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The Senate approved nearly $80 billion in IRS funding, with $45.6 billion for “enforcement,” raising questions about who may be targeted by future audits.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said the resources won’t increase “audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.”
However, with the investment projected to bring in $203.7 billion in revenue, opponents say IRS enforcement may affect everyday Americans.

Jeffrey Coolidge | Photodisc | Getty Images

As the Democrats’ spending plan moves closer to a House vote, one of the more controversial provisions — nearly $80 billion in IRS funding, with $45.6 billion for “enforcement” — has raised questions about who the agency may target for audits.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said these resources are “absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans,” in a recent letter to the Senate.

However, with the investment projected to bring in $203.7 billion in revenue from 2022 to 2031, according to the Congressional Budget Office, opponents say IRS enforcement may affect everyday Americans.
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“Our biggest worry in this is that the burden for these audits will land on Walmart shoppers,” Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Overall, IRS audits plunged by 44% between fiscal years 2015 and 2019, according to a 2021 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report.
While audits dropped by 75% for Americans making $1 million or more, the percentage fell by 33% for low-to-moderate income filers claiming the earned income tax credit, known as EITC, the report found.

Our biggest worry in this is that the burden for these audits will land on Walmart shoppers.

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas

Ken Corbin, chief taxpayer experience officer for the IRS, said returns claiming the EITC have “historically had high rates of improper payments and therefore require greater enforcement,” during a May House Oversight Subcommittee hearing.
Since many lower-income Americans are wage earners, these audits are generally less complex and many may be automated.

How the IRS picks which tax returns to audit

Currently, the IRS uses software to rank each tax return with a numeric score, with higher scores more likely to trigger an audit. The system may flag a return when deductions or credits compared to income fall outside of acceptable ranges. 
For example, let’s say you make $150,000 and claim a $50,000 charitable deduction. You’re more likely to get audited because it’s “disproportionate” to what the system expects, explained Lawrence Levy, president and CEO of tax resolution firm Levy and Associates.

Other red flags for an IRS audit may include unreported income, refundable tax credits such as the EITC, home office or auto deductions, and rounded numbers on your return, experts say. 

How IRS audits may change with more funding

While the legislation still must be approved by the House and signed into law, it will take time to phase in the funding, hire and train new workers.
The IRS aims to hire roughly 87,000 new agents, according to the Treasury Department.
New auditors may have a six-month training program and receive cases worth few hundred thousand dollars rather than tens of millions, Levy said.
“You’re not going to give a new trainee General Motors, for example,” he said. “It just isn’t going to happen.”

The chance of an audit may increase for self-employed taxpayers, Levy said, depending on their return. However, the odds may not change for traditional workers with an error-free filing, he said.
“The W-2 employee is much less likely to get audited than a self-employed person by far, in my opinion,” Levy said.
Of course, one of the best way to avoid future headaches is by keeping accurate records with detailed bookkeeping and saving all receipts, he said.

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A new Wells Fargo analysis looked at the best 20 days for the S&P 500 between August 1992 and July 2022. Almost half of them occurred amid a downturn.
The findings underscore the impossibility of timing the market, with the dips and upswings being so jumbled together.

Gzorgz | Istock | Getty Images

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” With those classic words, author Charles Dickens famously opened his historical novel “A Tale of Two Cities.”
He could easily have been describing the stock market.

A new Wells Fargo analysis looked at the best 20 days for the S&P 500 between August 1992 and July 2022. Almost half of them, the investment bank found, occurred during a bear market.
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In the Great Recession, on Oct. 28, 2008, the index shot up nearly 11%. On March 24, 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic downturn, the S&P 500 rose 9%. (For perspective, the average daily return for the index over the last two decades is around 0.04%, according to Morningstar Direct.)
“During extreme market events, like the collapse of the credit market in 2008, or the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the markets don’t digest this kind of news in an instant,” said Douglas Boneparth, a certified financial planner and founder of financial services firm Bone Fide Wealth in New York.

“We generally don’t know how it’s going to all play out,” he added. “This is why you see massive amounts of volatility and bad days clustered together with good days.”

The findings underscore the impossibility of timing the market, with the dips and upswings being so jumbled together.
“The odds of selecting the right days to be in or out of stocks are far less than winning the Powerball,” said Allan Roth, a CFP and founder of Wealth Logic in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The market’s best days can have a long-term impact

Indeed, really good days in the market are incredibly rare.
Over the last 20 or so years, there have been only two days where the S&P 500 rose over 10%, Morningstar Direct has found. Meanwhile, the return was more than 5% on just 16 days.
“Missing those best days can impact long-term performance,” said Veronica Willis, an investment strategy analyst at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Here’s an example to prove Willis’ point: Imagine that on Oct. 13, 2008, you had a $300,000 investment in the S&P 500. The market rose 11.6% that day.
By the evening, you’d have gained close to $35,000.
It’s impossible to know when these infrequent jumps will take place, which is why experts recommended trying to stay consistently invested over decades.

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Northrop Grumman will move production of the engines and structures for its Antares rockets from Russia and Ukraine to the U.S.
The company is partnering with Texas-based Firefly Aerospace to make the change.
The companies will produce an upgraded version of the rocket, as well as a new rocket.

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket lifts off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Aug. 10, 2021 carrying a Cygnus spacecraft with cargo for the International Space Station.
Terry Zaperach / NASA Wallops

Northrop Grumman is moving production of the engines and structures for its Antares rockets to the U.S. from Russia and Ukraine, a move that will have cascading effects throughout the space industry.
The aerospace giant said Monday it will move Antares production fully to the U.S. through a partnership with Texas-based Firefly Aerospace. Northrop Grumman had purchased Russian RD-181 engines to power the Antares 230+ series, and the rocket’s main body was manufactured by Ukraine’s Yuzhmash State Enterprise.

The new arrangement mainly resolves the break in Antares manufacturing caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. But in addition to salvaging the Antares rocket series, the cost-sharing deal also helps ensure NASA’s cargo missions to the International Space Station keep flying regularly and brings muscle to Firefly’s plan to build a larger rocket called Beta.
Northrop Grumman and Firefly Aerospace will jointly produce an upgraded version of the Antares rocket, which will be known as the Antares 330. Northrop will provide the A330’s upper stage, avionics, software and launch site operations. Firefly will supply seven engines and build the A330’s largest structure, the first stage booster.
“Our target is mid-to-late 2024 to launch the first A330” rocket Firefly interim CEO Peter Schumacher told CNBC.
The schedule still leaves a minimum gap of 12 months between the last 230+ launch and the 330’s debut. Northrop Grumman has been launching NASA cargo missions to the International Space Station about every six months, using Antares rockets and its Cygnus spacecraft. While the company has Antares rockets for two more cargo missions, scheduled for this fall and spring 2023, Northrop Grumman’s director of launch vehicles, Kurt Eberly, told CNBC that the company purchased three launches on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets to continue flying Cygnus cargo missions.
“It’s super important to keep the six-month cadence going” for NASA, Eberly said, adding that the Antares 330 series will be larger and more powerful than the 230+.

A rendering of an Antares 330 rocket on the way to the launchpad.
Northrop Grumman & Firefly Aerospace

Northrop and Firefly’s partnership also has a longer-term goal of building a new rocket, which the companies for now are calling MLV, or medium launch vehicle.
The companies hope to debut the MLV by the end of 2025, tapping a part of the rocket marketplace that Eberly said is underserved. Northrop Grumman had been looking to replace the Antares entirely because the current Russian-dependent configuration prohibited the company from bidding on Pentagon launch contracts, Eberly said. It also wasn’t priced competitively in the commercial market, he said.
Schumacher said Firefly has been working on the deal with Northrop Grumman for about at year. Eberly added that Russia’s invasion accelerated the partnership and “gave us additional impetus to proceed.”
For Firefly, the company’s near-term challenge is reaching orbit with the second launch of its Alpha rocket, after the debut last year failed mid-flight. Schumacher said Firefly completed a fueling milestone for the second Alpha launch on Monday, known as a wet dress rehearsal – with a hot fire engine test scheduled for later this week.
“We are planning on our first launch window for that second flight, [which opens] on Sept. 11,” Schumacher said.

The company’s inaugural Alpha rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sept. 2, 2021.
Firefly Aerospace

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Tennis legend Serena Williams announced her retirement in a Vogue article published Tuesday.
“I have never liked the word retirement,” Williams wrote. “Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. 
She said she will retire after the U.S. Open, which will run from late August into September.

Serena Williams of the US waves as she walks off the court after losing against Japan’s Naomi Osaka during their women’s singles semi-final match on day eleven of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on February 18, 2021.
William West | AFP | Getty Images

Tennis legend Serena Williams announced her retirement in a Vogue article published Tuesday.
“I have never liked the word retirement,” Williams wrote. “Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”

Williams, who turns 41 next month, finishes her career with 73 career singles titles, 23 career doubles titles, and over $94 million in career winnings.
She said she will retire after the U.S. Open, which will run from late August into September.
She has counted sponsorships from companies including Nike, Audemars Piguet, Away, Beats, Bumble, Gatorade, Gucci, Lincoln, Michelob, Nintendo, Wilson Sporting Goods, and Procter and Gamble.
“I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” Williams wrote. “If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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Signet Jewelers said Tuesday that it will acquire online jewelry retailer Blue Nile for $360 million in an all-cash deal.
The deal is a bid to appeal to younger consumers and grow its bridal business.
Separately, Signet cut its financial forecast for the second quarter and full year fiscal 2023, saying it started to see softer sales in July as consumers reigned in their spending amid inflation.

A pedestrian walks past a Zales store in New York.
Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Signet Jewelers said Tuesday that it will acquire online jewelry retailer Blue Nile for $360 million in an all-cash deal, in a bid to appeal to younger consumers and grow its bridal business.
Separately, Signet cut its financial forecast for the second quarter and full year fiscal 2023, given “heightened pressure on consumers’ discretionary spending” and other macroeconomic headwinds.

Chief Executive Officer Virginia Drosos said the company started to see softer sales in July as shoppers began to reign in their spending amid 40-year-high inflation.
The parent company of Zales, Jared and Kay Jewelers said it sees second-quarter revenue of about $1.75 billion and non-GAAP operating income totaling roughly $192 million.
The company now expects fiscal 2023 sales to be between $7.60 billion and $7.70 billion, down from a prior range of $8.03 billion to $8.25 billion.
It pegs annual non-GAAP operating income in a range of $787 million to $828 million, down from prior guidance of between $921 million and $974 million.
Signet said the revised figures do not take into account further material worsening of macroeconomic factors that could hurt consumer spending, nor its pending acquisition of Blue Nile.

Signet said the deal, which will be funded with cash on hand, is expected to close in the third quarter. It said the deal will likely not be accretive to the business, however, until the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024.
Even in a down market, Drosos said, the company’s strong balance sheet and “dry powder” allowed it to fund an acquisition of Blue Nile to grow market share.
Earlier this year, Blue Nile and special-purpose acquisition company Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corp. had said they agreed to combine in a deal that would allow the jewelry brand to go public via SPAC. The merger had valued the combined business at the time at $873 million. And it would have marked Blue Nile’s return to the public markets.
In 2016, Blue Nile was taken private by Bain Capital Private Equity and Bow Street, a private investment firm, in a $500 million deal. 
A person familiar with the talks between Murdock and Blue Nile said that their exclusive window was about to expire. Also, this person added, Bain was eager to cash out of the company and Signet had approached Blue Nile already last year about an acquisition.
SPAC deals’ performance has lagged the broader market as investors lose appetite for riskier growth names.
Blue Nile recorded revenue of more than $500 million in calendar year 2021.
Representatives for Blue Nile, Mudrick and Bain didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on why the deal fell through.
Signet shares fell nearly 7% in premarket trading. The stock is down about 22% year to date, as of Monday’s market close.

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Spirit Airlines reported a second-quarter loss after costs surged despite a jump in revenue.
The airline agreed to sell itself to JetBlue for $3.8 billion late last month.
Spirit executives are scheduled to discuss results with analysts on Wednesday morning.

Spirit Airlines planes on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on February 07, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Spirit Airlines reported a second-quarter loss as strong travel demand and higher fares weren’t enough to overcome a surge in costs.
Spirit reported results less than two weeks after it announced it agreed to sell itself to JetBlue Airways for $3.8 billion, ending a months-long bidding war for Spirit between JetBlue and Frontier Airlines.

Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit posted a net loss of $52.4 million in the three months ended June 30. Revenue rose nearly 35% from pre-pandemic 2019 to almost $1.37 billion. Expenses soared more than 66% compared with three years ago. Its fuel bill more than doubled.
Passengers were paying more to fly, however, with revenue per passenger, per flight up more than 24% from 2019 to $140.61, including fees. Spirit, like other discount carriers, offers travelers low fares and charges fees for add-ons like cabin baggage and seat selection.
In the current quarter, Spirit expects pre-tax margins between negative 1% and positive 1%, citing capacity constraints in Florida. The Federal Aviation Administration this spring said it would add more air traffic controllers to handle a surge in volume in the state.
Spirit, JetBlue and other major carriers have already dialed back their growth plans in an effort to avoid flight disruptions, which were made worse this year by staffing shortages.
Still, Spirit said it expanded flying almost 10% in the second quarter compared with the same period of 2019. It plans to grow its schedule by 14% in the third quarter and 25% in the last three months of the year, compared with three years earlier.

The airline’s executives will face questions about how it will manage costs and travel demand for the rest of the year on a call with analysts scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.
Higher costs have hit other carriers as well, including JetBlue, which reported a second-quarter loss last week.
Low-cost and leisure-focused carrier Sun Country on Monday posted a $3.9 million loss despite a nearly 30% jump in revenue compared with 2019. And Mesa Air Group, a regional airline that flies for United and other carriers, posted a $10 million loss for the last quarter, due to challenges from higher costs associated with the pilot shortages.

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NYK says its involvement in the project will see it assess areas including storage and cost of power generation.
The demonstration is being carried out by Singapore-owned business Bluenergy Solutions.
Asia is already home to major facilities like South Korea’s Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Plant, which started operations in 2011 and has a capacity of 254 megawatts.

Buildings in Singapore at dusk. Asia is already home to a number of tidal power projects.
Guvendemir | E+ | Getty Images

Japanese shipping giant Nippon Yusen Kaisha is to take part in a tidal power project planned for Singapore, as the emerging marine energy sector gains traction.
The demonstration project, run by Singapore-owned Bluenergy Solutions, is focused on the development of off-grid tidal power systems. The hope is that they could one day replace diesel generators.

The scheme will see three-bladed turbines — parts of which bear a resemblance to the ones used on wind farms — deployed underwater.
NYK said it would be working on three areas as part of the off-grid project: energy storage, the cost of power generation and the efficiency of power generation.

Read more about energy from CNBC Pro

Established in 1885, Tokyo-listed NYK is involved in bulk shipping, air cargo transportation and logistics, among other things.
Last week’s announcement represents its latest foray into tidal power. It was previously involved in a project that installed turbines beneath the Sentosa Boardwalk, which links the Singapore mainland to Sentosa Island.
Projects like the ones being planned for Singapore are in their early stages, but Asia is already home to South Korea’s Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Plant. A tidal barrage power plant, it started operations in 2011 and is said to be the largest tidal plant in the world.

According to U.S. database Tethys, tidal barrages are “typically built across the entrance to a bay or estuary” and produce electricity by harnessing “the difference in water height inside and outside of the structure.”

More from CNBC Climate:

While tidal barrage developments were the initial focus of those operating in the marine energy industry — EDF’s La Rance tidal barrage dates back to the 1960s, for example — recent years have seen companies focus their attention on different systems.
These include tidal stream devices which, the European Marine Energy Centre says, “are broadly similar to submerged wind turbines.”
Lots of potential, work to be done   
The International Energy Agency has said that “marine technologies hold great potential,” but adds that extra policy support for research, development and demonstration is required to reduce costs.
Away from Asia, European installations of tidal and wave energy capacity jumped in 2021, as deployments reverted to pre-pandemic levels amid a substantial increase in investment.
In March, Ocean Energy Europe said 2.2 megawatts of tidal stream capacity was installed in Europe last year, compared with just 260 kilowatts in 2020. For wave energy, 681 kilowatts was installed in Europe in 2021, which OEE said was a threefold increase on 2020.
Globally, 1.38 MW of wave energy came online in 2021, while 3.12 MW of tidal stream capacity was installed.
While there is excitement about the potential of marine energy, the overall size of tidal stream and wave projects remains very small compared with other renewables.
In 2021 alone, Europe installed 17.4 gigawatts of wind power capacity, according to figures from industry body WindEurope. More

Deliveries of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners have been suspended for much of the past two years as regulators and the company reviewed a series of manufacturing flaws.
Customers like American Airlines and United Airlines have gone without new Dreamliners just as travel demand surged this year.
American could receive a new Dreamliner as early as Wednesday.

An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner approaches for a landing at the Miami International Airport on December 10, 2021 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Boeing will resume deliveries of its 787 Dreamliners in the coming days, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.
Deliveries of the wide-body jetliners have been suspended for much of the past two years as regulators and Boeing reviewed a series of manufacturing flaws.American Airlines, which has more than 40 of the planes on order, said it expects to receive its delivery as early as Wednesday.

The resumption of deliveries is long-awaited for Boeing and customers like American Airlines and United Airlines, which have gone without new Dreamliners just as travel demand surged this year. The twin-aisle planes are often used for long-haul international routes.

The Dreamliners are a key source of cash for Boeing as the bulk of an aircraft’s price is paid when it’s handed over to customers, though the manufacturer had to compensate buyers for the extensive delays. The company earlier this year said 787 issues, including a drop in production, would cost it $5.5 billion.
“Boeing has made the necessary changes to ensure that the 787 Dreamliner meets all certification standards,” the FAA said in a statement Monday. “The FAA will inspect each aircraft before an airworthiness certificate is issued and cleared for delivery.”
Boeing shares initially jumped on the news, rising more than 3% on the day, but ended Monday up 0.5%.
Boeing last month said it was near the finish line of resuming 787 deliveries, which CEO Dave Calhoun called “the moment we’ve been waiting for.” The company had 120 of the planes in inventory as of the end of last quarter, according to a securities filing.

FAA acting Administrator Billy Nolen visited Boeing’s South Carolina 787 factory last Thursday and met with FAA safety inspectors about steps to improve production quality, the agency said.
Among the issues discovered was tiny, incorrect spacing in some parts of the fuselage.
“We continue to work transparently with the FAA and our customers towards resuming 787 deliveries,” Boeing said in a statement.

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