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Elon Musk offers to complete his original $44 billion Twitter deal, America’s national debt surpasses $31 trillion, US mortgage rates reach highest in 16 years, Micron to open largest US semiconductor facility, and more financial news.
Elon Musk has reversed course and is now offering to complete his original deal to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share – or $44 billion – in a bid to avoid a court trial slated for later this month, the New York Post reported.
Musk sent a proposal to the social media network announcing he was ready to go forward with his original offer, according to a letter from Musk’s lawyer filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, NBC reported. Twitter shares initially shot up more than 13% to $48.13 immediately on the announcement and went as high as 22 percent before they were halted for pending news, according to Bloomberg.
According to familiar sources, if everything goes as expected, the deal could close within days or at most a week.
America’s total public outstanding national debt closed at $31.1 trillion on Monday, according to Treasury Department data.
The numbers were driven by a US government borrowing spree during the pandemic, with outstanding debt climbing nearly $8 trillion since the beginning of 2020. However, the total jumped by $1 trillion in only eight months.
In September, the Committee for a Responsible Fiscal Budget estimated that President Joe Biden’s policies could add $4.8 trillion to deficits between 2021 and 2031, CNN reported.
For the seventh straight week, the US mortgage rate rose. It hit a 16-year high, reaching 6.75%, Bloomberg reported.
At the same time, the US is seeing the worst slowdown in home loan applications since the peak of the pandemic, dropping by over 14% last week. In the past seven weeks, mortgage rates have risen by 1.30 percent, the biggest comparable jump since 2003. However, the effective 30-year fixed rate, which includes the effects of compounding, is up from 7% in the period ended September 30, the highest since 2006.
Semiconductor company Micron has announced it is pledging up to $100 billion to build a chip factory near Syracuse, New York, which would be the “largest semiconductor fabrication facility in the history of the United States.”
The move follows the availability of funding from the Biden administration’s $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, The Verge reported.
The act allocates $52 billion to encourage chip manufacturers to build fabrication sites in the US. Biden recently signed an executive order to help deliver the money to companies quicker.
Reportedly, the plant could create around 9,000 jobs over the next two decades. It could also bring an estimated 40,000 construction and supply chain jobs to the area.
