Obama releases 2015 tax returns showing first family paid 18.7% effective rate

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – President Obama on Friday released his 2015 federal income tax returns, showing the first family’s effective tax rate is 18.7%. Obama and his wife filed their returns jointly and reported adjusted gross income of $436,065. The couple paid $81,472 in total tax. The Obamas donated $64,066 to charity, with the largest contributions going to the Fisher House Foundation, the Beau Biden Foundation and Sidwell Friends School, which is where their two children are in high school.

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Obama releases 2015 tax returns showing first family paid 18.7% effective rate

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – President Obama on Friday released his 2015 federal income tax returns, showing the first family’s effective tax rate is 18.7%. Obama and his wife filed their returns jointly and reported adjusted gross income of $436,065. The couple paid $81,472 in total tax. The Obamas donated $64,066 to charity, with the largest contributions going to the Fisher House Foundation, the Beau Biden Foundation and Sidwell Friends School, which is where their two children are in high school.

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Fairway in tentative deal with creditors on bankruptcy filing: Bloomberg

New York grocery chain Fairway Group Holdings Corp. has reached a tentative deal with creditors to restructure its debt in bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The chain could file for Chapter 11 protection by the end of May, Bloomberg said. Fairway has struggled in recent months for its survival after being battered by competition from Whole Foods Market Inc. and other competitors on its home turf. The company has also grappled with a substantial debt load, much of it taken on to finance an ill-timed expansion. Shares were trading down 7.5% Friday at 37 cents, and are down 44% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained about 1.7%.

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Gold ends higher, but logs first weekly decline in 3 weeks

Gold futures notched a gain Friday, but posted a weekly drop as a flight to haven assets dissipated and as a weekly gain in the dollar pressured the yellow metal. The U.S. ICE Dollar Index , a gauge of the buck against a basket of six rival currencies, climbed 0.5% this week-its first weekly gain in three weeks, coinciding with weekly moves for gold . June gold settled $8.10, or 0.7%, higher at $1,234.60 an ounce. Gold’s weekly decline was its first in three weeks. Outshining gold was its sister metal, silver , which also climbed Friday, gaining 0.9%, but booking a nearly 6% weekly advance, the gray metal’s best weekly climb in about a month.

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Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes southern Japan, triggering tsunami warning

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 has struck in southern Japan, according to the United States Geological Service, triggering a tsunami warning along the coast. The quake shook buildings in Kumamoto, and comes after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit nearby Kyushu Island on Thursday.

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Oil prices pare loss as weekly U.S. oil-rig count falls

Oil futures pared some of their losses after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 3 to 351 as of Friday. Meanwhile, the total U.S. rig count fell 3 to 440. May crude futures were at $40.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 92 cents, or 2.2%. It was trading as low as $40.30 before the data.

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From:: Stock Market News

Oil prices pare loss as weekly U.S. oil-rig count falls

Oil futures pared some of their losses after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 3 to 351 as of Friday. Meanwhile, the total U.S. rig count fell 3 to 440. May crude futures were at $40.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 92 cents, or 2.2%. It was trading as low as $40.30 before the data.

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Fitch downgrades Macy’s rating to BBB, palcing it two notches above junk

Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded Macy’s Inc.’s long-term issuer default rating to BBB from BBB-plus on concerns the department store chain will struggle with a plan to boost sales. The rating is now two notches above speculative-grade, or “junk” status. The outlook is stable, Fitch said in a statement. The action “reflects the lack of visibility into a sales acceleration that would meaningfully improve profitability after a 14% EBITDA decline in 2015,” the agency said. Fitch projects a 5% decline in 2016. Fitch is expecting the weakness in the mid-market clothing sector to continue as sales continue to shift online, weighing on growth. As a result, it expects leverage to remain elevated in the high 2 times range, which compares with the 2.2 times to 2.3 times range maintained between 2012 and 2014. It expects the company to use cash to buy back shares instead of repaying debt to keep its shareholders happy. Macy’s is currently looking into real-estate opportunities, but Fitch expects any change in its capital structure would be credit neutral at best. Shares were last up 1.7% and are up 15% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.8%.

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BATS shares open up 20% in their first day of trade

Bats Global Markets Inc. shares surged in their first day of trade after the company priced its initial public offering at $19 a share, the high end of its range. Shares opened up 20% at $22.88 and climbed to as high as $23 in the first ten minutes of trading. The exchange operator, which specializes in exchange-traded funds, had attempted to go public two years ago, but was thwarted by an embarrassing software glitch. The stock is trading on the BATS exchange using that acronym as its symbol. The company sold 13.3 million shares to raise $252.7 million late Thursday, after upsizing the deal from an original 11.2 million. Investors are hoping a successful debut could help reopen the IPO market, which has been all but dead since the beginning of the year amid volatile market conditions. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup were the lead underwriters.

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U.S. stocks open little change, on track for weekly gains

U.S. stocks opened little changed on Friday, but the main indexes were still on track to post weekly gains. Investors grappled with lower oil prices, earnings report from Citigroup Inc. and mixed economic data on Friday. The S&P 500 was flat at 2,082. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 10 points at 17,936. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite was off by 3 points, or less than 0.1% at 4,942 at the open.

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