Real hourly earnings, or wages after inflation, have been positive since May 2023. That means buying power has increased for the average worker, especially those in non-managerial roles. Real wages had previously been negative for two years amid fast-rising consumer prices. Rudi_suardi | E+ | Getty Images

Americans have seen their buying power rise for a year amid falling inflation and a strong job market, which might be welcome news for households struggling to afford everyday purchases.

The average worker in the private sector saw their real hourly earnings grow 0.8% from May 2023 to May 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“Real” earnings measure the net growth in workers’ wages after inflation. In other words, the average worker in the private sector got a net raise from May 2023 to May 2024, after accounting for price growth in consumer goods and services. Their paycheck today buys more than it did a year ago.

The trend of growth in annual real earnings has persisted since May 2023, according to BLS data. It’s been especially strong for rank-and-file workers who work in non-managerial roles, data shows.

That marks a reversal from April 2021 to April 2023, when inflation spiked and eclipsed growth in the average worker’s paycheck.

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“The last year of increases in real wages is a large and important step forward for working families,” said Chris Tilly, a professor and labor economist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“It means that they can buy more while putting in the same number of hours of work,” he added. “Or, they can decrease the total number of household work hours — for example, cutting down from two jobs to one, or having one earner reduce to part-time in two-earner families — while buying an equivalent amount.”

What happened with real earnings

Real earnings tend to grow at a positive rate during “normal” times, said Maximiliano Dvorkin, an economic policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

However, dynamics in the pandemic-era U.S. economy threw that equilibrium out of whack, economists said.

For one, inflation surged, peaking at a four-decade high in mid-2022.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren is accusing Fed Chair Jerome Powell of doing the financial industry’s bidding in considering changes to Basel III Endgame regulations. In a letter first obtained by CNBC, Warren asked Powell for a response to reports that “you are advocating for slashing in half” the increase in capital required under the proposals. Bank CEOs and their lobbying groups have said the increases are unnecessarily aggressive and would force the industry to curtail lending.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is accusing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell of doing the financial industry’s bidding by considering changes to a sweeping set of regulations aimed at boosting the capital cushion that large American banks would be required to hold.

In a June 17 letter first obtained by CNBC, Warren asked Powell for a response to reports that “you are advocating for slashing in half” the increase in capital required under the proposals, known as the Basel III Endgame.

“I am disappointed by press reports indicating that you are personally intervening—after numerous meetings with big bank CEOs—to delay and water down the Basel III capital rules,” said Warren.

Last year, three U.S. banking regulators including the Federal Reserve unveiled the proposed rules, a long-expected regime shift around bank capital and risky activities such as trading and lending. The regulations incorporate new international standards created as a response to the 2008 global financial crisis.

“These rules are critical and long overdue, particularly in the wake of the Silicon Valley and Signature Bank failures, and as risks from the weak commercial real estate market and other economic threats ripple through the banking system,” Warren said.

Bank CEOs and their lobbying groups have said the increases are unnecessarily aggressive and would force the industry to curtail lending.

In March, Powell told lawmakers that he expected “broad and material changes” to the proposal in the wake of the industry’s campaign against the rules. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon coordinated efforts to weaken the rules, urging CEOs to appeal directly to Powell, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

“It now appears that you are directly doing the bank industry’s bidding, rewarding them for their extensive personal lobbying of you,” Warren said in her letter. “Taking orders from the industry that caused the 2008 economic meltdown would sacrifice the financial security

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Warren Buffett walks the floor and meets with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders ahead of their annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 3, 2024. David A. Grogan

Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway has scooped up more shares of Occidental Petroleum over each of the past nine trading sessions, driving his gigantic stake in the Houston-based oil and gas producer to almost 29%, according to regulatory filings.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate purchased Occidental shares every trading day from June 5 to Monday, totaling an additional 7.3 million shares with purchase prices slightly under or above $60, filings showed.

The purchases brought Berkshire’s holding to over 255 million shares, representing a 28.8% stake. Occidental is Berkshire’s sixth-biggest stock holding, and the conglomerate has become Occidental’s biggest institutional investor by far.

Berkshire also owns $10 billion of Occidental preferred stock and has warrants to buy another 83.9 million common shares for $5 billion, or $59.62 each. The warrants were obtained as part of the company’s 2019 deal that helped finance Occidental’s purchase of Anadarko Petroleum.

The stock closed at $60.2 Monday, making Buffett’s warrants “in the money.” A full redemption of the preferred equity could lift Berkshire’s ownership of Occidental above 40%.

Buffett has clarified that he wouldn’t take full control of the oil company, once known for being founded by legendary oilman Armand Hammer. There had been speculation of a takeover after Berkshire received regulatory approval to purchase as much as a 50% stake. 

‘Read every word’

The “Oracle of Omaha” previously said he started buying Occidental after reading a transcript of the oil company’s earnings conference call.

“I read every word, and said this is exactly what I would be doing,” Buffett told CNBC.

Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub is “running the company the right way,” he added.

Occidental also pays a 1.5% dividend yield. The stock is about flat this year after dipping 5% in 2023.

The legendary investor said he took advantage of the elevated volatility in the market in early 2022 to acquire 14% of the energy firm, worth more than $7 billion, in just two weeks.

“I find it just incredible. You couldn’t do that with Berkshire. … Overwhelmingly, large companies in America, they became poker chips,” Buffett said in 2022. “Imagine trying to [buy] 14% of the farms in this country; 14% of the apartment houses; 14% of the auto dealerships, or just anything, when already 40% were locked up some other place.”

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Games and movies on Google Play Store apps can now be viewed in three dimensions via a new Android mobile device from augmented reality glasses maker Xreal, the Alibaba-backed startup said Tuesday. “We’re hoping this one can finally became the hero product that people gonna really like,” Chi Xu, founder and CEO of Xreal, told CNBC in an interview. The Beam Pro comes with two cameras that can capture pictures and videos for three-dimensional viewing in AR glasses. Xreal, an augmented reality glasses maker, has launched a connected Beam Pro mobile device that allows users to capture spatial video and 3D images.

BEIJING — Games and movies on Google Play Store apps can now be viewed in three dimensions via a new Android mobile device from augmented reality glasses maker Xreal, the Alibaba-backed startup said Tuesday.

The Beam Pro, the company’s latest product, is a smartphone-like device that can be used with AR glasses as a virtual mouse, and links the headset to Google Play Store apps including those for gaming, movie streaming and social media.

Augmented reality imposes digital images over the real world, giving someone wearing AR glasses the impression of being in a 3D virtual space.

Xreal’s latest product launch is an indication of how Alphabet is keeping afoot in the headset space after retiring Google Glass, even as Apple launched its widely anticipated VR offering this year.

Apple‘s Vision Pro allows users to see apps and a digitally captured version of the real world using what the company calls spatial computing technology.

Xreal sells a range of AR glasses, some as light as 72 grams (2.5 ounces), that can display the screen of a connected laptop, smartphone or gaming console. The Beam Pro, which connects to the glasses via a cord, is set to begin U.S. deliveries by August and has a starting price of $199.

“We’re hoping this one can finally became the hero product that people gonna really like,” Chi Xu, founder and CEO of Xreal, told CNBC in an interview.

“I think this actually [is] gonna be the new category standard,” he said, adding some smartphone makers might “actually want to go this route.”

Xu said part of the challenge for wider AR glasses adoption has been

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