Latest news with #Miami
New York Times
4 minutes ago
- Business
- New York Times
Live Updates: Fed to Set Rates as Tensions With Trump Run High
Vehicles on a container ship at a port in Miami last month. Auto rates have been largely stable but remain elevated, and tariffs threaten to push prices higher. The Federal Reserve is expected to keep its key rate steady on Wednesday for its fifth straight meeting, but an influx of economic data this week may shed light on where rates may be headed later this year. For now, that means consumers looking to borrow will need to wait a bit longer for better deals on many loans, though savers will benefit from steadier yields on their savings accounts — all of which are influenced by the Fed's policy. The central bank has kept its benchmark rate unchanged since January, which has riled President Trump, who has continued to attack the Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell, and demand that he aggressively lower borrowing costs, even going as far as threatening to fire him over it (which legal experts and the chair say he cannot do). The Fed's benchmark rate is set at a range of 4.25 to 4.5 percent. In an effort to tamp down inflation, the central bank began lifting rates rapidly — from near zero to above 5 percent — between March 2022 and July 2023. Prices cooled considerably, and the Fed pivoted to rate cuts, lowering rates in September, November and December of last year. Politicizing the Fed, of course, can be disastrous for the broader economy and consumers, and experts say they're already worried about the independence of the next chair; Mr. Powell's term ends in May. The rate-setting body typically turns to rate cuts when the economy is softening in an effort to spur growth. But the current economic picture hasn't been entirely clear given the volatility of President Trump's policies on tariffs, along with the broader effects of his restrictive immigration policies and widespread federal job cuts — all of which have made forecasting a challenge. Here is where various rates stand now. Auto Rates What's happening now: Auto rates have been largely stable but remain elevated, while transaction prices are rising slowly and unevenly, according to Kelley Blue Book, though tariffs threaten to push prices higher. Car loans tend to track with the yield on the five-year Treasury note, which is influenced by the Fed's key rate. But other factors determine how much borrowers actually pay, including your credit history, the type of vehicle, the loan term and the down payment. Lenders also take into consideration the levels of borrowers becoming delinquent on auto loans. As those move higher, so do rates, which makes qualifying for a loan more difficult, particularly for those with lower credit scores. The average rate on new car loans was 7.3 percent in June, according to Edmunds, a car shopping website, unchanged from May and June 2024. Rates for used cars were higher: The average loan carried an 10.9 percent rate in June, largely unchanged from May and down slightly from 11.5 percent in June 2024. Where and how to shop: Once you establish your budget, get preapproved for a car loan through a credit union or bank (Capital One and Ally are two of the largest auto lenders) so you have a point of reference to compare financing available through the dealership, if you decide to go that route. Always negotiate on the price of the car (including all fees), not the monthly payments, which can obscure the loan terms and what you'll be paying in total over the life of the loan. Credit Cards What's happening now: The interest rates you pay on any balances that you carry had edged slightly lower after the most recent Fed cuts, but the decreases have slowed, experts said. Last week, the average interest rate on credit cards was 20.13 percent, according to Bankrate. Much depends, however, on your credit score and the type of card. Rewards cards, for instance, often charge higher-than-average interest rates. Where and how to shop: Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent up a flare to let people know that the 25 biggest credit-card issuers had rates that were eight to 10 percentage points higher than smaller banks or credit unions. For the average cardholder, that can add up to $400 to $500 more in interest a year. Consider seeking out a smaller bank or credit union that might offer you a better deal. Many credit unions require you to work or live someplace particular to qualify for membership, but some bigger credit unions may have looser rules. Before you make a move, call your current card issuer and ask them to match the best interest rate you've found in the marketplace that you've already qualified for. And if you do transfer your balance, keep a close eye on fees and what your interest rate would jump to once the introductory period expires. Mortgages What's happening now: Mortgage rates have bounced around a bit in recent months, but have remained within a relatively tight range, staying below 7 percent. Rates peaked at about 7.8 percent late last year and had fallen as low as 6.08 percent in late September. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages don't move in tandem with the Fed's benchmark, but instead generally track with the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds, which are influenced by a variety of factors, including expectations about inflation, the Fed's actions and how investors react. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.74 percent as of July 24, according to Freddie Mac, down slightly from 6.75 percent the previous week and 6.78 percent a year ago. Other home loans are more closely tethered to the central bank's decisions. Home-equity lines of credit and adjustable-rate mortgages — which carry variable interest rates — generally adjust within two billing cycles after a change in the Fed's rates. Where and how to shop: Prospective home buyers would be wise to get several mortgage rate quotes — on the same day, since rates fluctuate — from a selection of mortgage brokers, banks and credit unions. That should include: the rate you'll pay; any discount points, which are optional fees buyers can pay to 'buy down' their interest rate; and other items like lender-related fees. Look to the 'annual percentage rate,' which usually includes these items, to get an apples-to-apples comparison of your total costs across different loans. Just be sure to ask what's included in the A.P.R. Savings Accounts and C.D.s What's happening now: Everything from online savings accounts and certificates of deposit to money market funds tend to move in line with the Fed's policy. Savers are no longer benefiting from the juiciest yields, but you can still find returns at online banks of 4 percent or more. Traditional commercial banks' yields, meanwhile, have remained anemic. The national average savings account rate was recently 0.56 percent, according to Bankrate. Where and how to shop: Rates are one consideration, but you'll also want to look at providers' history, minimum deposit requirements and any fees (high-yield savings accounts don't usually charge fees, but other products, like money market funds, do). part of LendingTree, tracks rates across thousands of institutions and is a good place to start comparing providers. The yield on the Crane 100 Money Fund Index, which tracks the largest money-market funds, was 4.11 percent as of Monday, down from 5.13 percent at the end of last June. (Check out my colleague Jeff Sommer's columns for more insight into money-market funds.) Student Loans What's happening now: There are two main types of student loans. Most people turn to federal loans first. Their interest rates are fixed for the life of the loan, they're far easier for teenagers to get and their repayment terms are more generous. For the first time in five years, rates on student loans, for money borrowed from July 1 through June 30 of next year, dropped modestly. Undergraduate loans now carry a rate of 6.39 percent, down from 6.53 percent. Rates on loans for graduate and professional students eased to 7.94 percent, from 8.08 percent, while rates on PLUS loans — extra financing available to graduate students and to parents of undergraduates — fell to 8.94 percent, from 9.08 percent. These rates reset on July 1 each year and follow a formula based on the 10-year Treasury bond auction in May. Private student loans are a bit of a wild card. Undergraduates often need a co-signer, rates can be fixed or variable and much depends on your credit score. Where and how to shop: Many banks and credit unions want nothing to do with student loans, so you'll want to shop around extensively, including with lenders that specialize in private student loans. You'll often see online ads and websites offering interest rates from each lender that can range by 15 percentage points or so. As a result, you'll need to give up a fair bit of information before getting an actual price quote. Ron Lieber and Ann Carrns contributed reporting.
New York Times
4 minutes ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Is Tyreek Hill a top fantasy football rebound candidate, or has age caught up with him?
Tyreek Hill was often taken second overall in 2024 fantasy drafts as the second wide receiver, and he had an ADP the final week of draft season just below CeeDee Lamb at No. 3 overall. Fast forward to 2025, and the 31-year-old is the 14th wideout off the board, generally, falling well into the third round. Advertisement And many think that's still too high. Is Hill's current ADP tethered more to his performance through 2023 or to his disappointing 2024? And was his 2024 season even that disappointing? Assessing Hill raises interesting questions about aging curves and allows us to test that supposition with relatively new data from NGS, the NFL's radar tracking system. We can now see whether Hill is slowing down and to what extent. Bottom line: When I look at everything, I'm far more bullish than the market on Hill in my rankings. He enters draft season as my WR10, and I would happily grab him in the third round. Let's look more closely at Hill's 2024. He had over 200 PPR points, the 31st-best PPR season for a 30-year-old wide receiver this century. With Tua Tagovailoa on the field, his 17-game averages were even better: 90-1,100-10, 260 PPR points. Those points would have been WR9, just below Lamb. Per game, however, that would have ranked 16th among WRs who played at least half the season. Either way, not a draft disaster. Tua was last in the league in yards per attempt last year, just a tick below Patrick Mahomes (Hill's former QB). And his unwillingness to throw downfield is a red flag against Hill, according to his 2025 detractors. But we're overstating the lack of downfield passing to Hill, presumably to protect Tua (concussions) from being hit. In 2024, Hill's rate of 20-plus-yard targets was 16% compared to 20% in 2023. That's a decline, but hardly a reason to drop Hill so far down the WR queue. He's also a year older. No one worried about age 30. But is age 31 appreciably worse? At some point, one year will be a tipping point. But what is the evidence of WR decline at age 31 vs. age 30? At the macro level, there is very little. This century, 38 WRs have had 200-plus fantasy points at age 30. At age 31, that drops to 32 (a 16% decline). But the NFL's injury data analyzer, IQVIA, found injury rates are pretty stable at age 31. Of course, this just accounts for missed time and not age-based performance declines. Advertisement Hill's wrist injury, which hampered him all season, is not expected to be an issue in 2025 after two surgeries involving pins in the joint. Hill now says season-ending surgery was recommended early in the 2024 campaign, but he chose to play through it. He also reportedly has dropped 14 pounds in an effort to maintain his elite speed and increase his endurance. So let's conclude there is no extra significant injury risk at age 31 vs. age 30. There remains a chance Hill could be among the 16% of productive 30-year-old wideouts that age out of elite performance at age 31. And you could argue, of course, that Hill already showed signs of slowing down at age 30 compared to age 29. But here is where we can use the NFL's radar technology to search for quantifiable evidence of that theory. Here are Hill's max radar times according to the NFL's radar tracking system for the past three seasons: That 21.50 mph speed at age 30 is the eighth fastest since 2022, according to TruMedia. The only offensive skill players of fantasy note on that age-30 list were Raheem Mostert (2022) and Derrick Henry (2024), who were 21.74 and 21.72 mph, respectively. (That Henry had a faster max speed than Hill last year is wild.) Mostert followed that up at age 31 with a nearly identical max speed of 21.62 mph en route to 1,012 rushing yards and 18 rushing TDs. Furthermore, in late June, Hill proved he's unquestionably one of the fastest humans by running the 100 meters in 10.1 seconds at the ATX Sprint Classic, finishing fourth out of seven track stars and just one-tenth of a second behind first place. Even if you still believe in Hill, there is the argument that Tua is just too big a question mark with his concussion history. If the quarterback is sidelined again, the current Dolphins backup is Zach Wilson. (I'm probably alone in thinking Wilson airing bombs to Hill could be fantasy fun.) Advertisement Other metrics beyond speed show a player's age decline. He broke just one tackle on 81 catches in 2024 after breaking 12 on 119 in 2023. That's concerning, no doubt. But it's a small sample, and how much did his serious wrist injury play a part in this? I'd argue it was a very significant contributor. And what if Tua plays 17 games again like he did in 2023, when he threw for 4,624 yards (a WR-leading 1,799 to Hill on 171 targets)? And what if Hill's wrist injury, along with the six-game absence of his QB, caused Hill's collapse and he remains as explosive as ever? Then couldn't Hill join the list of 300-point PPR wide receivers at age 31 this century — Brandon Marshall (339.2 in 2015), Muhsin Muhammad (329 in 2004), Rod Smith (318 in 2001) and Jordy Nelson (304.7 in 2016)? Of course, he could. None of those older fantasy football stars were even remotely on the same level at the position as Hill, a future inner-circle Hall of Famer and one of the top wideouts in NFL history. (Photo of Tyreek Hill: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Sport
- Reuters
CB Kader Kohou, Dolphins' starting nickel, out for season
July 30 - Kader Kohou is out for the season with a knee injury, leaving the Miami Dolphins to fill yet another hole in the secondary. Kohou is their primary nickel cornerback and head coach Mike McDaniel said he was playing the best football of his career before he went down with the injury over the weekend. "I saw him ascend to a different level (in the offseason)," McDaniel said Wednesday. "The timing of it. ... I was crushed until I talked to Kader, and honestly Kader made me feel a little bit better, simply by his mindset. "You don't know the whys all the time when things happen, and I get concerned for guys who get stuck in that world of a fixation for 'opportunities lost.' Kader's mindset triggered like that, to where he said, 'This is tough but I guarantee I'm going to come back better.' That is the way to approach both the game of football and life." Miami traded cornerback Jalen Ramsey to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this summer and acquired safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in return. Fitzpatrick is capable of filling a hybrid safety-cornerback role if the Dolphins decide to take that route with their thinned personnel at the defensive back spots. Kohou was the only returning starter in the secondary from last season. When he was hurt Saturday, the Dolphins signed veteran defensive back Mike Hilton. Already in the first week of training camp, cornerback Artie Burns suffered a torn ACL and safety Ashtyn Davis left practice on crutches and his left foot was in a walking boot on Tuesday. --Field Level Media
2 hours ago
- Sport
Alcantara pitches 5 scoreless innings, Pauley hits 2-run HR as Marlins beat Cardinals 5-0
ST. LOUIS -- Graham Pauley hit his first home run for the Marlins, Sandy Alcantara pitched five scoreless innings and Miami beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 on Tuesday night. Alcantara (6-9) gave up three hits with three walks, struck out four and hit two batters. Calvin Faucher, Ronny Henriquez and Valente Bellozo combined to pitch four scoreless innings with six strikeouts. Troy Johnston in his first major league game singled off St. Louis starter Sonny Gray (10-5) in his first at-bat and Pauley's homer made it 2-0. The 28-year-old Johnston went into the game with 636 career games played and 2,384 at-bats in the minors. Kyle Stowers hit a two-out double and Otto Lopez followed with an RBI single to snap a string of 13 consecutive at-bats without a hit and give the Marlins a 3-0 lead in the fifth. After Dane Myers singled, Eric Wagaman hit an RBI double and Xavier Edwards followed with a run-scoring triple to make it 5-0 in the sixth. Cardinals reliever John King retired Edwards and Jesús Sánchez before he left the game due to an apparent injury in the ninth. Victor Scott II had two stolen bases and is tied with Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs for second in the National League with 29 this season. Pittsburgh's Oneil Cruz leads the majors with 34 steals. Pedro Pagés singled and Scott walked before Iván Herrera was hit by a pitch to load the bases in the fifth, but Alcantara got Alec Burleson to strike out swinging to end the inning and preserve a 3-0 lead. The Cardinals, who had four hits and struck out 10 times, were shut out for the 10th time this season. Cal Quantrill (3-8, 4.95 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for the Marlins on Wednesday against Miles Mikolas (6-7, 4.94). ___
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Digital Silk Releases Guide on Social Media Branding to Help Businesses Strengthen Online Identity
Miami, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - July 30, 2025) - Digital Silk, an award-winning digital marketing agency focused on creating brand strategies, custom websites, and digital marketing campaigns, has released a new article exploring how businesses can establish consistent and effective social media branding across platforms. The guide outlines actionable steps to help companies assess and align brand elements, from profile imagery to voice and content themes, within an increasingly fragmented digital landscape. New Article Highlights Practical Steps for Achieving Brand Consistency Across Digital Platforms To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: Brands Face Growing Challenges in Maintaining Visual and Messaging Consistency As businesses expand an online presence across multiple platforms, inconsistent social media branding may lead to audience confusion or reduced engagement. Digital Silk's article, Social Media Branding: What It Is & How to Build It, breaks down the core components of potentially successful brand representation on platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. The guide emphasizes the role of visual assets, including logos, color palettes, and templates, as well as tone, cadence, and content focus-particularly for brands seeking to increase recognition across audiences. It also discusses why static branding elements often fall short in dynamic digital environments, and how structured audits can potentially improve long-term brand cohesion. Practical Steps for Social Media Branding Digital Silk's article outlines the following foundational areas: Establishing brand voice and tone aligned with audience expectations Maintaining consistency in profile imagery, color usage, and design styles Auditing existing social accounts for alignment with branding guidelines Applying templates and scheduling systems to streamline content delivery Avoiding mixed messaging and uncoordinated visual updates Supporting Brand Visibility Through Unified Digital Presentation According to research cited in the article, 68% of consumers expect brands to be consistently present across all platforms. The guide was developed to help businesses meet this expectation through structured visual and messaging alignment. The full article is available at: About Digital SilkDigital Silk is an award-winning Digital Marketing Agency focused on growing brands online. With a team of seasoned experts, Digital Silk creates digital experiences through strategic branding, custom web design, and digital marketing services to help improve visibility and support engagement. Media ContactJessica ErasmusMarketing Director & PR ManagerTel: (800) 206-9413Email: jessica@ To view the source version of this press release, please visit Sign in to access your portfolio
