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US stock futures stalled on Thursday as investors waited for Friday's crucial jobs report and bitcoin posted new all-time highs above the key $100,000 milestone. https://yhoo.it/4go718B

💰 Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff weighs in on our of control deficits to me on Yahoo Finance: "I think this is critical for us. We have to get to a balanced budget faster. This must be a bipartisan issue. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It's an issue that has not been as strongly embraced by the last several presidents. They have not focused on balancing the budget," Benioff says. "The last one [president to focus on the budget] was in the George W. Bush administration where I had an active participation. I was the chairman of the President's IT advisory committee. We were very focused on delivering a budget neutral environment, a balanced budget environment. That's when we called for healthcare IT. We called for computational sciences improvements. And all of these things we did it all under the context of budget neutral. We've lost that focus. I think we need to bring that back." A budget neutral mindset would be nice as the alternative is getting uglier by the day. The US budget deficit swelled to $1.833 trillion in fiscal year 2024, the highest amount outside of the COVID-19 period. Interest on federal debt exceeded $1 trillion for the first time. Full watch ⬇️. And more on these digital agents Salesforce is unleashing into society: https://lnkd.in/e3KiYhSY

How comfortable are you at negotiating when it comes to your career? According to a study by Fidelity Investments, 58% of young professionals do not negotiate their job offers. However, 87% of those who do negotiate wind up walking away with additional compensation. Need some negotiating guidance? Mandi Woodruff-Santos shares one of her top tips to help you negotiate your salary. More: https://lnkd.in/erWDTqQm

The hyperscaler data center is designed to process huge amounts of data required to support digital infrastructure, including artificial intelligence workloads. https://yhoo.it/41isqeM

Pizza Hut's new goal is to serve guests in less than three minutes. https://yhoo.it/3ZFReLF

A Santa Claus rally is coming for technology stocks, according to Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives. The senior equity research analyst sees several factors driving the market darlings higher into the end of the year, ranging from expectations about loosened regulation from the incoming Trump administration to increased adoption of artificial intelligence by the US government. Ives said he thinks tech stocks are "up over 20% next year." More: https://lnkd.in/esCpa4rd

A tech rally boosted US stocks on Wednesday, with all three major indexes hitting new record closes, as investors digested Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments that US economy is in "remarkably good shape." Here's a look at stocks that closed the day a new record highs: https://yhoo.it/41kP9Hg

Over the past few years, a stronger-than-expected US economy has continuously surprised Wall Street and its projections. While we've become somewhat used to them now, the recent underestimations are a reversal of what was seen prior to the pandemic when US economic forecasts were often too lofty, RBC Capital Markets head of US equity strategy Lori Calvasina told Yahoo Finance. And now, heading into 2025, strategists like Calvasina are leaning into the post-pandemic trend and betting consensus economic forecasts will once again be surprised to the upside by the US economy. "Given that history recently of underestimating [US economic growth] and the fact that GDP forecasts for next year are creeping up very, very, very slowly, I'm making a bet on the 2% to 3% [growth] instead of the 1% to 2%," said Calvasina, who sees the S&P 500 ending next year at 6,600. On Tuesday, Wells Fargo's Christopher Harvey issued the most bullish target on Wall Street at 7,007 while highlighting a "cyclical opportunity catalyzed by upward GDP revisions." If 2024's market driving abbreviation was AI, 2025's is set to be GDP. More, from Josh Schafer: https://lnkd.in/gAm9HaPY

The creator economy gets so niche that a hand puppet, Mona, earned over $600K in 2024 while fulfilling custom video requests on one platform. Cameo Co-Founder & CEO Steven Galanis told me / Yahoo Finance "Every single person is their own platform, their own channel" as content production and consumption becomes even more decentralized from once impenetrable cable giants. https://lnkd.in/eP898y8y

The US economy is on solid footing right now. Economists at Bank of America expect it to stay that way through next year. In a research note released to reporters on Monday, BofA's economics team led by Claudio Irigoyen projected the US economy will grow at an annualized rate of 2.4% in 2025, higher than current forecasts for 2% growth, according to the latest Bloomberg consensus estimates. This comes despite uncertainties surrounding the economic policies of President-elect Donald Trump, including campaign promises of tariffs on imported goods, tax cuts for corporations, and curbs on immigration, which economists have viewed as inflationary. Those proposals could also hinder economic growth and pressure an already bloated federal deficit, further complicating the Federal Reserve's path forward for interest rates. More, from Alexandra Canal: https://lnkd.in/e358xPFG