A rocker, a president and the “Lady in Red.”

New York City Councilman Justin Brannan is eyeing a run at the Big Apple’s Comptroller’s seat in next year’s election, The Post has learned.

The Brooklyn Dem, who currently serves as the council’s finance chair, filed paperwork with the Campaign Finance Board Tuesday allowing him to start fundraising for the already hotly contested seat, online records show.

The lawmaker also registered a political committee JB for NYC, which mirrors his former committees, Relect JB and Friends of JB, record show.

Calls to Brannan, 45, were not immediately returned.

It was unclear if he was formally running or exploring what traction he could get as a candidate.

With almost a year until next year’s primaries, the field of candidates vying to be the city’s next financial watchdog is already crowded with current Comptroller Brad Lander entering the race against Mayor Eric Adams.

On Monday, Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar formally announced her run with little fanfare after reporters noticed her camp had posted her campaign video a bit prematurely.

The two are expected to take on Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who also signaled interest by filing paperwork for the role last week, but told The Post he was informally exploring the bid.

Brannan is termed limited in the council and has been weighing his next political steps for months now with the comptroller being on the shortlist with his experience as finance chair, according to sources.

Over the past few years, the councilman has been a leading voice on budget issues and was key in the push for a property tax rebate in 2022.

He’s also served as a foil to Adams and his administration, sparring over budget cuts during the migrant crisis, which came to a head this year over the widely different projections in tax revenue.

Brannan, a hardcore punk rocker known for his role in Most Precious Blood, reps the 47th council district in Bay Ridge nabe of Brooklyn.

It was rumored that Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso could also join in the race but told Pix11 on Monday he was staying put.

U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday to one of their best days of the year after the first of several highly anticipated reports on the economy this week came in better than expected.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.7% for its third-best day of 2024 after the U.S. government reported inflation at the wholesale level slowed last month by more than economists expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 408 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite clambered 2.3% higher.

High inflation has been the scourge of shoppers and financial markets for years. It finally looks to be slowing enough to get the Federal Reserve to ease up on high interest rates, which the Fed has been keeping at economy-crunching levels in order to stifle inflation.

Treasury yields eased in the bond market following the inflation data, as traders remain convinced the Fed’s meeting next month will bring the first cut to interest rates since the COVID crash of 2020. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.84% from 3.91% late Monday.

All is not clear, though. On Wednesday, the U.S. government will deliver the latest monthly update on inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling, which could be less encouraging. And on Thursday will come a report showing how much U.S. shoppers are spending at retailers.

A growing worry on Wall Street is that the Fed may have kept interest rates too high for too long and undercut the U.S. economy by making it so expensive to borrow money. The economy is still growing, and many economists don’t expect a recession, but a sharp slowdown in U.S. hiring last month raised questions about its strength.

Such questions weigh because even cuts to interest rates haven’t been enough for stocks to rise significantly in the ensuing 18 months if a recession hits, according to Chris Haverland, global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Home Depot on Tuesday delivered stronger profit for the spring quarter than analysts expected, but it also said high interest rates and uncertainty about the economy are keeping some customers from spending on home improvement projects.

The retail giant lowered its full-year forecasts for an important measure of sales and for profit, even though it topped expectations for the second quarter. Its stock rose 1.2% after flipping earlier between modest gains and losses.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Starbucks soared 24.5% after it convinced Brian Niccol to leave his job as CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill to take over the coffee chain. He will start as chairman and chief executive next month and will replace Laxman Narasimhan, who is stepping down immediately.

Chipotle, meanwhile, dropped 7.5%. Niccol has been its chief executive since 2018 and its chairman since 2020, and he helped its stock rise more than 240% for the five years through Monday. That tower’s over the S&P 500’s 96% return including dividends. Chipotle said its chief operating officer, Scott Boatwright, would be its interim CEO.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were modestly higher across much of Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was an outlier and jumped 3.4%.

Japan’s market has been viciously volatile recently, including the worst drop for the Nikkei 225 since the Black Monday crash of 1987. It’s been swinging since a hike to interest rates by the Bank of Japan forced many hedge funds and other investors to abandon a popular trade all at once, where they had borrowed Japanese yen at cheap rates to invest elsewhere. The forced selling that followed the surge in the Japanese yen’s value reverberated around the world.

But a promise last week by a top Bank of Japan official not to raise rates further as long as markets are “unstable” has helped calm the market.

Another worry that’s made Wall Street so shaky the last month is concerns that investors went overboard in their mania around artificial-intelligence technology and took the prices of Big Tech and AI-related stocks too high.

Nvidia, the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, has been at the center of the action. After soaring more than 170% through the year’s first six and a half months, it plunged more than 20% over the ensuing three weeks.

On Tuesday, Nvidia rose 6.5% and was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500. All the other stocks in the small group known as the “Magnificent Seven” also climbed. They almost singlehandedly pushed the S&P 500 to dozens of all-time highs earlier this year, even as high interest rates weighed on much of the rest of the stock market.

Unlike much of the early part of this year, it wasn’t just the Magnificent Seven rising Tuesday. Wall Street’s rally was more widespread, and nearly 85% of the stocks in the S&P 500 rose. The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index also climbed 1.6%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 90.04 points to 5,434.43. The Dow added 408.63 to 39,765.64, and the Nasdaq composite gained 407.00 to 17,187.61.

The team of five financial advisors say their high-net-worth clients will benefit from Ameriprise’s innovative and fully integrated digital capabilities

MINNEAPOLIS, August 13, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Q5 Wealth Management, a financial advisory team managing $1.5 billion in client assets in Beaumont and Houston, Texas, recently joined the independent channel of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP) from UBS Financial Services, Inc. Financial advisors Omar Bitar, Jeremy Saba, Mike Persia, Ed Persia, and Brad Klein conducted an extensive search for a new broker-dealer and chose Ameriprise for the firm’s robust resources to elevate their high-net-worth clients’ experience and significantly scale their practice. Specifically, the advisors were energized by Ameriprise’s innovative and fully integrated digital capabilities that will make it more efficient to consistently exceed clients’ expectations.

Reflecting on the move, Mike Persia said, “Clients are the core of everything we do, and they trust us to provide advice that propels them to reach their unique goals in life. Our team continually evaluates the way we’re doing business to ensure we’re delivering them the highest value. We saw an opportunity with Ameriprise to enhance our client offering and better position our practice for future growth.”

Q5 Wealth Management serves high-net-worth clients across the United States. The team specializes in advising on complex financial situations for individuals planning for retirement, families and business owners. “It’s our job as advisors to make it as easy as possible for clients to manage their financial lives in a comprehensive way,” Jeremy Saba added. “Ameriprise has leading capabilities that create efficiencies for clients and our team, as well as a sophisticated wealth management platform equipped with the products and services our clients want and need.”

The team chose to join Ameriprise’s independent channel because it offered the right balance of tenured support from leadership and flexibility to run their practice their way.

“We’re excited to welcome Q5 Wealth Management to our Ameriprise network,” said Ameriprise Field Vice President Logan Clipp. “Ameriprise is very thoughtful about the advisors we choose to partner with because we put significant time and resources into helping each one grow and serve clients exceptionally well. Omar, Jeremy, Mike, Ed, and Brad exemplify what it means to run a growth-focused, client-centric practice.”

Ameriprise Regional Vice President Tres Rouquette also supports the team.

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The team includes their supporting staff, Investment Specialists Kevin Wagner and Ashley Carter, Client Service Managers Sherri Thompson, Brandy Head and Taryn King, and Client Concierge Dena McNiel.

Ameriprise has continued to attract experienced, productive financial advisors, with more than 400 advisors moving their practices to Ameriprise in 2023 and approximately 1,700 joining the firm in the last 5 years.¹ To find out why experienced financial advisors are joining Ameriprise, visit ameriprise.com/why.

About the Ameriprise Ultimate Advisor Partnership

The Ameriprise Ultimate Advisor Partnership offers a differentiated experience for advisors that helps them accelerate growth while delivering an excellent client experience. Combined with the company’s culture of support and independence, the Ultimate Advisor Partnership enables advisors to scale their businesses, deepen client relationships and drive referrals for future growth.

About Ameriprise Financial

At Ameriprise Financial, we have been helping people feel confident about their financial future for 130 years. With extensive investment advice, asset management and insurance capabilities and a nationwide network of approximately 10,000 financial advisors², we have the strength and expertise to serve the full range of individual and institutional investors’ financial needs.

Ameriprise Financial cannot guarantee future financial results.

Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Investment products are not insured by the FDIC, NCUA or any federal agency, are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by any financial institution, and involve investment risks including possible loss of principal and fluctuation in value.

Securities offered by Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC. Member FINRA and SIPC.

©2024 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.

¹ Ameriprise Financial 2023 10-K.
2 Ameriprise Financial Q2 2024 Earnings Release.

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Contacts

Alison Mueller, Media Relations
612.678.7183
alison.g.mueller@ampf.com