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China blocks use of Intel and AMD chips in government computers, FT reports

by CoinNews
written by CoinNews

(Reuters) -China has introduced guidelines to phase out U.S. microprocessors from Intel and AMD from government personal computers and servers, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favour of domestic options, the report said.

Government agencies above the township level have been told to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said.

China’s industry ministry in late December issued a statement with three separate lists of CPUs, operating systems and centralised database deemed “safe and reliable” for three years after the publication date, all from Chinese companies, Reuters checks showed.

The State Council Information Office, which handles media queries for the council, China’s cabinet, did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Intel and AMD did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

The U.S. has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor output and reduce reliance on China and Taiwan with the Biden administration’s 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.

It is designed to bolster U.S. semiconductors and contains financial aid for domestic production with subsidies for production of advanced chips.

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, William Mallard and Lincoln Feast.)

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Renowned Investor Jim Rogers Expects All Cryptocurrencies to ‘Disappear’ — Says Bitcoin Will ‘Go to Zero Someday’

by CoinNews
written by CoinNews

Veteran investor Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire investor George Soros, expects all cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, to disappear someday. Anticipating bitcoin going to “zero,” he stressed: “I’m very skeptical of crypto. I don’t expect it to last … I do not see any long-term value in cryptocurrency.” Jim Rogers Remains Skeptical of […]

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Here’s How Much the Average 60-Year-Old Has in Their 401(k)

by CoinNews
written by CoinNews

A pile of money with a seedling growing out of it

Image source: The Motley Fool/Upsplash

At age 60, you’re not too far from retirement. In fact, the average retirement age is 61, although there are plenty of Americans who continue working into their late 60s and beyond.

It’s always important to know whether you’re on track with your retirement savings. That’s especially true as you reach your 60s, since you’re getting close to the end of your career. If you’re trying to figure out where you stand, you’ll find data on the average 401(k) balance below, plus some tips on what to do if you need to save more.

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The average 60-year-old’s 401(k) balance

The average 60-year-old has $70,000 to $210,000 in their 401(k). Why such a wide range? There are two recent sources with a fairly large difference:

  • Vanguard reported that Americans ages 55 to 64 have a median 401(k) balance of $70,620 and an average balance of $232,710 in How America Saves 2023.

  • A 2024 Empower article reported that Americans in their 60s have a median 401(k) balance of $209,382 and an average balance of $555,621.

The median balances are likely a more accurate representation of the overall average. When there’s a big difference between a median and an average, it’s because outliers are having an outsized impact on the average. In this case, people with very high 401(k) balances bring up the average quite a bit.

A popular guideline on retirement savings is to save eight times your salary by age 60 and 10 times your salary by 67. Many 60-year-olds are likely well behind that guideline, based on the recent data. To be fair, some Americans also have other forms of retirement savings, such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

What to do if you’re behind on your retirement savings

Even at 60, there’s still time to make significant contributions to your retirement savings. If you feel like you won’t have enough money to retire, here’s what you can do.

Max out your 401(k) contributions

The 401(k) contribution limit is $23,000 in 2024. But one of the advantages of being 50 or older is that you can also make additional catch-up contributions of up to $7,500, for a combined limit of $30,500. If you can’t contribute that much, try to at least put in enough to max out any 401(k) match your employer offers.

Contribute to an IRA, too

Just like 401(k) plans, IRAs allow you to save for retirement while saving on taxes. The contribution limit is $7,000 in 2024. When you’re 50 or older, you can make additional catch-up contributions of up to $1,000, for a combined limit of $8,000.

Retire later

There are several financial benefits to delaying your retirement. By working longer, you’ll be able to save more. You’ll start withdrawing from your retirement savings later, and you can also delay taking Social Security. If you wait until age 70, you’ll receive your maximum Social Security benefits.

Consider relocating or downsizing

Another way to make up the gap in your retirement savings is to reduce your cost of living. You could start looking into areas with a lower cost of living for after you retire — some people even choose to retire abroad. If you want to stay in your current city, you could move to a smaller, more affordable home.

If you can max out your 401(k) and IRA, that’s $38,500 in retirement savings per year, and potentially more if contribution limits increase. After five years, you’ll have added $192,500 to your retirement. That money could also grow if you invest in stocks and bonds.

Most people can’t max out all their retirement accounts, so don’t feel bad if you aren’t contributing that much. Just put in as much as you can. If you do that, combined with potentially working longer and cutting costs, you can still retire with financial security.

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Here’s How Much the Average 60-Year-Old Has in Their 401(k) was originally published by The Motley Fool

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NextEra Energy Partners Investors Should Be Watching This Acquisition Very Closely. Here’s Why.

by CoinNews
written by CoinNews

NextEra Energy Partners (NEP 1.29%) is showing up on high-yield screens today thanks to its huge 12%+ distribution yield. This wasn’t always the situation, noting that the yield was closer to 4% at the end of 2022. The steep unit price decline that pushed the yield higher is worth examining, but the potential fallout from that decline is also worth considering. To get an idea of why the latter consideration is important, just look at what’s happening with Equitrans Midstream (ETRN 1.31%) today.

What went wrong at NextEra Energy

NextEra Energy Partners was created by NextEra Energy (NEE 0.68%), one of the largest utilities in the United States. In addition to being a large regulated utility, NextEra Energy is also one of the largest producers of solar and wind power in the world. To take advantage of Wall Street’s once hot demand for anything related to clean energy, NextEra Energy created a master limited partnership (MLP) to own clean energy assets.

A broken piggy bank, frowning.

Image source: Getty Images.

NextEra Energy Partners is basically a funding vehicle for its parent, NextEra Energy. The parent sells clean energy assets, or “drops them down,” in industry lingo, to the MLP. The MLP buys the assets by issuing units and taking on debt. NextEra Energy uses the cash from the asset sales to fund future investments. NextEra Energy Partners uses the cash flow from the assets it buys to pay distributions to unitholders.

But investors have soured on the clean energy space, leading to a notable decline in the price of NextEra Energy Partners. That makes it more expensive to sell units. Making matters worse, rising interest rates increased the cost of debt capital, too. At this point, it isn’t nearly as attractive for NextEra Energy to sell assets to NextEra Energy Partners. And, as you might expect, NextEra Energy has announced plans to pull back on drop downs. That, in turn, will lead to slower growth at NextEra Energy Partners.

What does this have to do with Equitrans Midstream?

The big story for Equitrans Midstream is that EQT Corp. (EQT), the company that created the MLP, is buying it back. This isn’t the first time that a parent company of an MLP has bought back the MLP it created. The list includes utilities like Dominion Energy and pipeline operator Kinder Morgan, among others.

As you might expect, EQT is pitching its purchase of Equitrans Midstream as a positive. In fact it called the transaction “transformative,” even though it is, in many ways, just recreating the company as it was before Equitrans Midstream was spun off. The real story is that Equitrans Midstream is being bought back at a price that is far below the price at which it was spun off.

ETRN Chart

ETRN data by YCharts

Now think back to NextEra Energy Partners. The purpose of that MLP is to be a funding vehicle for NextEra Energy, but it just isn’t as valuable as it once was on that front. With the unit price dramatically lower than it was, there’s a very real possibility that NextEra Energy simply buys the MLP back on the cheap.

NEP Chart

NEP data by YCharts

To be fair, the runway for growth in the clean energy sector is more attractive than the growth opportunity in the pipeline sector. That suggests that NextEra Energy might want to wait longer to see what happens with NextEra Energy Partners before doing anything rash. But there are multiple examples of MLP spinoffs being bought back once they have outlived their usefulness. If you own NextEra Energy Partners you should keep the Equitrans Midstream situation in the back of your mind.

Buy with at least a little caution

The real concern here, however, should be for investors who are considering adding NextEra Energy Partners to their portfolio because of its hefty 12%+ distribution yield. While that yield is backed, to some degree, by a strong parent, NextEra Energy could just as easily decide to buy the MLP, effectively making what was an attractive yield quickly go away. Equitrans Midstream, among others, shows that this is, in fact, a very real possibility and a risk dividend investors shouldn’t ignore.

Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Dominion Energy. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends EQT, Kinder Morgan, and NextEra Energy. The Motley Fool recommends Dominion Energy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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From Rollups to Sidechains, L2 Watch Catalogs Dozens of Bitcoin Layer 2 Solutions

by CoinNews
written by CoinNews

From Rollups to Sidechains, L2 Watch Catalogs Dozens of Bitcoin Layer 2 SolutionsIn recent years, attention towards layer two (L2) scaling solutions for Bitcoin has persisted, though bitcoin capacity in the Lightning Network has seen a decline. In recent years, other varieties of L2 solutions have emerged, capturing the attention of the crypto community. On March 19, 2024, the lead developer at Blockchair unveiled L2 Watch, an […]

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March Sees Nearly $1 Billion In Ethereum Netflow To Centralized Exchanges

by CoinNews
written by CoinNews

The price of Ethereum has not exactly lived up to its promise as the month has gone on, despite a stellar start to the month. While this bearish pressure has been widespread in the general cryptocurrency market, regulation uncertainty has been an additional concern for ETH, igniting a negative sentiment around the “king of altcoins.”

Interestingly, the latest on-chain revelation shows a substantial amount of Ethereum has made its way to exchanges so far in March, suggesting that investors might be losing confidence in the long-term promise of the cryptocurrency.

Are Investors Losing Confidence In Ethereum?

According to data from CryptoQuant, more than $913 million has been recorded in net ETH transfers to centralized exchanges so far in March. This on-chain information was revealed via a quicktake post on the data analytics platform.

This net fund movement represents the largest volume of Ethereum transferred to centralized exchanges in a single month since June 2022. Even though March is still a week from being over, this exchange inflow appears to be a complete deviation from the pattern observed over the past few months.

Ethereum 

Chart showing total monthly netflow of ETH on centralized exchanges | Sources: CryptoQuant

As shown in the chart above, October 2023 was the last time cryptocurrency exchanges witnessed a positive net flow. It is worth noting that there was significant movement of Ethereum tokens out of the centralized platforms in subsequent months up until this month.

Meanwhile, a separate data point that supports the massive exodus of ETH to centralized exchanges has come to light. Popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealed on X nearly 420,000 Ethereum tokens (equivalent to $1.47 billion) have been transferred to cryptocurrency exchanges in the past three weeks.

The flow of large amounts of cryptocurrency to centralized exchanges is often considered a bearish sign, as it can be an indication that investors may be willing to sell their assets. Ultimately, this can put downward pressure on the cryptocurrency’s price.

Substantial fund movements to trading platforms could also represent a shift in investor sentiment. It could be a sign that investors are losing faith in a particular asset (ETH, in this case).

Moreover, the recent regulatory headwind surrounding Ethereum specifically accentuates this hypothesis.  According to the latest report, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a probe to classify the ETH token as a security.

ETH Price

As of this writing, the Ethereum token is valued at $3,343, reflecting a 4% price decline over the past /4 hours. According to data from CoinGecko, ETH is down by 11% in the past week.

Ethereum

Ethereum loses the $3,400 level again on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Disclaimer: The article is provided for educational purposes only. It does not represent the opinions of NewsBTC on whether to buy, sell or hold any investments and naturally investing carries risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use information provided on this website entirely at your own risk.

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Biden signs $1.2 trillion spending package

by CoinNews
written by CoinNews

U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with (L-R) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), on February 27, 2024 at the White House in Washington, DC.

Roberto Schmidt | Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed Congress’ $1.2 trillion spending package, finalizing the remaining batch of bills in a long-awaited budget to keep the government funded until Oct. 1.

Almost halfway into the fiscal year, the president’s signature ends a months-long saga of Congress struggling to secure a permanent budget resolution and instead passing stopgap measures, nearly averting government shutdowns.

“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open, invests in the American people, and strengthens our economy and national security,” Biden said in a Saturday statement. “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted.”

The weekend budget deal slid in just under the wire before the Friday midnight funding deadline, as has been typical this fiscal year with eleventh-hour disagreements derailing near-complete deals.

The Senate passed the budget in a 74-24 vote at roughly 2 a.m. ET Saturday morning, technically two hours after the deadline due to last-minute disagreements. However, the White House said that it would not begin official shutdown operations since a deal had ultimately been secured and only procedural actions remained.

The House passed its own vote Friday morning after a week of scrambling to reconcile a lingering sticking point: funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which the White House took issue with last weekend. The White House’s qualms delayed the negotiation process further, just as lawmakers were preparing to release the legislative text of the budget proposal.

This trillion-dollar tranche of six appropriation bills will fund agencies related to defense, financial services, homeland security, health and human services and more. Congress approved $459 billion for the first six appropriations bills earlier in March, which related to agencies that were less partisan and easier to negotiate.

With the government finally funded for the rest of the fiscal year, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has cleared his plate of at least one looming issue.

But in so doing, he may have created another.

Hours before the House passed the spending package Friday morning, hardline House Republicans held a press conference to lambast the bill. Moments after the House narrowly passed the bill, far-right Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to oust Johnson.

If ousting a House speaker for budget disagreements feels like a familiar story, that’s because it is.

In October, after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown, the House voted to remove him, making him the first Speaker in history to be removed from that position. Johnson has been trying to appease the hardline Republican wing of the House, called the Freedom Caucus, to avoid meeting a similar fate.

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