soaring prices for crude oil are largely to blame, the automotive group said. “The high cost of oil, the key ingredient in gasoline, is driving these high pump prices for consumers,” Andrew Gross, a spokesperson for AAA, said in a statement. 

How to save on gas

If you are still planning to hit the road, there are ways to shield yourself somewhat from soaring prices at the pump. Consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch has these tips:

Track gas prices. Apps such as GasBuddy, Gas Guru and AAA TripTik can track down the cheapest price per gallon between gas prices. Even if the difference doesn’t seem like much, it can still add up to hundreds of dollars a year.
Pay with cash. The price per gallon can be 10 cents to 15 cents more per gallon for credit card transactions. Pay with cash instead to get the lower price or use a gas rewards credit card to earn cash back on those charges. CNBC’s Select has a full roundup of the best cards for fueling up based on your consumer habits.
Drive strategically. Carpooling to and from work and school or sports practice can dramatically reduce your time on the road. You can even find ride shares using sites such as ZimRide, RideJoy or eRideShare.com, Woroch advised. Also, order online and look for free delivery to cut the cost of getting groceries, takeout and other daily essentials.
Sign up for loyalty programs. In addition, loyalty programs, which many major gas station chains have, can help offset the price at the pump. Some grocery store chains may also offer cents-per-gallon rewards. For example, Kroger and Shop & Stop give fuel points for every $1 spent on groceries, which can be redeemed at participating gas stations. 

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We’re exiting our position in American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), selling 2,000 shares at roughly $13.21 each. At the same time, we’re buying 50 shares of Constellation Brands (STZ) at roughly $234.45 each. Following Thursday’s trades, the portfolio will no longer hold a position in AEO, and it will own 240 shares of STZ, increasing its weighting in the portfolio to 1.98% from 1.58%. We’re selling the rest of our position in American Eagle Outfitters due to the concerns we have about this specialty retailer. As we talked about Wednesday, when we cut our position in half , we do not think American Eagle Outfitters has the right type of inventory for this change in consumer spending habits. Aerie, one of AEO’s brands, has some of the highest exposure to loungeware for a stay-at-home economy, in a time when people are going out more often to go to the office or travel in these later stages of the Covid pandemic. The company also made a big bet on swimwear this spring, and April turned out to be one of the coldest and wettest in ages. In addition, the freight and transportation headwinds that impacted the industry for a few quarters now do not sound like they have abated. In short, we do not want to stick around next week when the company reports earnings to hear all about how they had the wrong inventory this quarter and how inflationary pressures are eating into margins. That’s why we are willing to take the 50% loss we have on the rest of our position and move on from what has been a major disappointment. With this sale, we’re happy to have this extra cash because we don’t need to remind you how difficult the market is right now. But we don’t want to take too much cash out right now because the market is back in deep oversold territory. After Wednesday’s major selloff, the S & P Oscillator moved to minus 7.13%. That’s not as oversold as it was last Thursday, when the Oscillator minus 8.25%. Of course, the market can always get more oversold from here. But since we want to continue high grading the portfolio, we are taking half of the cash raised from the AEO sale to fund a purchase of Constellation Brands, the premium beer, wine, and spirits company whose sales tend to be resilient even in an economic slowdown. Constellation also does virtually zero business in China — both from a revenue and supply chain perspective — meaning the company is immune to the Covid lockdown fears that continue to weigh on the mind of investors. At a time when many are worried that consumer spending habits changed drastically in April based on the comments from Walmart (WMT) and Target , we do not believe Constellation has seen that at all, with beer, wine, and spirits sales immune to this. At a recent virtual roundtable event, management said that March and April depletions, the number of cases that are sold to retailers by a distributor, were “consistent with annual guidance,” meaning the company’s expected 11% earnings growth for this year is on track. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AEO, STZ and WMT. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Constellation Brands’ Corona Light is displayed for sale at a grocery store in New York.
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Spirit’s board turned down JetBlue’s earlier buyout offer of $33 a share.
Spirit has a deal in place to combine with fellow discount airline Frontier.
JetBlue launched a hostile takeover attempt of Spirit earlier this week.

A Spirit Airlines airplane taxis for takeoff at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022.
Michael Ciaglo | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Spirit Airlines’ board on Thursday urged its shareholders to reject JetBlue Airways’ hostile takeover attempt, citing regulatory hurdles and accusing the airline of trying to derail its planned merger with fellow discount carrier Frontier Airlines.
“Spirit believes JetBlue’s proposals and offer are a cynical attempt to disrupt Spirit’s merger with Frontier, which JetBlue views as a competitive threat,” Spirit said in a statement.

JetBlue launched its hostile takeover bid on Monday after Spirit earlier this month rebuffed its surprise $33-a-share, all-cash acquisition bid. The tender offer from New York-based JetBlue was for $30 a share. JetBlue also urged Spirit shareholders to turn down the combination with Frontier at a June 10 Spirit stockholder meeting.
JetBlue said Thursday that it is “no surprise that Spirit shareholders are getting more of the same from the Spirit Board,” accusing it of conflicts of interest. JetBlue also said Spirit’s board “continues to ignore the best interests of its shareholders by distorting the facts to distract from their flawed process and protect their inferior deal with Frontier.”
Spirit’s board reviewed that offer and said in a statement Thursday that it determined it “is NOT in the best interests of Spirit and its stockholders.”
In Spirit’s statement, it said in talks with JetBlue that airline said there “was a 100% certainty” that the Justice Department would seek to block JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit.
“This deal is illusory,” Spirit’s CEO Ted Christie said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday regarding the JetBlue bid to acquire Spirit. “It will not happen in our opinion and for that reason our board has rejected it and to imply otherwise again, we think is insulting.”

JetBlue said in a statement Thursday that both deals “have a similar risk profile.”

Frontier and Spirit in February announced a $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal to combine into a discount airline behemoth.
JetBlue says its $3.6 billion all-cash offer would “turbocharge” its growth. All three airlines fly Airbus narrow-body planes, with dozens more on order. Either combination of the airlines would create the fifth-largest U.S. carrier.
Spirit’s board has said it regulators would approve a tie-up with JetBlue, citing its partnership with American Airlines in the Northeast U.S. The Justice Department sued JetBlue and American over that agreement last year with a trial date set for September.
Spirit shares were down roughly 2% in premarket trading Thursday, while JetBlue shares were fractionally lower.

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Kohl’s said final and fully financed bids from potential buyers are expected in the coming weeks.
CEO Michelle Gass said Kohl’s has been “pleased with the number of parties who recognize the value of our business and plan.”
The company also posted a massive earnings miss for its fiscal first quarter and slashed its profit and sales outlook for the year.

Customers leave a Kohl’s store on November 12, 2015 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Kohl’s on Thursday said final and fully financed bids from potential buyers are expected in the coming weeks, as the retailer faces heightened pressure from activists to sell.
Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass said Kohl’s has been “pleased with the number of parties who recognize the value of our business and plan.”

But the retailer’s stock slid 7% in premarket trading after the company posted a massive earnings miss for its fiscal first quarter and slashed its profit and sales outlook for the year. Gass, in a press release, said that 2022 started out below her expectations.
“Sales considerably weakened in April as we encountered macro headwinds related to lapping last year’s stimulus and an inflationary consumer environment,” Gass said.
Kohl’s joins a growing list of major retailers, including Walmart and Target, that have seen logistics and staffing expenses eat into profits amid 40-year-high inflation. These companies have also started to see American consumers adjust spending behavior as they face higher prices on everything from milk to workout clothes.
Kohl’s now expects fiscal 2022 adjusted earnings per share of $6.45 to $6.85, compared with its prior forecast of $7.00 to $7.50.
Net sales are forecast to be flat to up 1% from year-ago levels, compared with prior guidance of up 2% to 3%.

Here’s how Kohl’s did in the three-month period ended April 30, compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, according to a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 11 cents vs. 70 cents expected
Revenue: $3.72 billion vs. $3.68 billion expected

Kohl’s for its fiscal first quarter reported net income of $14 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with $14 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier. That was short of analysts’ expectations for 70 cents a share.
Sales fell to $3.72 billion from $3.89 billion a year earlier though still beat analysts’ estimates for revenue of $3.68 billion.
Kohl’s said comparable sales fell 5.2%. Analysts had been looking for a 0.5% increase.
The dismal results from Kohl’s come amid the retailer’s highly watched sale process. Kohl’s has been facing pressure to find a new owner ever since activist hedge fund Macellum Advisors in January pushed for the company to do so, arguing that Gass hasn’t done enough to grow sales.
Macellum was also pushing to overhaul Kohl’s board of directors, but it wasn’t successful. Last week, Kohl’s shareholders voted to reelect the company’s current slate of 13 board directors, trumping Macellum’s proposal. Still, the activist group responded that it will be holding Kohl’s accountable for its decisions in the months ahead.
Gass, who assumed the CEO role at Kohl’s in May 2018, has tried a number of strategies to lure customers into stores, including signing a partnership with Amazon and adding Sephora beauty shops to hundreds of Kohl’s locations. The company has also invested massively in its activewear business, as more consumers seek out comfortable clothing over dresses and blazers.
But skepticism is piling up around whether Gass’ plans are yielding results.
“Walking into a Kohl’s store is an unexciting experience, which is why some customers have stopped visiting and why others are buying less when they do visit,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.
Kohl’s said in a securities filing Wednesday evening that its chief merchandising officer and chief marketing officer are departing the retailer. A spokeswoman said a search for successors is already underway.

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Empowered Investor

In 2020, women made 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Women of color are at an even greater disadvantage.
The gender wage gap was much larger in 1960, when women’s pay was 61% of men’s. But progress has stalled over the last 15 or more years, according to researchers.
Lower pay contributes to lower lifetime earnings and less overall wealth.

Hinterhaus Productions | Stone | Getty Images

The “gap” between how much money men and women are paid has long been a feature of the U.S. economy.
While that pay differential has narrowed since the 1960s, progress seems to have slowed in the past decade or more — a dynamic that has big implications for women’s financial security and wellbeing, according to experts.

“What you’ll find is that no matter how you measure it, a pay gap exists,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “It has a huge impact on lifetime earnings.”

Here’s the most clear-cut measure of the disparity: In 2020, women made 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. (The analysis measures median wages for full-time, year-round workers 15 years and older.)
Put differently: It would take some 40 extra days of work for women to earn a comparable wage.

Women of color are at an even greater disadvantage. For example, Black women were paid 64% and Hispanic women 57% of what white non-Hispanic men were paid in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“There’s a still a significant gap,” said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. “It hasn’t narrowed a lot in the last 15 years.”

Narrower?

In 1960, the national wage gap was much larger; at that time, women earned 61 cents for every dollar of men’s wages.
Since then, women have made big advancements in both education and work experience, which employers tend to reward with higher pay, Fry said.

Young women are more likely to be enrolled in college than young men, and women over 25 are more likely to have a four-year college degree, according to Pew.
Americans have also seen many changes in U.S. laws and culture — stronger enforcement of pay discrimination laws and shifting expectations and understandings of women in the workforce, according to Emily Martin, vice president for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center.

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Here are more stories touching on divorce, widowhood, earnings equality and other issues related to women’s investment habits and retirement needs.

The problem isn’t just that women’s pay continues to lag in aggregate, according to experts. The wage gap persists when comparing women to men across similar education level, occupation, income and race.
In fact, a recent analysis by Gould found that progress has plateaued for over two decades: In 2021, women made about 80 cents for every dollar of male wages, little changed from about 77 cents in 1994, after controlling for differences in education, age, geography, race and ethnicity.

Contributors

10’000 Hours | DigitalVision | Getty Images

There are three major contributors to the ongoing pay discrepancy: job type, discrimination and shouldering caregiving duties, Fry said.
For one, women are overrepresented in low-paying service jobs relative to men. That’s especially true of care work, like childcare workers, domestic workers and home health aides, according to Sarah Jane Glynn and Diana Boesch, policy advisors at the Labor Department.

But the wage gap isn’t attributable just to jobs that a woman might choose. Even within female-dominated jobs, women are paid less than men, on average, Glynn and Boesch wrote. Average pay within occupations also tends to fall when women enter in large numbers because their labor is so “devalued,” they added.
Further, about 42% of working women have experienced gender discrimination at work, nearly twice the number of men, according to a 2017 Pew survey.
That included earning less money, being treated as if incompetent, being passed over for promotions and important assignments, and receiving less support from senior leaders, for example.

‘Penalized’

Women also get “penalized” as they age and generally assume more family caregiving responsibilities relative to men, which might cost them valuable time in the workforce, Fry said.
Research suggests women start their careers closer to wage parity with men.
In 2019, women under age 30 were paid 93% of men’s wages nationally, much higher than the 82% share for all women, according to the Pew Research Center. In 22 U.S. cities metropolitan areas (including New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles) young women made the same or even more than men that year.

But history suggests the gap will widen.
In 2000, the typical woman 16 to 29 years old working full time and year-round earned 88% of a similar man’s wages. By 2019, when they were ages 35 to 48, women were earning just 80% of their male peers, on average, according to Pew.
“Their advantages and compensation relative to men is narrowest earlier in their careers,” Fry said. “Whatever parity they currently experience may not last as they age.”

Wealth

This isn’t to say all women make less than men. There isn’t an earnings gap in a small subset of occupations, like phlebotomists, electricians and social workers, according to the Census Bureau.
But in aggregate, the pay gap contributes to less overall wealth for females.
The wealth gap is harder to measure than pay, since wealth is often measured at the household (not individual) level. But a 2021 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which looked at female-headed households relative to male-headed ones, found the typical woman had just 55 cents for every dollar a man had.

Continuing to close the gender wage gap largely depends on public-policy changes to improve structural issues, according to Martin: investments in childcare infrastructure, paid family and medical leave, higher minimum wages and stronger equal pay laws, for example, she said.
There’s been some traction toward pay equity: Nearly two dozen states and an equal number of cities have banned prospective employers from asking applicants questions about pay history, for example, according to the website HR Dive. (Some states have gone the other way, by forbidding such bans.)
Individual action and attitudes can help influence change, too, Martin said.
That might include trying to break down barriers around pay secrecy: by demanding an employer be more open to sharing details and decision-making related to pay in the workplace, she said. More

McDonald’s is selling its Russian business to its Siberian licensee, Alexander Govor.
Govor will operate the restaurants under a new brand.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Kremlin’s towers and passers-by are seen reflected in the window of a closed McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow on May 16, 2022.
Natalia Kolesnikova | AFP | Getty Images

McDonald’s said Thursday it has struck a deal to sell its Russian business to its current licensee in the market, Alexander Govor.
Govor will acquire all of McDonald’s locations in Russia and will operate them under a new brand. He also agreed to retain employees for at least two years, on equivalent terms, and fund the salaries of corporate employees who work in 45 regions of the country until the deal closes and existing liabilities to suppliers, landlords and utilities.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
McDonald’s said on Monday that it expects to record a noncash charge of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion related to its net investment in Russia and foreign currency losses.
The sale is expected close in the coming weeks if it secures regulatory approval. It spells the end of an era for the fast-food giant, which first entered the country just months before the Soviet Union dissolved.
“McDonald’s in Russia embodied the very notion of glasnost and took on outsized significance,” CEO Chris Kempczinski wrote in a letter to the McDonald’s system on Monday after the company announced its intent to sell.
In the three decades since opening its first location in Moscow, McDonald’s had grown its Russian business to roughly 850 locations. The company owned about 84% of those restaurants, while the rest were operated by franchisees. Owning more of its restaurants generates greater revenue for the company, but opens it up to greater risk in times of turmoil or economic downturn.

In early March, after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, McDonald’s said it would temporarily shutter its Russian locations. The company said in late April that the suspension of its operations in Ukraine and Russia due to the war cost it $127 million during the first quarter. And on Monday, it revealed it was planning to sell the business.
“Some might argue that providing access to food and continuing to employ tens of thousands of ordinary citizens, is surely the right thing to do. But it is impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine,” Kempczinski said in his letter.
Other Western companies are also opting to sell their Russian businesses, including automaker Renault and oil giant Exxon Mobil.
Govor operates 25 McDonald’s locations in Siberia and has been a licensee of the fast-food chain since 2015.

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