Odds & Ends

The Federal Reserve just tweaked how it thinks about inflation, and this could have a huge impact on gold and gold mining stocks.

Nearly 120 years ago, an American engineer named Willis Carrier invented the very first electrical air conditioner. The device was such a hit that he founded the Carrier Corporation in 1915 to meet demand, making it the world’s first HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) company.

Most baseball fans know that the New York Yankees is the winningest team in MLB history. Of the 18,426 games it’s played since 1901, it’s won 10,378, or about 57 percent of them.

Investors are betting on growth stocks over value stocks by a wider spread right now than at any other time since at least 1990, including during the tech bubble.

The world watches as a number of economies begin, or plan, to lift certain lockdown measures that were earlier put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. China may have been the first to do so when it reopened Wuhan, the industrial city of 11 million that was ground zero for the novel virus, though life there is still far from normal.

For the billions of observant Christians and Jews across the globe, Holy Week is the most religious time of the year. Whereas Christians observe and celebrate Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, Jews commemorate the Hebrews’ exodus from enslavement in Egypt to the Promised Land.

The $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package that President Donald Trump signed into law on March 27 is just the beginning. The Treasury Department is now seeking some $250 billion more to replenish small business loans, and there’s hope that the president and House Democrats can agree on a “Phase Four” spending deal, one that may target infrastructure.