Please write comments of 2-3 lines or small paragraph for each question posted.

Question 1:

The Federal Reserve cut interest rate (technically the federal funds rate at which banks can borrow from the Fed - the central bank of the United States) to zero in an emergency announcement on 3/15/2020 to deal with the financial markets turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/federal-reserve-cuts-rates-to-zero-restarts-quantitative-easing-qe-210001968.html

Two years later on 3/16/2022 the Fed raised interest rate by 0.25% for the first time since 2018 to combat spiraling inflation:

Federal Reserve approves first interest rate hike in more than three years, sees six more aheadThe Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved its first interest rate increase in more than three years, and said it expects to keep raising through the end of the year.Jeff CoxCNBC

The Fed continued to raise interest rates several times as inflation persisted, and is expected to hike rate further into next year:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-seen-driving-interest-rates-higher-inflation-sears-2022-10-13/

Consequently the mortgage loan rates changed with the fed funds rate: the 30-year fixed rate mortgage average has increased to more than 7% following the Fed's latest action. What are the impacts of interest rate changes on the monthly payments and the total interest charges over the loan life? You can conduct sensitivity analysis using the attached Mortgage Loan Amortization Schedule in Excel: i.e. change the APR from 6% to 5%, 4%, 3% or 7%, 8% etc. to see what a difference it will make to the monthly payments and total (interest) payments by even 1% change in mortgage rate. So mortgage rate is an important factor to consider when you try to finance a new purchase or refinance an outstanding loan.

Question 2:

there are two types of valuation ratios / (market) multiples:

equity multiples are on per share basis, such as P/E, P/S, P/B, P/E/G etc.;

entity multiples are on whole firm basis, such as EV/Sales, EV/EBITDA etc.

EV(enterprise value) = market value of total equity + market value of total debt  – cash

The common characteristic for valuation ratios/(market) multiples is that the numerator is price or market value, which reflects investors' expectation on the firm's prospects. That distinguishes from other financial ratios/accounting ratios (such as liquidity ratios, debt management ratios, asset management ratios, profitability ratios etc.): both the numerator and denominator of the ratios are accounting numbers (book value) from the financial statements, which are historical data describing what already happened in the past. 

Q3) 

Employers Try a New Perk: Matching Student Loan Payments with 401(k) Contributions

https://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-try-a-new-perk-matching-student-loan-payments-with-401-k-contributions-11570708801

The COVID-19 Effect, or Excuses?

Employers may drop 401(k) matches as companies look to cut expenses:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/employers-may-drop-401k-matches-as-companies-look-to-cut-expenses.html

Why did John Deere workers strike?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_John_Deere_strike

Q4) (Take tesla earning(10/19/2022) news this week and write one comment)

The Q3 2022 earnings season just kicked off on Friday, Oct. 14, with major US corporations revealing their financial results for Q3 2022. Please observe stock price reactions to earnings announcements through this earnings season: are there any apparent/concrete relationships between stock price movements and companies' financial results? Are there any general relationships between the two? What are the possible explanations if some patterns do (/don't) exist?

Reported last Friday: UnitedHealth Group (UNH), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Wells Fargo & Company (WFC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C), etc.

Major earnings releases this week:

Monday, 10/17: Bank of America (BAC), Charles Schwab (SCHW), etc.

Tuesday, 10/18: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Netflix (NFLX), etc.

Wednesday, 10/19: Tesla (TSLA), Procter & Gamble (PG), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), ASML Holding (ASML), etc.

Thursday, 10/20: AT&T (T), etc.

Friday, 10/21: Verizon Communications (VZ), American Express (AXP), The Goldman Sachs Group (GS), etc.

Earnings calendar at Zacks:

https://www.zacks.com/earnings/earnings-calendar