International Trade Balance Widened in December

Three out of four major U.S. regions posted sales declines while the Midwest registered no change, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales also fell 4.2% from the previous year, down from 4.03 million in August 2023.

While mortgage rates do not directly follow the Fed's moves, the first cut in over four years will have an effect on the housing market, Freddie Mac economists said.

The new rules would require mobile wireless providers that originate text messages to block all texts from a particular source when notified by the FCC of illegal texts from that source, except under limited circumstances.

The toolkit includes general background on the reporting requirements, as well as templates for newsletters, websites and emails; sample social media posts and images; and information on how to contact FinCEN.

The awards provide financial incentives to FDIC-insured depository institutions that “exhibit a quantifiable increase in investments directed toward CDFIs or that increase their own lending, investing or service operations in severely distressed areas”

The financial services industry remains a prime target for brand impersonation scams, with phishing emails and websites impersonating financial institutions making up a third of online traffic to counterfeit domains, the cloud platform provider Akamai said.