Thomas Shelter

Thomas Shelter has been a keen follower of US politics for over two decades. His reporting for Congress.net primarily focuses on legislation, party politics, and business news.

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Tesla Faces Earnings Scrutiny as Cybercab Timelines and Margin Pressures Come Into Focus

Tesla heads into its first-quarter 2026 earnings call on April 22 carrying a heavier burden than any equivalent point in the company’s recent history, with investors demanding clarity on both the near-term health of its core automotive business and the credibility of a robotaxi commercialisation timeline that remains the primary driver of a valuation many…

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Morgan Stanley Posts Record Q1 Revenue of $20.6 Billion as Institutional Trading Surges

Morgan Stanley has delivered the strongest quarterly performance in its history, reporting first-quarter 2026 net revenues of $20.6 billion and earnings per share of $3.43, both of which substantially exceeded analyst forecasts and pushed the stock higher in pre-market and regular trading on Wednesday. The results reflect a financial sector benefiting from elevated volatility, record…

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Wells Fargo Beats on Earnings Per Share but Net Interest Income Miss Sends Stock Lower

Wells Fargo produced the most ambiguous result of Tuesday’s concentrated bank earnings session, beating the consensus earnings per share estimate of $1.58 with reported diluted EPS of $1.60 while simultaneously missing on net interest income in a way that investors refused to overlook. The stock fell approximately 4.8 percent through the trading session, making it…

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Oil Surges Past $100 as Hormuz Blockade Takes Effect, Putting Pressure on Inflation Outlook

West Texas Intermediate crude closed above $99 per barrel on Monday as the US naval blockade of Iranian ports took effect at 10am Eastern Time, reinstating the energy market anxiety that had briefly subsided during last week’s ceasefire rally. The day’s session illustrated in compressed form the uncomfortable reality facing global economies: the geopolitical situation…

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Democrats Question Trump’s Fitness for Office as Iran Rhetoric Reaches New Extreme

Congressional Democrats spent the past week navigating an Iran crisis that has produced some of the most extreme presidential rhetoric in recent American political history, with several lawmakers openly questioning whether Trump is fit to continue in office and calling for the invocation of the 25th Amendment. The flashpoint came on Easter Sunday when Trump…

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Trump Administration Faces Mounting Pressure as Midterm Horizon Sharpens

The political calculations surrounding the Trump administration are shifting noticeably as the 2026 midterm elections move from a distant abstraction into a concrete near-term reality, with Democrats increasingly energised by economic data that challenges the White House’s claims of a golden-age economy and Republicans in competitive districts navigating the difficult arithmetic of defending an incumbent…

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Democrats Move on War Powers Resolution as Ceasefire Leaves Impeachment Push Without Momentum

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Wednesday that Senate Democrats will force a vote on an Iran war powers resolution when Congress returns from spring recess next week, describing the two-week ceasefire as “not a strategy, not a diplomatic solution, not a plan.” The move reflects a Democratic caucus that has concluded the ceasefire…

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UBS Trims S&P 500 Targets as the Iran War Keeps Equity Strategists on Edge

Before Tuesday night’s ceasefire changed the immediate calculus, UBS Global Wealth Management had already moved decisively, revising its year-end S&P 500 target from 7,700 to 7,500 and trimming its mid-year forecast from 7,300 to 7,000. The note, dated April 6, reflected a banking institution recalibrating for a world where oil remains elevated and geopolitical uncertainty…

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