Mega Millions says new rules will more than double jackpot value
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(NEW YORK) — New Mega Millions rules will come into play next month, the company has announced, under which the minimum jackpot value will more than double to $50 million.
The new rules will come into force after the final drawing of the current game on Friday, April 4, the company said in a notice posted to its website. The first drawing under the new rules will be on April 8.
From that draw, jackpots will start at $50 million, rather than the current starting point of $20 million. “Jackpots are expected to grow faster and get to higher dollar amounts more frequently in the new game,” the company said.
Minimum non-jackpot prizes will jump in value from between $2 and $1 million to between $10 and $10 million. Every winning ticket will payout at least double the price, Mega Millions said.
Mega Millions will introduce a new $5 game with a built-in multiplier, with a multiplier value of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 randomly assigned at the time of purchase.
Prizes for match 5 — achieved by matching five white balls — will range from $2 million to $10 million with the new multiplier.
Matching the Mega Ball on its own will now payout $10 to $50, depending on the assigned multiplier.
Mega Millions said the new rules improve the odds of players winning the jackpot — from 1 in 302,575,350 to 1 in 290,472,336 — due to the removal of one gold Mega Ball from the game. The new format will have 24 rather than 25 Mega Balls.
Overall odds of winning any prize will improve to 1 in 23 from 1 in 24, the company said.
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Reserve is set to announce its first interest rate decision since a global trade war touched off by President Donald Trump’s tariffs sent stocks reeling and triggered concern about a possible recession.
The move arrives less than two weeks after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said tariffs would likely raise prices, while voicing patience as Trump’s economic policies take shape.
“We are focused on parsing the signal from the noise as the situation evolves,” Powell told an economic forum in New York City. “We are not in a hurry.”
Investors expect the central bank to leave rates unchanged on Wednesday, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
The Trump administration earlier this month slapped 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, though the White House soon imposed a one-month delay for some of the tariffs. A fresh round of duties on Chinese goods doubled an initial set of tariffs placed on China a month prior.
Tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum last week triggered retaliatory tariffs from Canada and the European Union, adding to countermeasures already initiated by China.
Last week, the S&P 500 closed down more than 10% since a peak attained last month, meaning the decline officially qualified as a market correction. It marked the index’s first correction since October 2023. The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its worst one-week drop since March 2023.
By some key measures, the economy remains in solid shape, however. A recent jobs report showed steady hiring last month and a historically low unemployment rate. Inflation stands well below a peak attained in 2022, though price increases register nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s goal of 2%.
The Fed retreated in its fight against inflation over the final months of last year, lowering interest rates by a percentage point. Still, the Fed’s interest rate remains at a historically high level of between 4.25% and 4.5%.
Stretching back to his first term in office, Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to lower interest rates.
During a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Trump called on the central bank to cut rates days before it was set to announce an interest rate decision.
At the ensuing meeting that month, the Fed decided to hold interest rates steady. Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., after the announcement, Powell declined to comment about Trump’s call for lower interest rates, saying it would be “inappropriate” to respond.
“The public should be confident that we’ll continue to do our work as we always have,” Powell said, adding that the Fed would continue to “use our tools to achieve our goals.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will announce its latest decision setting the level of interest rates, just days after President Donald Trump called on the central bank to lower them.
Investors widely expect the Fed to hold interest rates steady, putting the central bank on a potential collision course with Trump. A longstanding norm of independence typically insulates the central bank from direct political interference.
A decision to maintain the current level of interest rates would pause a series of three consecutive interest rate cuts imposed by the Fed over the final months of 2024.
The Fed indicated last month that it would cut interest rates at a slower pace than it had previously forecast, however, pointing to a bout of resurgent inflation. That forecast sent stock prices plummeting, though markets have broadly recovered the losses.
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of more than 9% in June 2022, but price increases remain nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
During a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Trump demanded a drop in interest rates after calling for a reduction of oil prices set by a group of nations known as OPEC, which includes Saudi Arabia.
The prospect of low oil prices will enable the Fed to dial back its fight against inflation and bring down interest rates, Trump said.
“I’m going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil,” Trump said, later adding: “With oil prices going down, I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately.”
The U.S. does not belong to OPEC, nor does the president play a role in the organization’s decisions regarding the price of oil sold by its member states.
Several past presidents have sought to influence the Fed’s interest rate policy, including Trump, who repeatedly spoke out in favor of low interest rates during his first term.
On the campaign trail in August, Trump said a U.S. president should have a role in setting interest rates.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell struck a defiant tone in November when posed with the question of whether he would resign from his position if asked by Trump.
“No,” Powell told reporters assembled at a press conference in Washington, D.C., blocks away from the White House.
When asked whether Trump could fire or demote him, Powell stated: “Not permitted under the law.”
The Fed retreated in its fight against inflation over the final months of last year, lowering interest rates by a percentage point. Still, the Fed’s interest rate remains at a historically high level of between 4.25% and 4.5%.
Last month, Powell said the central bank may proceed at a slower pace with future rate cuts, in part because it has now lowered interest rates a substantial amount.
Powell also said a recent resurgence of inflation influenced the Fed’s expectations, noting that some policymakers considered uncertainty tied to potential policy changes under Trump.
“It’s common-sense thinking that when the path is uncertain, you get a little slower,” Powell said. “It’s not unlike driving on a foggy night or walking around in a dark room full of furniture.”
(WASHINGTON) — America’s closest neighbors, Canada and Mexico, excoriated President Donald Trump for slapping historic tariffs on goods from their countries.
Trump’s broad tariffs went into effect on Tuesday, along with increased duties on goods from China, a move that prompted a swift retaliation from Beijing.
“President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest,” the White House said in a statement.
Goods entering the U.S. from Mexico and Canada will carry a 25% tariff, while those from China will be subject to a 10% increase on existing tariffs, according to the White House.
U.S. tariffs are at their highest level since 1943, Yale’s Budget Lab said.
On Feb. 27, Trump alleged that illicit drugs such as fentanyl had continued to enter the U.S. through Mexico and Canada despite agreements reached last month to address the issue.
Since September, nearly all fentanyl seized by the U.S. came through the Southern border with Mexico, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, a federal agency. Less than 1% of fentanyl was seized at the Northern border with Canada, CBP found.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharply criticized the tariffs, calling them a “dumb” policy that does not “make sense.”
The reason for the tariffs is based on a false allegation about Canada as a major source of drugs entering the U.S., Trudeau added.
“It’s an example of [Trump] not really being able to see what it is that he wants, because even the excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified [and] completely false,” Trudeau said.
In response, Canada slapped a 25% retaliatory tariff on $30 billion worth of goods. Tariffs on an additional $125 billion worth of products will take effect in 21 says, Trudeau said.
“We will not back down from a fight,” Trudeau added.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.
“There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations,” Sheinbaum said. “We have said it in different ways: cooperation and coordination, yes; subordination and interventionism, no.”
Sheinbaum said she will speak over the phone with Trump on Thursday, and if no deal can be reached, she’ll announce the tariff and non-tariff measures at a rally on Sunday.
China’s response
Within minutes of the new U.S. tariffs taking effect, China unveiled on Tuesday its initial response by placing additional 10% to 15% tariffs on imported U.S. goods, like chicken, wheat, soybeans and beef.
Those duties will be on top of similar tariffs imposed back during the first Trump administration’s trade war in 2018. Some of those tariffs are already at 25%, though Beijing issued some waivers as a result of the 2020 “phase one” trade deal.
The new Chinese tariffs are set to come into effect for goods shipped out next Monday, March 10.
Stock prices plummet
Stock futures for the three major U.S. indexes were close to flat early Tuesday following the selloff on Monday as Trump announced his proposed tariffs would go into effect at 12:01 a.m.
Stock prices plummet
Stock futures for the three major U.S. indexes were close to flat early Tuesday following the selloff on Monday as Trump announced his proposed tariffs would go into effect at 12:01 a.m.
Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday. The Shanghai Stock Exchange climbed less than a percentage point, while the Nikkei in Japan slipped about 1.2% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong closed down about 0.3%.
European markets mostly traded off on Tuesday, with the DAX in Germany down about 1.6% and the FTSE 100 slipping about 0.3% midday.
The U.S. tariffs arrived about a month after Trump granted Mexico and Canada a reprieve, having reached agreements with the two countries regarding border security and drug trafficking.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki and Anne Laurent contributed to this report.
