Former President Donald Trump is again turning heads with his push to slash the federal corporate tax rate. The 2024 GOP presidential nominee proposes lowering it from 21% to 15%, which has stirred up much debate. Some see it as the key to supercharging the U.S. economy and stock market. Others, however, aren’t so sure.

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Supporters of Trump’s plan point to past economic gains when taxes were lowered. According to the Tax Foundation, dropping the corporate tax rate to 15% could boost the U.S. GDP by 0.4% and add roughly 93,000 full-time jobs.

This is music to the ears of those who believe that lower taxes will make the U.S. more attractive for business. A more competitive environment, they argue, could drive corporate growth, pump up earnings and ultimately benefit shareholders as stock prices climb.

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Advocates also think this cut could push companies to funnel more money into share buybacks, further inflating stock prices. But the critics have their doubts. One big concern is the potential impact on federal revenues. As cited by CNN, Trump’s proposal could increase the national debt by between $1.5 trillion and $15.2 trillion.

Even when factoring in economic growth, the revenue loss would still be a whopping $460 billion. As the U.S. grapples with a rising federal deficit – already expected to hit 202.6% of GDP by 2065 – some worry that these tax cuts might tie the government’s hands when funding essential programs.

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Another question in the air is whether corporate tax cuts reliably lead to stock market booms?

Trump significantly boosted Corporate America by lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. This legislation, along with a strong economy, led to record-breaking corporate earnings. Many executives decided to reward shareholders rather than investing in growth or hiring.

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Data from S&P Dow Jones Indices shows that companies within the S&P 500 repurchased a whopping $189 billion worth of stock in the first quarter alone. This figure shattered the previous record set in 2007. Tech giant Apple (AAPL) led the charge, setting a record by buying back $22.8 billion of its own shares – the largest stock buyback by any company in a quarter of U.S. history.

Vice President Kamala Harris, representing the Biden administration, has suggested raising the corporate tax rate to 28%. Wall Street is concerned that Harris’s tax plan could negatively impact U.S. corporate profits, with Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer of BMO U.S. Wealth Management, warning that higher taxes would likely result in lower corporate profits and reduced stock valuations. “Essentially, what you have is the likelihood of a significant pullback in the stock market due to higher taxes,” Ma stated.

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This article Are Trump’s Proposed Corporate Tax Cuts The Key To Unleashing A Stock Market Boom? Here’s What History Tells Us About Similar Moves originally appeared on Benzinga.com

© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Tesla (TSLA) stock fell during morning trading on Friday, after its highly-anticipated robotaxi reveal failed to impress investors.

The electric vehicle maker’s shares were down around 7.5% on Friday morning after being down about 6% during pre-market trading. Its shares closed down almost 1% Thursday before the event.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk unveiled the company’s Cybercab self-driving car prototype on Thursday night. The robotaxi is expected to be the EV maker’s first car that is capable of autonomous driving. While Tesla offers driving assistance software for self-driving, the vehicles still require a driver.

Tesla expects the Cybercab to eventually be available for sale to consumers at less than $30,000. The company has reportedly scrapped or delayed its plans for the Model 2, a planned $25,000 electric car, to focus on the robotaxi. Some analysts had expected Tesla to show off a preview of the Model 2 Thursday, although it received no mention from the company.

Musk on Thursday said the Cybercab will enter production “probably” in 2026 or “before 2027,” which isn’t likely to stir confidence in investors skeptical of the CEO’s often-delayed promises. A concept for a refreshed Roadster has been public since 2017 and production was expected to start in 2025, but the project’s status is unclear.

The company’s falling shares are likely due to uncertain timing, Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said Friday in a post on X.

“Timing of Cybercab is still two plus years away, too far for the incremental investor to put much weight into the opportunity and the timing asks existing investors to continue the waiting game,’ Munster said, adding that the EV maker’s investors are waiting for other company results such as “improving margins, higher delivery growth rates and FSD [full self-driving].”

Musk’s failure to mention a “more affordable” model that he previously said could be available sometime late this year or mid-2025 is another reason for the stock slide, Munster said.

“The cheaper car is still in the works,” Munster said. “My guess is timing will be late 2025 for initial production. The reason why they held off was there is little reward for them to highlight a cheaper model given it risks buyers hitting the pause today on Model 3 and Y.”

— William Gavin contributed to this article.

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Suze Orman recently dropped a golden nugget of financial wisdom on her podcast, urging listeners to consider only having Roth retirement accounts.

“The best way to prepare for retirement is to only have Roth retirement accounts – bar none,” she said. Her advice is aimed at avoiding the dreaded “tax torpedo,” which has left many retirees shocked by unexpected taxes on their Social Security benefits.

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So, what exactly is the tax torpedo? It’s a sneaky tax that hits when your combined income pushes past certain thresholds. If you’re single and your income surpasses $34,000 or if you’re a married couple earning more than $44,000, up to 85% of your Social Security benefits can be taxed.

Even at lower income levels – between $25,000 and $34,000 for individuals or $32,000 to $44,000 for couples – 50% of your benefits could be taxed. According to the Social Security Administration, nearly 40% of beneficiaries are affected by this tax. And depending on where you live, state taxes might pile on as well, worsening the blow.

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The good news is that Roth retirement accounts can help you dodge this torpedo. Qualified withdrawals from a Roth IRA (after age 59½ and meeting the five-year rule) are tax-free and don’t count toward your combined income, keeping you below those critical taxation thresholds. Orman’s advice is crystal clear: it’s time to reconsider how you’re saving for retirement.

In a recent blog post, Orman urged retirees to regularly review their portfolios, stating, “You should log in and make sure your mix of investments – stocks, bonds and cash – is in line with your long-term goals.”

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One potential addition to that plan is a gold IRA, a smart hedge against inflation and market volatility. While income from a gold IRA will be taxable, it offers a risk-adjusted complement to the Roth IRA. With physical assets like gold, retirees have another layer of security during market swings.

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But Orman doesn’t stop at retirement accounts. She emphasizes the importance of making decisions today that your future self will thank you for. In another blog post, she wrote, “I encourage you to keep returning to this thought exercise. What are the financial steps you might take today to be kindest to your future older self? The 88-year-old, the 90-year-old, the 95-year-old?”

See Also: I’m 62 Years Old And Have $1.2 Million Saved. Is This Enough to Retire Stress-Free?

Another way to lessen your dependence on Social Security is by investing in real estate. While real estate can be a bit of a hassle – between high down payments, mortgage rates around 6% and annual upkeep costs averaging $18,000 – it’s a strong option for diversifying your retirement portfolio. And yes, you can even invest in real estate through a Roth IRA, ensuring tax-free gains and distributions that won’t trigger the tax torpedo.

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This article Americans Beware: Suze Orman Explains The Little-Known Trick To Dodge The Social Security ‘Tax Torpedo’ And Retire With More Money originally appeared on Benzinga.com

© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

The crypto market is preparing to soar, according to many famous investors. For example, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood sees a bull-case price point of $1.5 million per Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) in 2030. That would be a 2,276% return from today’s price, or a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 70% for six years.

That’s Wood’s most optimistic forecast, but even her bottom-end projections call for a $650,000 Bitcoin price by the end of this decade. Plenty of billionaires are building positions in this promising digital asset these days, hoping to capture the crypto’s long-term wealth creation at an early stage.

Let’s look at Cathie Wood’s rationale for these ultra-bullish price targets, and what these arguments could mean for us ordinary non-billionaires.

Wood’s bullish analysis

Wood doubled down on her million-dollar price targets for Bitcoin in a recent video interview with Peter Diamandis, founder of the XPRIZE Foundation, which promotes innovation. Her bullish argument centered around three core themes:

• Thanks to Bitcoin’s planned scarcity with a hard cap of 21 million digital coins, it should eventually replace physical gold as a store of long-term value.

• Institutional investors have not yet entered the market for the digital coin, despite the appearance of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on real-time crypto prices. When investment banks and financial advisors start taking the Bitcoin plunge, the whole industry should “fall in line pretty quick” with price-boosting results, Wood said.

• Investors should see Bitcoin as an “insurance policy” against several financial risks like inflation, economic instability, or government overreach. These qualities should gain exposure and a following, especially in younger generations.

Together, she expects these pillars to support strong price growth.

“If we’re in the middle of the bull market, I think the next spur is going to be the platforms putting the spot Bitcoin ETF on it,” Wood said. “And I do think that will happen this year.”

Analyzing the bullish Bitcoin argument

I don’t see anything wrong with Wood’s logic.

The capped Bitcoin supply and gradual slowdown of new coin production are important parts of the cryptocurrency’s value system. The supply growth is already slower than the annual inflation of the gold supply from physical mining, so all that’s missing is a sustained increase in demand for the crypto. The good old law of supply and demand covers the rest of this argument.

Diamantis gave an anecdotal example of institutional resistance to Bitcoin assets, saying that a well-known financial advisor service refused to include spot Bitcoin ETFs in its portfolio services. That foot-dragging attitude could be the right idea if Bitcoin were destined to crash, burn, and go away. In any other scenario, the big banks should have to jump aboard the Bitcoin bandwagon eventually. The resulting cash infusions will push its price dramatically higher.

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And the third bullish argument is just a question of consumer education. Bitcoin’s decentralized nature makes it difficult to impose government controls over this alternative financial system. I already explained how it is immune to traditional forces of supply-side inflation. The digital currency could be easier to use, but people are already leaning on Bitcoin in times of economic strife.

Bitcoin bulls should set realistic targets

Even so, I find it hard to peg a firm price target on Bitcoin — especially in the long term. Wood says that the institutional-investor dominoes should start to fall before the end of 2024, while the other bullish forces could have slower effects.

Keeping an eye on how quickly old-school bankers embrace the Bitcoin opportunity will provide a clearer map for what comes next. But the market isn’t quite there yet, so I’m holding my horses on the final analysis.

Will Bitcoin soar to $650,000 or even $1.5 million per coin in 2030? Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter. I expect it to gain value over time, most likely outperforming the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) stock market index in the long haul.

That’s good enough for me, and many investors with far deeper pockets would agree. The cryptocurrency, or one of the handy-dandy spot Bitcoin ETFs, should be a modest part of any diversified investment portfolio these days.

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Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Billionaires Are Buying This Cryptocurrency That Could Soar 2,276%, According to Cathie Wood was originally published by The Motley Fool

(Bloomberg) — Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. climbed in early trading after Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk offered few details on the carmaker’s plans for a self-driving vehicle service that could compete with ride-hailing.

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Uber’s stock jumped as much as 7% to hit an all-time high and Lyft’s advanced up to 8.3% on Friday after Musk’s unveiling of a robotaxi called Cybercab late Thursday in California. Tesla shares traded down as much as 10.2%.

Musk’s debut of the two-seat prototype and a Robovan concept that can transport as many as 20 people let down Tesla investors who were hoping for more specifics. While he said Cybercab production may start in 2026 and cost less than $30,000, the chief executive officer cautioned that he tends to be overly optimistic.

“We consider the event a best-case outcome for Uber,” said John Colantuoni, an equity analyst at Jefferies with a buy rating on the stock. In a report referring to Tesla’s taxi as “toothless,” he noted the company didn’t provide verifiable evidence of progress toward automated-driving features or quantify how many robotaxis it plans to make.

Thursday had been viewed as a “make or break night” for Tesla shares, according to Mike O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading. The event had already been delayed by two months, and Tesla was under pressure to justify its high valuation and prove it can lead the industry in autonomous vehicle technology.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi offered a sober take on the future of autonomy earlier this week, saying he doesn’t see robotaxis becoming a significant portion of the company’s fleet for years. The technology is still not quite there, regulators are wary and costs won’t be competitive for a while, he told Bloomberg Green’s Zero podcast.

“Safety is job number one,” Khosrowshahi said. “We will then, I would say in the next three to seven years, start to focus on economics.”

–With assistance from Subrat Patnaik.

(Updates stock moves.)

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