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Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
You're Not Imagining Things: Cheap Used Cars Are Vanishing
If you're struggling to find a decent used car for under $20,000, you're not alone, and you're not imagining things. A new study from iSeeCars finds that the number of affordable, late-model used vehicles has dropped off a cliff in recent years. Back in 2019, nearly half (49.3%) of all 3-year-old used cars were priced at or below $20,000. Today, that number has shriveled to just 11.5%. The average price of a 3-year-old used car is now $32,635 - a staggering 40.9% jump from 2019, when it was just $23,159. While the pandemic may feel like old news, its economic aftershocks are still distorting the car market. "The pandemic may be a fading memory, but the lack of new car production five years ago has created a 'pandemic hangover' effect," said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars. The most affordable segment of the used market - cars under $20,000 - has shrunk dramatically across all major vehicle types. Passenger cars saw the steepest increase in price, climbing 48.7% since 2019. That means entry-level sedans that once anchored the affordable used car market are now largely out of reach. In 2019, more than 70% of 3-year-old passenger cars were priced under $20,000. In 2025? Just 28.1%. SUVs fared even worse, dropping from 39.2% to a mere 8.1% share in the sub-$20K category. The shift in pricing is especially evident in once-affordable bestsellers. A few years ago, it wasn't hard to find a lightly used Honda Civic or Toyota Camry for under $20,000. Now, those same models are averaging well over that threshold. The Civic's average price jumped 44.6% to $23,813, while the Camry rose 43.5% to $23,755. Some of the biggest price leaps came from small sedans: Nissan Sentra: Up 45.7% to $18,224Toyota Corolla: Up 37.7% to $19,792Chevy Equinox: Up 27.5% to $22,228 These were once the go-to models for frugal shoppers. Today, they're inching closer to new-car pricing, without the warranties or latest tech. The used car market has been rising for three straight months, and there's little indication prices will fall significantly anytime soon. The pandemic-related slowdown in new car production from 2020 to 2022 created a ripple effect that still limits the supply of newer used vehicles. Yet demand remains strong, especially for reliable models from Toyota, Honda, and Subaru. For buyers with a strict $20,000 budget, the result is clear: you'll likely need to shop older, higher-mileage vehicles, or rethink what kind of car you can afford. As Brauer put it, "Many car buyers are now priced out of late-model used cars, forcing them to consider older models with more miles to fit within their budget." Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Bentley Doesn't Want Mercedes-Benz To Revive These Iconic Cabriolets
Imagine the rejuvenating waft of ocean air flowing through your long and full head of hair. The sun's heavy rays beat down on you with the same effect as steaming rocks in a sauna, but your cashmere polo stays void of sweat, thanks to the blissfully effective ventilation packed beneath the supple leather seats in your Mercedes-Benz convertible as you dash briskly out of town, away from your day job, and off into the cloudless weekend. This is what life is like in a drop-top Mercedes–all the theatrical joie de vivre of a top-end Benz, elevated exponentially by the disappearance of a roof. It's a simple recipe for success in the business of flashy, high-end luxury, but it seems these days that, in the pursuit of cost-cutting, shareholder value maximization, and regulatory compliance, Mercedes-Benz seems to have turned its back on some of the brand's most coveted convertible models. Models like the S-Class Cabriolet and the G-Class Cabriolet have long acted as high watermarks that set Mercedes-Benz apart from other so-called "luxury brands" who never had the guts to build such inaccessibly niche yet over-the-top extravagant models. Kids might have bright orange Lamborghinis sticky-puttied onto their bedroom walls, but the grown elite fantasize about lavish Rolls-Royce Dropheads and sultry convertible Bentleys. With models like the S-Cab and the G-Cab, Mercedes-Benz signalled to the world that it could keep up with the elite go-tos like Rolls-Royce and Bentley in terms of elegance and excessive extravagance, all with German build quality to boot. Neither Audi nor BMW ever offered drop-top variants of their full-size sedan or of a military-grade SUV, and that level of extremism has thus become synonymous with Mercedes-Benz instead of Audi or BMW. Using generative text-to-image artificial intelligence and Adobe Photoshop, we take an imagined look at what some iconic Mercedes-Benz convertible models would look like if revived for the modern day, using contemporary styling and modern body styles. These renders are purely for speculative and entertainment purposes and in no way depict any actual Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, or Mercedes-Maybach products. Only a few short years ago, the Mercedes-Benz cabriolet lineup included variants of most of the brand's traditional sedans, including the C-Class Cabrio, the E-Class Cabrio, and the venerable S-Class Cabrio, which represented the pinnacle of extravagance in the standard Mercedes-Benz lineup and could even be had in AMG and Maybach flavors. Now that Mercedes has replaced both the C- and E-Class Cabriolet with the sporty and modern CLE-Class, the world has been left without a worthy successor to the big body S-Class Cabriolet. Based on the W223 platform, an all-new Mercedes-Benz S580 Cabriolet could make use of the model's twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 with mild hybrid drive to produce up to 496 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque, placing its performance stats close to those of the 2025 Bentley Continental GT Azure, which packs 516 horsepower from a similar, hybridized and twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 setup. Reviving the S-Class Cabriolet on the Mercedes-Benz W223 platform could even spawn AMG and Maybach variants, just as the W222 generation can so proudly claim. Imagine a high-performance Mercedes-AMG S63 E Performance Cabriolet with 791 horsepower and a whopping 1,055 lb-ft of torque from a handcrafted twin-turbocharged plug-in hybrid 4.0-liter V8. Using 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive and an AMG SPEEDSHIFT 9-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, imagine doing 0-60 mph sprints in just 3.3 seconds with the wind in your hair. Alternatively, for those who appreciate the S-Class Cabrio's massive talents as a superbly luxurious cruiser, a Mercedes-Maybach S680 Cabriolet variant could make use of the lush, twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V12 found in the contemporary Maybach saloon, which packs a 621 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque punch. The Mercedes-Benz G-Class Cabriolet has become a true cult classic in its own right, as its striking yet classy appearance has aged like fine wine. The G-Class Cabriolet has become so coveted, in fact, that clean examples command exponentially higher price tags than standard, non-cabriolet variants. For example, this 2006 Mercedes-Benz G500 Cabriolet, auctioned on Bring a Trailer, sold for an astonishing $350,000 USD back in 2022. Compare that to this 2008 Mercedes-Benz G500 that sold just a month prior for $52,500, despite being two years newer, and it becomes clear that the collector car market recognizes tremendous value in the topless two-door G-Wagen variant. Perhaps Mercedes should take the hint and bring the massively desirable cabriolet back into its model lineup. Although the contemporary Mercedes-Benz lineup is not entirely absent of convertible offerings, the CLE-Class exists as the sole traditional cabriolet offering, with the SL-Class carrying the flag for the iconic Mercedes roadster format. It's unfortunate to see such historic and coveted convertibles vanish from the German automaker's legendary lineup, but we're hopeful that we'll see a comeback soon. Perhaps we'll even see some electric Mercedes cabrios eventually! Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
S&P 500 hits record high after $10 trillion rally
Wall Street traders dodged a flurry of tariff headlines to drive stocks to all-time highs, capping a week that saw a cooling in Middle East risks and signs the U.S. economy is holding up amid subdued inflation. A rally in Treasuries stalled. The dollar advanced. A surge in equities after April's tariff-fueled meltdown drove the S&P 500 to its first record since February, with the gauge closing above 6,170. Tech megacaps led gains, with Nvidia Corp. approaching the $4 trillion mark and Alphabet Inc. up almost 3%. President Donald Trump touted progress on trade deals with a few countries, naming agreements with China and the UK, while saying he was ending discussions with Canada. The loonie slid. Trump in April put tariffs on dozens of American trading partners on pause for three months a week after declaring them, when investors panicked over the possibility they could trigger a global recession. An over $10 trillion surge in the S&P 500 from the edge of a bear market has defied Wall Street expectations, underscoring conviction that the economy is withstanding policy uncertainty. 'U.S. equities have continued to recover from the tariff induced selloff in March and April,' said David Lefkowitz at UBS's Chief Investment Office. 'We think the recovery makes sense, considering that most large-cap companies should weather the tariffs reasonably well.' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled there may be some extensions to wrap up major pacts by Labor Day. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU leaders behind closed doors she was confident a deal could be reached before the deadline, according to people familiar with the matter. And China confirmed details of a trade framework with Washington. On the economic front, consumer sentiment rose sharply in June to a four-month high and inflation expectations improved notably. Data also showed that while the core personal consumption expenditures price index rose slightly more than expected, the pace was seen as consistent with tame price pressures that will allow the Federal Reserve to resume its rate cuts later this year. 'A window of opportunity is more likely to open at one of the final three policy meetings of the year - in September, October or December - when the impact of tariff increases on inflation becomes clearer,' said Gary Schlossberg at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers this week that he expects inflation to pick up in June, July and August as tariffs become increasingly reflected in consumer prices, though he added if that prediction fails to materialize, the U.S. central bank could resume rate reductions sooner rather than later. Money markets continued to project at least two Fed cuts by the end of this year. Wagers on a third reduction could gain momentum if next Thursday's jobs report is weak. To Bret Kenwell at eToro, the latest PCE reading showed that inflation is still not spiraling out of control. However, it did snap a three-month streak of lower year-over-year readings, while last month's figures were revised higher. 'Today's inflation report shouldn't be enough to give markets a significant scare, but it probably dashes the slim hopes investors had for a July rate cut,' Kenwell said. 'Further, it may give investors a bit of hesitation with stocks surging into record high territory as we near quarter-end.' Kenwell says that stocks can do pretty well in a mild-inflationary environment. 'The key will be a reassuring earnings cycle and a strong consumer as we go into the second half of the year,' he noted. Indeed, with earnings season just weeks away, stocks will get a major test. Wall Street sees profit growth of 2.8% year-over-year for the second quarter for the benchmark, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. That would be the smallest jump in two years. The lackluster forecasts magnify concerns from some market watchers that valuations are stretched. The risk of a speculative stock bubble is increasing as expectations of rate cuts draw massive investment flows, according to Bank of America Corp.'s Michael Hartnett. Already this year, $164 billion has flowed into U.S. equities, on course for the third-largest annual inflow in history, he said, citing data from EPFR Global. Corporate Highlights -Nike Inc. said its yearlong sales decline is starting to ease, suggesting that Chief Executive Officer Elliott Hill's strategic moves are paying off. -Apple Inc. and Google's Android have been warned by a top German privacy regulator that the Chinese AI service DeepSeek, available on their app stores, constitutes illegal content because it exposes users' data to Chinese authorities. -Two years after Nvidia Corp. made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a $1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach $4 trillion. -JPMorgan Chase & Co. shares have soared from an April low on a grab bag of positive developments, but to Baird analysts that's too far, too fast. They downgraded the lender to underperform from a neutral rating, giving the stock its second sell rating. -Shares of Boeing Co. are set to make gains as the company speeds up production of commercial aircraft and takes steps to move on from a series of crises in recent years, according to Rothschild & Co. Redburn, which raised the recommendation on the shares to buy. -Estee Lauder Cos. was raised to buy at HSBC, which sees the cosmetics company at the end of a downgrade cycle. -B. Riley Financial Inc. has sold its financial advisory services business GlassRatner to Canadian private equity firm TorQuest Partners, adding to a series of asset sales as the financial services firm deals with its woes. -Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. unveiled a new iteration of its artificial-intelligence technology that will make it easier for users to generate and modify images from texts and visuals, as the Chinese e-commerce giant continues its aggressive push into AI. Some of the main moves in markets: Stocks -The S&P 500 rose 0.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time -The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4% -The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% -The MSCI World Index rose 0.6% -Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 1.1% -The Russell 2000 Index was little changed Currencies -The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% -The euro was little changed at $1.1709 -The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.3709 -The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 144.72 per dollar Cryptocurrencies -Bitcoin fell 0.8% to $106,926.43 -Ether fell 1.2% to $2,416.73 Bonds -The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.27% -Germany's 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.59% -Britain's 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 4.50% Commodities -West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $65.15 a barrel -Spot gold fell 1.7% to $3,270.92 an ounce Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Child safety advocates and California's cannabis industry battle over tax funds
A proposal to pause a planned tax hike on retail cannabis has set off alarm bells among child safety advocates whose substance use prevention and treatment work depends on funds generated by sales of cannabis products. Industry members say the move, which lawmakers in Sacramento are considering, is necessary to keep struggling retailers afloat. This summer, two state congressional actions might affect the way cannabis taxes are collected and allocated. The state Assembly unanimously passed and sent to the state Senate AB 564, a bill to halt for five years an increase in the cannabis excise tax from 15% to 19%. According to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the tax increase could raise a potential $179.5 million in annual cannabis excise tax revenue. The state Senate is expected to hear the bill on July 9, but the tax hike is scheduled to take effect before that, on Tuesday, July 1. Lawmakers and cannabis industry lobbyists are also negotiating to preemptively freeze the tax rate at 15% via the budget approval process. It's unclear whether either effort will succeed. Substance use prevention advocates say the proposed tax structure was meant to compensate for funding losses after a cultivation tax that had generated important support for their programs was eliminated in 2022. The state tax administration says these losses were $538 million in 2024-2025. Lawmakers are also considering shifting millions of dollars over the next couple of years from social services, youth and environmental programs to law enforcement as illegal cannabis markets prompt emergency regulations in California. A coalition of 102 similarly affected nonprofit groups estimate a permanent loss of $240 million annually from the pool of cannabis tax funding available to them if the efforts to freeze the tax rate and reallocate more of the cannabis tax fund to law enforcement both pass. That could mean more than a billion-dollar blow over the next five years, they say. Julia Arroyo-Guzman, statewide executive director of the Young Women's Freedom Center, said the 32-year-old organization received $1.28 million in cannabis tax funds over three years from 2022 to 2025 to support its mission of healing and empowering girls, young women and trans people of all genders impacted by incarceration and underground street economies, including those related to cannabis. 'Since those dollars are not guaranteed in this next funding cycle, we have had to have staffing restructures. We've had to downsize everything from the high-level positions down to the frontline workers,' Arroyo-Guzman said. Child safety advocates say the funding is crucial to addressing the growing mental health crisis among young people. While the legal age to buy recreational cannabis in California is 21 and underage users have obtained marijuana for generations, child advocates and health experts say the retail cannabis industry has helped fuel an environment in which products, which are more potent than ever before, have become more accessible. Kaliq Trotter, a 17-year-old Walnut Creek student, began participating in the Elevate Youth California Fellowship last year. Funded by cannabis taxes, the group aims to prevents substance use disorder by investing in youth of color and those who identify as LGBTQ+ who live in communities disproportionately impacted by drug enforcement operations, including before cannabis legalization. Trotter said playing basketball has kept him substance-free but that some of his peers use cannabis regularly. 'A lot of people around our age who do it use it daily and you can see the change in their attitude. Being in programs like this helps keep them out of trouble,' Trotter said. Novato resident Alexandra Peterson was a 13-year-old seventh grader when she first smoked cannabis with friends. During her sophomore year, she lost a friend to fentanyl and went sober for a week. But, she said, 'I was so used to being high every single day for two years straight that when I hit reality, it was too much for me to handle.' She sank back into cannabis dependency, piling on other drugs like Xanax, a prescription depressant used to treat anxiety. In 2019, a psychotic episode led to Peterson's clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorder. The state placed Peterson in the foster care system, where she remains in transitional housing after two and a half years of rehabilitation and two more of sobriety, with one relapse on her 21st birthday. Determined to lead a substance-free life, Peterson, now 21, said, 'It's so much better than just being high every day and losing yourself to something that doesn't really care about you.' 'The industry has done an incredible job of whitewashing the harms of cannabis and marketing it as the latest safe, natural wellness product,' said Lynn Silver, director of an organization called Getting it Right from the Start, which aims in part to reduce youth cannabis use. But Jerred Kiloh, president and co-founder of the United Cannabis Business Association, said advocates are making false allegations about the impact of cannabis on the health and safety of children, and that pausing the tax hike is ultimately helpful for everyone. 'You can't keep bleeding a turnip - they're slowly going to run out of blood. If we don't make money, they don't make money,' he said, referring to groups that receive cannabis tax funds. In a written statement to this news organization, Caren Woodson, board president of the California Cannabis Industry Association, said independent compliance checks for ID enforcement at cannabis retailers confirmed nearly total compliance, 'significantly outperforming alcohol and tobacco retailers.' She added that retail cannabis products are sold in child-resistant packaging with state-mandated health warnings and that officials remove products that fail to comply. For youth advocates like Arroyo-Guzman, what's at stake in how the debate in Sacramento plays out is her organization's ability to continue serving vulnerable youth. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Veteran analyst offers eye-popping Nvidia, Microsoft stock prediction
In the last six months, AI stocks have been anything but boring. After a few years of massive gains, AI stocks kicked off the year getting slammed as a bubble. Talk of bloated valuations and too much hype had investors wondering if the party was over. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Then in April, President Donald Trump's surprise tariffs crashed the market, pulling down the S&P 500 by nearly 19%. AI bellwether stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) and Microsoft (MSFT) tanked, and many felt the AI rally was dead and buried. Yet here we are with the S&P 500 at an all-time high, lifted by a roaring AI comeback driven by chip leaders and cloud giants. Now one of Wall Street's sharpest has AI back at the helm, pointing to two giants ready to win big. Image source:In the AI race, Nvidia and Microsoft play different but critical roles in advancing the industry. Nvidia's ubiquitous AI-ready GPUs are the go-to hardware for training and inference. Its latest Blackwell Ultra chips, for instance, promise 1.5 times the punch of earlier models, rolling out even cheaper versions for China to dodge export curbs and grow its reach. Speaking of reach, Nvidia's data-center accelerators handle a whopping 90% of AI workloads globally. Related: Veteran analyst drops bold new call on Nvidia stock On the software side, CUDA keeps millions of developers hooked on fine-tuning performance. On top of that, its patented tools like TensorRT and NeMo make deploying models simpler, and DGX Cloud brings on-demand AI clusters to the table. Take CoreWeave, one of Wall Street's biggest stories this year, which shows how anything Nvidia touches turns to gold. Backed by a 7% Nvidia stake, Coreweave stock has built monster AI supercomputers and is up 308% from its IPO earlier this year. Hence, with a powerful full-stack approach, Nvidia remains an inseparable partner in building next-gen AI. More Tech Stock News: Circle's stock price surges after stunning CEO commentRobotaxi rivalry heats up as new cities come onlineAnalyst reboots AMD stock price target on chip update Microsoft, by contrast, is all-in on software and services to layer AI across its ecosystem. Front and center is Microsoft's massive multi-billion-dollar OpenAI partnership, weaving ChatGPT into Azure, Teams, and Office 365. Microsoft's robust cloud service in Azure packs prebuilt and custom models and low-code tools. Similarly, Microsoft 365 Copilot amps up Word and Excel, while the Windows Copilot pushes AI deep into daily work. Together, Nvidia's cutting-edge chips and Microsoft's cloud and tools power the entire AI stack, pushing them ahead of their peers. Wedbush thinks Nvidia and Microsoft could touch $4 trillion in market cap this year and ride the AI wave to $5 trillion by next year. This bold call lands as Nvidia just reclaimed the top spot from Microsoft, hitting new highs. As of yesterday's close, Nvidia's market cap stood at $3.78 trillion, while Microsoft sported a $3.7 trillion market cap. Apple's the other tech giant in the $3 trillion club, and it was once the world's most valuable company. Veteran analyst Dan Ives, in his note, wrote, "The poster children for the AI Revolution are led by Nvidia and Microsoft, as both are foundational pieces of building on the biggest tech trend we have seen in our 25 years covering tech stocks on the Street." Related: Veteran Tesla bull drops surprising 3-word verdict on robotaxi ride AI use cases have exploded of late, from cybersecurity and software to chips and robotics. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes robotics will be the next multi-trillion-dollar catalyst after AI. Ives agrees that the ripple effect is huge, that every dollar spent on Nvidia sparks another $8 to $10 across the wider tech world. In crunching the numbers, Microsoft's market cap has slipped 10.8% over the past year, losing about $400 billion. Conversely, Nvidia soared nearly 25%, adding $950 billion from its AI GPU boom. Stretch that to three years, and the gap gets even wider. Microsoft's up a robust 21%, but Nvidia's exploded 472% as it pivoted from gaming chips to the AI driver's seat. Wedbush's $4 trillion call equates to a 5.2% bump from Nvidia's current market cap and an 8.4% jump for Microsoft. Pushing to $5 trillion in 18 months ups the game, with Nvidia potentially rising 31.5% and Microsoft at 35.5%. Related: Tesla fires longtime insider as Europe slump deepens The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
