Wall Street sets more records to close winning month

Wall Street coasted to its latest winning month and quarter by rising to more records. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% Thursday, adding to its all-time high set the day before. It roared 10.2% in the first three months of the year as the market continues a nearly unstoppable run that began last October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. Treasury yields inched higher in the bond market following several reports on the economy.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.2%. U.S. bond and stock markets are closed for Good Friday.

Crypto mogul sentenced to 25 years in prison

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a cryptocurrency fraud that a prosecutor has described as one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence Thursday in a packed Manhattan courtroom. The 32-year-old Bankman-Fried was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy charges brought after his once-soaring cryptocurrency trading platform and related companies collapsed into bankruptcy.

Bankman-Fried was extradited to the U.S. in December 2022, five years after he started his businesses with plans to revolutionize the emerging cryptocurrency industry.

California proposal would change how power bills are calculated

A new proposal from California regulators would change how power companies calculate their customer’s bills. Power rates are currently calculated mostly based on how much power people use. The new proposal unveiled Wednesday would make a portion of power bills a fixed charge. That charge would be $24.15 per month for most people. Those who are enrolled in low-income assistance programs would pay less.

The California Public Utilities Commission says the rate people pay for using power would decrease by up to 7 cents per kilowatt hour. State officials say this would benefit people who use more electricity to stay cool in the summer.

Meta scaling back news and political content

Meta will be sunsetting Facebook News in early April for users in the U.S. and Australia as the platform further deemphasizes news and politics. Meta says users will still be able to view links to news articles, and news organizations will still be able to post and promote their stories and websites, as any other individual or organization can on Facebook.

Meta says news makes up less than 3% of what users worldwide see in their Facebook feeds, while a Pew study found 3 in 10 U.S. adults say they regularly get news from Facebook.

— Bulletin wire reports