Finance

They say love doesn’t cost a thing.
But that certainly isn’t true of weddings.

In 2022, couples in the United States spent, on average, nearly $30,000 to get married, according to a report from the wedding website The Knot.
But it wasn’t always this way. In the 1950s, the “Complete Guide to Wedding Etiquette” advised couples to earmark £30 ($38, or $482 when adjusted for inflation) for a reception that included the price of alcohol, according to the BBC.
In fact, it’s possible to tie the knot for even less today.

What a $15 wedding gets you

A Las Vegas venue, called the Chapel of the Flowers, is charging just $15 for a wedding package that includes:

An on-site ceremony
A 10-minute photoshoot and five 4×6 photographs
A wedding bouquet and boutonniere
A live broadcast of the ceremony

The package price — which is normally $500 — is what couples paid to get married in the chapel in 1953, said Cynthia Sharpe, the venue’s director of storytelling.

A picture taken in 1953 of a sign outside the Chapel of the Flowers promoting its $15 wedding packages.
Source: The Chapel of Flowers

“Chapel of the Flowers wants to give back and thank all of the amazing couples who have been a part of making Las Vegas the Wedding Capital of the World,” she said, referencing the city’s trademarked name.
The discounted wedding package is part of a celebration commemorating 70 years since Las Vegas was first given that moniker, according to a campaign promoting Las Vegas as the “Wedding Capital of the World.”
The package is available to 70 couples on a first-come-first-serve basis, and does not include the minister’s fee, which is $70. As of today, all packages are still available, Sharpe told CNBC.
According to the U.S. News & World Report, Nevada had the highest marriage rate in the U.S. in 2021. Couples can obtain a license and get married in the same day.

Other inexpensive options

Other venues in Las Vegas are also discounting wedding packages, according to the campaign.
Couples can have an Elvis-themed wedding at The Little Neon Chapel for $470 until Sept. 30, which comes with an ordained minister dressed as Elvis, photos and room for 10 guests.

An Elvis impersonator performs a remote vow renewal ceremony during the pandemic at Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images News | Getty Images

For $700, couples can exchange vows 900 feet above the city’s famous Strip atop The Strat Hotel, Casino & Tower, the tallest structure in Las Vegas. The package, which comes with a Champagne toast for the couple and 15 guests, is available through Dec. 30.

The danger of wedding debt

A 2019 report by the financial services company LendingTree estimates 45% of newlyweds incur debt to pay for their weddings.
Furthermore, nearly half of those with wedding debt said money issues led them to consider divorce, according to the survey. Only 9% of couples without wedding debt said the same, the report showed.

Source: LendingTree

The survey also asked which wedding expense they deemed the most “worth it.” The most popular response didn’t concern the wedding at all — it was the honeymoon.
LendingTree’s survey included 506 Americans, aged 18 to 53, that had been married in the previous two years. More

Boston Scientific Corp.
Chitose Suzuki

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
RPT Realty — RPT Realty shares surged 17% after Kimco Realty, an operator of open-air shopping centers, said it would acquire the real estate investment trust in a roughly $2 billion all-stock deal. Kimco CEO Conor Flynn said, “Approximately 70% of RPT’s portfolio aligns with our key strategic markets.” The deal is set to close in early 2024.

Mister Car Wash — The car wash stock advanced 6.1% on the back of an upgrade to overweight from neutral by Piper Sandler. The firm said the company has potential for growth that investors are overlooking.
Boston Scientific — The medical device maker jumped nearly 6% after Boston Scientific announced positive results Sunday for its treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation, or abnormal heartbeats.
CrowdStrike — CrowdStrike fell 3.7% after Morgan Stanley downgraded shares to equal weight from an overweight rating, citing caution and concerns of potentially slowing revenue growth ahead of the software company’s upcoming earnings report.
3M — The industrial stock jumped 5.2% after Bloomberg reported that 3M had reached a tentative deal to settle lawsuits over its combat ear plugs. The deal would cost 3M more than $5.5 billion, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the arrangement.
Akero Therapeutics — Akero Therapeutics added 4.2% in midday trading. UBS initiated coverage of Akero with a buy rating, saying the biotech company’s treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis could tap into an underappreciated market opportunity.

Alibaba Group, JD.com — Alibaba and JD.com each added more than 2% after the Chinese government announced measures to boost its stock market, including reducing a tax on trading.
Xpeng — Shares of the Chinese electric car company jumped 5.3% after the firm said it is buying Didi’s smart electric car development business in an exchange of shares worth $744 million. The Chinese ride-hailing company will become a strategic shareholder of Xpeng. Meanwhile, Xpeng said it plans to develop an electric car for launch next year under a new mass market brand.
UGI — Shares of the natural gas and propane distributor rose 1.8% Monday after Wells Fargo analyst Sarah Akers upgraded the company to overweight from equal weight. The firm also lowered its price target on UGI due to structural headwinds but said the stock has fallen far enough that it offers a “sufficiently attractive” valuation.
Micron Technology — Stocks tied to the semiconductor industry rose as a group Monday. Shares of Micron Technology and Marvell Technology added 2.5% and 3.1, respectively. NXP Semiconductors rose 1.5%.
— CNBC’s Alexander Harring, Hakyung Kim, Yun Li, Jesse Pound, Pia Singh and Samantha Subin contributed reporting. More

Just one car model — the Mitsubishi Mirage — had an average new-vehicle transaction price below $20,000 in July 2023, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Automakers are partly responding to preferences of consumers, who seem less interested in a car’s base model and instead opt for those with more features, experts said.
Consumers can take a few general steps to save money at the dealership.

Hero Images | Getty Images

It’s getting harder to find new, cheap cars, according to auto experts.
Consider this: In July, just one car model — the Mitsubishi Mirage — had an average new-vehicle transaction price below $20,000, according to Kelley Blue Book data. By comparison, there were a dozen vehicles that met that pricing criteria five years ago.

The $20,000-or-below barometer is a sort of unofficial price threshold for an affordable new car, said Brian Moody, executive editor for Kelley Blue Book.
“There aren’t as many inexpensive new cars as there used to be,” Moody said.

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Transaction price doesn’t tell the full story, of course, experts said. That price records what the average buyer pays — a variable that depends on factors such as markups and promotions by car dealers and any add-ons selected by buyers at the time of purchase.
Manufacturers such as Kia, Hyundai and Nissan — in addition to Mitsubishi — currently sell cars whose base models carry a sticker price below $20,000, Moody said.
But this list has gotten smaller over the past five or so years, said Tom McParland, owner of Automatch Consulting, a car-buying service for consumers.

“Whether you’re buying new or used, that kind of affordable segment — sub-$20,000 — is challenging,” he said.

‘Americans don’t like not having features’

Consumers were able to find entry-level vehicles with a $15,000 starting price as recently as a few years ago, said Paul Waatti, an industry analyst at market research firm AutoPacific.
The dearth of options today is due to a multitude of factors, experts said. 
Among them is consumer preferences — people tend to want models with more features, Waatti said.
“Culturally, Americans don’t like not having features in their car,” such as automatic climate control, a car play screen and parking sensors, said Joseph Yoon, a consumer insights analyst at car website Edmunds.
Auto manufacturers know this to be true and use it to their advantage in marketing, Waatti said.
“Automakers obviously want to be able to tell that they’re offering an affordable vehicle and they can do that in messaging,” he added. “But when it comes down to it, they’re not building many of those lower-price models.” 

Instead, automakers will make more of the higher-end models with features that consumers want, added Yoon.
In fact, car sales in the luxury market segment have increased, Moody said. They now account for about 20% of total new car sales, up from roughly 10% to 13% before the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.
Five years ago, there were 12 vehicles selling for an average price of more than $100,000. Today, there are 32 vehicles, according to Kelley Blue Book data. Both tallies exclude “super exotics” from companies such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce.
Inflation for new and used cars also surged during the pandemic era, leading to higher vehicle prices. Materials and supplies became more expensive, driving up production costs for auto companies, said Waatti, and those higher costs are at least partly passed on to buyers.
Higher interest rates may also be keeping would-be buyers out of the car market right now, experts said.
Since buyers who generally shop for the least expensive cars tend to be budget-constrained, their absence from the market may be skewing average purchase prices higher, they said.
The average new-vehicle purchase price today is about $48,000, up from about $30,000 in 2012, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Four tips for consumers to find cars at a good price

Here are some general tips for consumers to find a reasonably priced car.
1. Know your budget — really
Most car buyers use monthly payments to conceptualize how expensive a car is.
However, consumers should know their overall budget before shopping by using an online auto loan calculator, McParland said. Otherwise, it’s hard to know if you’re getting a good deal, he added.
Certain auto loan calculators let consumers work backwards, by plugging in a monthly payment that fits their budget, along with other estimated information such as the loan’s term and interest rate. The output: the total vehicle price a buyer can afford.
“This is probably the best step any customer can take,” McParland said.

2. Look outside your local market
Casting a wide net during a car search yields more potential inventory and leverage against dealerships, McParland said. Some markets are “better than others,” and looking even an hour or two away will “very likely get you a more competitive deal,” he added.
3. Get prices in writing beforehand
Confirm car prices in writing with a dealer before walking in the door, McParland said. A refusal to do so is a red flag, he said.
“It’s code for, ‘We’re going to try to rip you off,'” he said.
4. Shop your financing
Don’t depend on a dealer’s financing offer.
Dealers can profit off consumers by offering a higher-than-necessary interest rate, experts said. That’s why it’s a good idea to get pre-approval for an auto loan — perhaps from a local bank, credit union or online lender — before setting foot in the dealership, they said.
These offers can provide leverage for a better rate at the dealership and are especially useful for buyers with credit scores below 700, who are unlikely to qualify for the best available rates, McParland said. More

Shares in Xinhua Trust, a Chinese shadow lender, are selling for rock-bottom prices. The outfit went bankrupt in May, becoming the first Chinese trust to fall in more than two decades. Since then chunks of the firm have been put up for sale on Taobao, an online e-commerce platform, at a 30% discount. Its company cars were recently added to the auction, which has been mandated by a court. A bargain-hunter could snap up Xinhua trademarks for just 12,000 yuan ($1,650). The shadow lender’s demise was an early warning: the same forces that brought it down are now ripping through China’s 21trn yuan trust industry. The country’s economic growth has been weaker than expected, and property developers are caught in an unprecedented wave of defaults and restructurings. China’s trusts, which channel funds from investors to infrastructure, property and other opportunities, are exposed to both developments. Although Xinhua’s bankruptcy has been relatively straightforward, a bigger blow-up may be on the way at Zhongrong, one of the country’s largest trusts, which missed payments to clients in mid-August. Panicked investors fear more firms will be ensnared, and that collapses will lead to further economic problems.During China’s years of strong economic growth, trusts and their investors flourished, with investment products often offering annual returns of 10% or more. Property developers and local governments were willing to pay lofty interest rates, transactions faced less regulatory scrutiny than bank lending and trusts benefited from the widespread perception that investors’ cash was safeguarded by the state in a fashion similar to bank deposits. That perception is now long gone—and as more developers default, it is likely that more shadow banks will be unable to pay out. Zhongrong, which managed about 630bn yuan in trust products at the end of last year, shows how pain has spread from the property industry to the financial system. When Sunac, China’s fifth-largest developer, defaulted last year, local governments began freezing company funds in order to ensure projects were finished. One of the locations where funds were frozen was Wuhan, a city in central China, and the money included investments linked to Zhongrong. Across the industry, about 7% of trust products were invested directly in the property sector at the end of March. Indirect investments via securities push that exposure to as much 30%, reckon analysts at anz, a bank. The risk of contagion is especially high because lending by trusts is ubiquitous and opaque, and because investment in them produces tangled financial ties. Zhongrong’s investors include several listed companies, for instance. Such companies often invest in trusts in order to eke out higher returns. Trusts have meanwhile invested about 4.6trn yuan in equities, bonds and other funds. They have also lent to local-government projects, and now cities and provinces across China are struggling to repay debts, which are estimated to have hit 57trn yuan at the end of 2022. There is another avenue through which trouble may spread. Zhongrong is controlled by a much larger investment manager, called Zhongzhi, which has about 1trn yuan in assets under management across a vast array of divisions. Zhongzhi has also been thrown into a liquidity crisis and has reportedly been unable to pay out the 230bn yuan it owes to some 150,000 wealthy investors. Across the country, similar investment-management firms have millions of customers. Since news of Zhongzhi’s troubles broke, phones have been ringing off the hook as worried clients, many of whom are regular white-collar workers, seek to confirm their savings are safe, reports an executive at another one of these companies.Such links between trusts, local governments and developers, and the possibility of larger financial firms getting in trouble, have spooked investors. Indeed, Zhongrong’s troubles have contributed to the poor performance of the Chinese stockmarket: the csi 300, a benchmark index, is down by more than 6% this month. Interventions by officials, which included a cut to stamp duty on August 27th, have had little impact.Policymakers are painfully aware of the problems faced by trusts. After all, they helped bring many of them into being through attempts to reduce risk. Since 2017 China’s shadow banks have been under intense regulatory scrutiny as part of an attempt to transfer opaque off-balance-sheet lending to banks. The official attack was ramped up in 2020 when the state introduced sharp restrictions on leverage at property developers. As a result of such moves, the issuance of shadow-banking products in the first half of this year was at its weakest in a decade, according to Capital Economics, a research firm. The crackdown has sapped liquidity and confidence from the property market, pushing both developers and trust firms towards default.In the short term, much of the pain will be borne by wealthy investors, as the threshold for putting money into a trust product is usually more than 300,000 yuan. Most cannot even demand their initial investments back, since products usually have terms that prevent investors from withdrawing, sometimes for up to two years. This may prevent a fully fledged financial crisis caused by a run on shadow lenders, and will give the government time to reckon with the mess. Bloomberg, a news service, has reported that China’s banking regulator has already set up a task force to examine the problems at Zhongzhi. Yet, given the vast, shadowy connections such firms have across the economy, government inspectors might not like what they find. ■ More

Goldman Sachs said it agreed to sell its personal financial management unit to a competitor named Creative Planning.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year and “result in a gain” for New York-based Goldman.
The bank declined to disclose the sale price for its PFM business.

David Solomon (centre), Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs during an event attended by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Business Roundtable during his visit to Washington DC in the US on June 8, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Niall Carson | WPA Pool | Getty Images

Goldman Sachs said Monday that it agreed to sell its personal financial management unit to a competitor named Creative Planning.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year and “result in a gain” for New York-based Goldman. The bank declined to disclose the sale price for its PFM business.

Goldman acquired a team of about 220 financial advisors managing $25 billion in assets in May 2019, when it announced the $750 million acquisition of United Capital Financial Partners. At the time, CEO David Solomon heralded the deal as a way to broaden Goldman’s reach beyond the ultra-rich clientele that is its main strength to those who are merely wealthy, with perhaps a few million dollars to invest.
But amid Solomon’s push to unload or shutter several businesses tied to his ill-fated retail banking plan, the PFM business was deemed too small in the context of Goldman’s larger aspirations in wealth and asset management. Goldman said in February that it only had about 1% of the high net worth market, or those who have between $1 million and $10 million to invest.
“This transaction is progress toward executing the goals and targets we outlined at our investor day in February,” Marc Nachmann, global head of asset and wealth management at Goldman, said Monday in a statement.
The sale “allows us to focus on the execution of our premier ultra-high net worth wealth management and workplace growth strategy” while continuing to support high net worth clients through a strategic partnership with Creative Planning, he said.
Selling the PFM business will help boost profit margins in Goldman’s asset and wealth management division, Jefferies analysts led by Daniel Fannon wrote Monday in a research note.

“With the offloading of Marcus installment loans completed in 2Q23, the GreenSky sale process in motion, and the continued reduction of legacy balance-sheet investments,” the bank is “getting closer to becoming the more durable and profitable business it outlined at investor day,” Fannon wrote.
Creative Planning is a Kansas-based registered investment advisor with more than 2,100 employees and $245 billion in assets under management and advisement. More

European shares traded higher on the final trading week of August, as traders weighed the prospect of higher interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve and looked ahead to upcoming economic data later in the week.

European markets

Germany’s DAX 30 was 0.8%, France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.1%, and the Italian FTSE MIB gained 1.1% by 1.40 p.m. London time.

Markets are closed in the U.K. for a public holiday.
It came as investors continued to reflect on a roundup of commentary from the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last week.
The most closely watched speech of the event came from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The U.S. central bank head said that inflation remains too high and that the Fed is ready to continue hiking interest rates to tame persistently high prices.
While Powell said the Fed could be flexible, he added it still has further to go to fight inflation. “Although inflation has moved down from its peak — a welcome development — it remains too high,” he said in prepared remarks.
“We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective.”

China cuts trading duty

In Asia-Pacific, stocks began the week higher, with mainland Chinese and Hong Kong stocks leading gains in the region.
The main event driving the rally in Asia was a stock market policy change from the government. China’s Ministry of Finance on Monday cut the stamp duty on stock trades by half in an effort to boost investment in its stock market. It came after China’s CSI 300 index fell to a nine-month low.
Still, concerns linger among economists over structural issues in China’s economy, such as debt, demographics, and Beijing’s deteriorating relationship with the West.
Within the Chinese market, shares of the world’s most indebted property developer, China Evergrande Group, tumbled 87% as trade resumed after 17 months.
Back in Europe, developments are quiet on the corporate front as the region has wrapped up a busy earnings season.
Swiss bank Credit Suisse, which is now a subsidiary of UBS after a government-facilitated takeover, posted a 3.5 billion Swiss franc ($4 billion) loss, according to a report in the SonntagsZeitung citing insiders at the bank.
Shares of UBS rose about 1% Monday. The bank is set to report earnings on Thursday.
Technology and telecoms stocks were the best-performing sectors in the region, climbing 1.4% and 0.9%, respectively.
Looking at individual stocks, Italian telecoms firm Telecom Italia was the top performer on the Stoxx 600, rising 3.9%.
Later in the week, the U.S. Labor Department is set to release nonfarm payrolls showing the pace of jobs and wage growth, which could guide the Fed on how to proceed with its monetary policy. More

Xpeng G9 SUV is on display during the 20th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) on April 18, 2023 in Shanghai, China.
VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.
Xpeng — U.S.-traded shares of the Chinese electric vehicles company jumped 5% Monday premarket. Xpeng announced it would buy Didi’s smart electric car business in a deal worth $744 million. 

3M — Shares rallied more than 5% after Bloomberg News reported the company tentatively agreed to resolve more than 330,000 lawsuits related to its defective earplugs, The company will pay more than $5.5 billion in the settlement, according to the report.
Mister Car Wash — The car wash stock climbed 5.7% in premarket trading following an upgrade to overweight from neutral by Piper Sandler. The firm said Mister Car Wash has upside potential over the next two years.
CrowdStrike — Shares of the cybersecurity company fell 2.6% in premarket trading after Morgan Stanley downgraded CrowdStrike to equal weight from overweight. The investment firm warned in a note to clients that Crowdstrike’s upcoming earnings report could show slowing revenue growth ahead.
Akero Therapuetics — The biotech company’s shares added 2.2% after UBS initiated Akero with a buy rating and a price target that implies sharp gains ahead. UBS thinks the company’s treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis could create an underappreciated market opportunity worth more than $20 billion. 
Chinese stocks — Alibaba and JD.com rose 1.3% and 1.6%, respectively after the Chinese government said it would reduce a tax on trading, among other measures,  to boost its stock market.

RPT Realty — Shares of the real estate investment trust rallied more than 11% on news RPT is being acquired by Kimco Realty for $2 billion in stock. The deal is expected to close in early 2024. “Approximately 70% of RPT’s portfolio aligns with our key strategic markets,” Kimco CEO Conor Flynn said in a statement.
Abcam — Shares of protein consumables supplier Abcam fell more than 3% after Danaher announced it would acquire the company in a deal valued at around $5.7 billion. Danaher shares gained less than 1%.
Boston Scientific — Boston Scientific jumped 5.5% after the medical device maker announced positive results Sunday for its treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation, or abnormal heartbeats.
— CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Sarah Min and Alexander Harring contributed reporting. More

Chinese electric car company Xpeng said Monday it is buying Didi’s smart electric car development business in an exchange of shares worth $744 million.
With the strategic partnership and new assets from Didi, Xpeng said it plans to develop an electric car for launch next year under a new mass market brand.
Didi itself has tried to develop robotaxis and electric vehicles, amid business setbacks in the last two years.

Didi launched a free robotaxi service in parts of Shanghai in 2020.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese electric car company Xpeng said Monday it is buying Didi’s smart electric car development business in an exchange of shares worth $744 million.
The Chinese ride-hailing company will become a strategic shareholder of Xpeng, and the two companies are looking to cooperate in marketing, financial and insurance services, charging, robotaxis and international expansion. That’s according to releases from both companies.

Xpeng shares rose more than 13% in Hong Kong trading as of Monday morning.

Stock chart icon

With the strategic partnership and new assets from Didi, Xpeng said it plans to develop an electric car for launch next year under a new mass market brand that will target the 150,000 yuan ($20,580) price range.
Xpeng’s cars typically sell for around 200,000 yuan or more. The new brand, developed under the project name “MONA,” is set to be different from that of Xpeng.

The startup’s deal with Didi comes as many companies look for ways to grab a slice of China’s growing but highly competitive electric car market.
In late July, Xpeng and German auto giant Volkswagen signed a deal to develop two new electric cars for China under the VW brand, that’s set to launch in 2026.

Under the agreement, Volkswagen plans to invest about $700 million in Xpeng for a 4.99% stake.

Still operating at a loss

The deals come as traditional auto giants have the cash that electric car startups lack.
Earlier this month, Xpeng reported second-quarter net loss 2.8 billion yuan ($384.5 million) — a wider loss than analysts expected and the biggest quarterly loss since the company went public three years ago.
Xpeng offers some of the most advanced assisted driving technology available to drivers in China. But the startup’s monthly car deliveries have remained low versus competitors’ such as BYD and Li Auto.
The Didi electric car business — held by a subsidiary called Da Vinci Auto Co. — has also racked up losses. Those for 2022 more than tripled from the prior year to 2.64 billion yuan, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing. The unit had net assets of 937 million yuan as of June 30.
Those financial results are set to be consolidated into Xpeng’s financial statements after the initial deal, the filing said.

Read more about electric vehicles, batteries and chips from CNBC Pro

The deal is expected to be completed in stages, with Didi set to receive more shares if the new mass market car brand does well for an expected total 3.25% stake in Xpeng.
Under the agreement, Didi cannot sell the shares for two years after the initial closing of the deal.
The strategic cooperation agreement is set to last for at least five years.
Didi itself has tried to develop robotaxis and electric vehicles, amid business setbacks in the last two years.
The ride-hailing giant delisted from the New York Stock Exchange just months after going public in 2021, and went through a now-concluded government probe. While the stock remains tradeable over-the-counter, plans for an expected Hong Kong listing remain unclear.
— CNBC’s John Rosevear and Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report. More