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Raphael Bostic in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

David A Grogan | CNBC

Here is the key news investors need to start their trading day:

1. Bad start for stocks

Stocks are still in a funk. The three main indices were down on Monday, suggesting that last week’s troubles would continue. On Friday, the Dow hit a new intraday low for 2022, while the S&P 500 briefly slipped below its June low. Investors are trying to figure out how to implement the Federal Reserve’s aggressive anti-inflation plan by raising interest rates. Right now, the central bank’s policy rate is between 3% and 3.25%, but policymakers said they could raise the rate to as high as 4.6% pretty soon to bring down inflation. Markets are also digesting comments from Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic, who told CBS Face the Nation that he expects some job loss pain from the Fed’s anti-rate hike campaign — “less than what we’re getting.” seen in other situations”.

Continue reading: International currencies slide

2. A new tax bill for corporate giants

An Andy Warhol-esque print of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett hangs in front of a clothing stand during Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s first in-person annual meeting since 2019 in Omaha, Nebraska, the United States, on April 30, 2022.

Scott Morgan | Reuters

According to a study by the University of North Carolina Tax Center, Amazon and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway would likely pay the most under the new corporate minimum tax. Using 2021 corporate earnings as a test case, the researchers found that the tax would affect 78 companies, including Ford and AT&T. The new tax, which President Joe Biden signed into law along with the rest of the anti-inflation bill in August, aims to appeal to companies making over $1 billion in a year. Overall, the UNC investigation shows that the tax would have raised $31.8 billion in 2021. A similar study by the nonpartisan Joint Center for Taxation found the tax would affect 150 companies and generate $34 billion in revenue. Read the UNC study here.

3. Italy’s shift to the right

The political leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni.

Marco Cantile | Light Rocket | Getty Images

Between Russia’s war in Ukraine and the resulting energy price inflation, Europe is already dealing with a lot of upheaval. Italy’s voters have just added another complication to the list: the rise of the Brothers of Italy, a far-right political party that emerged from the neo-fascist movement that remained after Benito Mussolini’s death in the final months of World War II. The leader of the party, Giorgia Meloni, is also poised to become the country’s first female prime minister under a broader centre-right coalition. She claims the party has rid itself of fascist elements and is striving to make the European Union less bureaucratic. But critics warn that Meloni’s government could become more confrontational with European leadership and end up being relegated to a second tier of leadership within the bloc.

4. “The consequences would be appalling”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during an interview with Reuters amid the Russian attack on Ukraine September 16, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Valentin Ogirenko | Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was not bluffing when he warned last week that he could use nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, also believes him. “He wants to scare the whole world. These are the first steps in his nuclear blackmail. I don’t think he’s bluffing,” Zelenskyy said on CBS’ Face the Nation. Western governments are also taking the threat seriously. “The consequences would be appalling,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS. Elsewhere in the war, separatists pushed widely criticized votes for the annexation of parts of Ukraine for Russia, while protests continued in response to Putin’s decision to call up hundreds of thousands of reservists to salvage his failed war. Follow the updates here.

5. Blue Notes

21 million pirated copies Twelve years after the release of Titanic, Oscar-winning director James Cameron returned to cinemas with the sci-fi epic Avatar.

Fox of the twentieth century

“Avatar” changed cinema when it was released in 2009 and showed how important the Chinese and international box office had become for Hollywood. For years, audiences wondered when a sequel would come, and we’re finally getting one this December, The Way of Water. To gauge interest in James Cameron’s next eco-sci-fi epic, Disney – which bought ‘Avatar’ studio 20th Century Fox in between releases – re-bred the original film to theaters this past weekend. It was shown in 3D, which had largely fallen out of favor, in high-priced Imax theaters. The film’s international grossing of about $20 million showed that the franchise is still going strong overseas. But its domestic gross of about $10 million wasn’t all that compelling to box office pundits. “We can’t say with confidence that viewership here provided enough litmus testing for exclusive 3D rollouts given how new releases have generally performed over the past few years,” said Shawn Robbins of BoxOffice.com.

Continue reading: Who is the most powerful person in Hollywood? Bryan Lourd is a good answer.

– CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel, Jack Stebbins, Natasha Turak, Matt Clinch and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.

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Small business owners are among the Americans most likely to fall behind when it comes to saving for retirement. Reinvesting in a business is more often a priority for entrepreneurs with excess cash than investing in a long-term tax-advantaged retirement plan. Covid didn’t help.

Amid the pandemic, scores of American small business owners have suspended or cut their retirement plans, according to investment experts and pension experts, who have been pressured by rising labor and commodity costs or, in the worst case, faced business closures.

Certainly, the pandemic hasn’t impacted every small business when it comes to retirement planning. According to a ShareBuilder 401,000 survey of 500 small businesses, 37% of small business owners say they’re not sure they’re saving enough for retirement. But that’s slightly less than the 44% who said they had no confidence in their retirement savings two years earlier.

Some data show that small business owner savings rates at least marginally reflected the rise of all Americans during the pandemic. In 2019, the average monthly amount that active participants contributed to their 401(k) plan with Guideline, a small business retirement platform, was $646. According to the company, this rose to $783 in 2021. For its part, Vanguard saw small business ownership rates increase from 72% to 73% in 2020, and deferral rates — the portion of salary going into retirement — increased to 7.3% in 2020 from 7.1% in 2020 2019

But those results don’t generally reflect the experiences of many of the country’s smallest companies — including those in hard-hit industries. Many of these companies have fallen further behind on their retirement goals in recent years for a variety of reasons and need a kickstart, according to financial experts. Coupled with the fact that many owners have never saved for retirement, the recent market turmoil could make it a good time to start thinking about saving money, or more money, for retirement.

Here are a few ideas on how to bridge the gap.

1. If possible, put at least 10% of your income into retirement

In general, investment experts suggest saving 10% to 15% of your income annually over a 40-year career — just to maintain the same standard of living in retirement, said Stuart Robertson, CEO of ShareBuilder 401k. However, the March survey found that only 38% of the companies surveyed are saving 10% or more. Meanwhile, 24% said they don’t currently contribute.

2. Reduce the budget and redirect it to savings

David Peters, founder and owner of Peters Tax Preparation & Consulting in Richmond, Virginia, has advised business owners to carefully examine their budget, pay close attention to where they spend their money and look for ways to save. For example, you might be able to work from home and save on gas or cut out unnecessary luxuries. “A smart move would be to cut some of the current spending so you can keep saving for the long-term goals,” he said.

3. Increase the risk of the investment portfolio

Another option for those already saving could be to take on more investment risk while also cutting back on spending if necessary. “If you increase your allocation so that you get a two or three percentage point higher return, and you reduce your expenses by 2% to 3% and add the power of compound interest, it can be very powerful for returns.” said Timothy Speiss, a tax partner in the Personal Wealth Advisors Group at EisnerAmper LLP in New York.

That might seem like a hard pill to swallow given recent market volatility, but for small business owners who currently have cash on hand, they may be able to leverage some assets that may be undervalued. “People are afraid to save when they see them in the red every day,” Peters said, but because of market volatility “opportunities may arise that they otherwise would not have.”

As Dan Wiener, who runs the independent adviser for Vanguard Investors, recently told CNBC’s Bob Pisani, when the S&P 500 falls more than 3.5% in a single day or a series of days, they’re mostly buying opportunities. This happened 65 times between June 1983 and the end of March 2022, resulting in an average return of 25.6% over the next year. “Buying on those big one-day price declines has mostly been profitable if you’re willing to just look at a year,” he said.

4. Make a plan and stick to it

While some small business owners might be concerned that the market will continue to fall, pension professionals said things tend to even out over time as owners regularly contribute to their pension. The underlying motivation shouldn’t be picking the best days, but creating a plan to save over the long term and stick to it.

By making regular contributions alone, investors reap the benefits of dollar cost averaging, which means you’re not always buying at a high or low price, said Kevin Busque, CEO and co-founder of Guideline. “If you set it and forget it, you don’t have to worry about the timing of the market.”

Robertson gives the example of an investor who keeps buying a fund for $500 through a high market, a low market, and a recovering market. First, the investor buys five shares at $100 each. Then he buys 10 shares at $50 each and finally he buys 6.67 shares at $75 each. His total expenses are around $1,500 and the fund’s average share price is $75. However, the total market value of his 21.67 shares is $1625.25, so he is ahead despite buying some shares at a market high and some at a market low.

“They can save whatever they want; the important thing is that they do it,” Robertson said.