Oil prices settle higher on Middle East tensions

HOUSTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Oil prices settled higher on Friday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a week-long sweep through the Middle East in an attempt to contain regional tensions stoked by the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Down 14% last year, will PayPal bounce back in 2024?

A lot of beaten down fintechs had bounce-back years in 2023 as the technology sector soared. But one of the oldest payment fintechs, PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ:PYPL), was not one of them. While some of its rivals, like Block, posted gains last year, PayPal finished 2023 down 14%, trading at around $60 per share.

Morning Bid: Stocks’ win streak falls prey to rethink on Fed

The story of 2024 thus far has been an aggressive repricing of dovish Federal Reserve bets. The effect on markets has been a slide in global equities and a bounce in the dollar, setting up the former for its first losing week in 10 and the latter for its best week since mid-July.