2M stimulus payments coming from state soon

At least 2 million direct deposits from the Golden State Stimulus II program will hit bank accounts across California next week, following the first round of 600,000 payments that went out Aug. 27, the Franchise Tax Board said Thursday.

Eligible taxpayers will get $600 and qualifying families with children will receive an additional $500.

Similar to the federal stimulus payments, California’s distribution is first being sent by direct deposit to bank accounts used for annual tax refunds. Paper checks will be mailed to residents beginning in early October, a representative of the Tax Franchise Board said.

Most direct deposit payments will be issued before Oct. 15. Those who filed a state tax return after Aug. 20, should expect to wait 45 days for the return to be processed and a payment issued.

To qualify, residents must file 2020 taxes by Oct. 15, 2021; have adjusted gross income of $0 to $75,000 for the 2020 tax year; be a state resident for more than half of the 2020 tax year; be a state resident the date payment is issued; cannot be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer; a dependent is a qualifying child or qualifying relative.

Excluded from the payments are those whose income is solely derived from benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and State Supplementary Payment (SSP) and the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), Social Security, CalWorks, unemployment, state disability insurance (SDI) and VA disability. Participants in an earlier round of stimulus payments also are excluded.

To get an estimate on your California stimulus payment, go to ftb.ca.gov

300,000 cars are cut from Toyota production

Toyota Motor Corp. has trimmed its production outlook for this year by about 3% because the spread of the coronavirus in Southeast Asia has disrupted access to semiconductors and other key parts.

The world’s No. 1 automaker, which is adjusting output in September and October, now expects to produce 9 million vehicles in the fiscal year through March, down from 9.3 million previously forecast. The company is sticking to its forecast for operating profit of $22.7 billion this year, factoring in the potential to reduce costs.

Toyota warned last month of cuts due to the chip and parts shortages as COVID-19 coursed through the key Southeast Asia manufacturing region, shuttering or impacting factories in places such as Malaysia to Vietnam. The move shows how even Toyota, having weathered the shortages well compared with peers, is vulnerable to the same constraints hurting the wider industry. The automaker is renowned for its supply-chain savvy, honed over decades.

S&P hit with its fifth straight reported loss

Wall Street capped a choppy day of trading Friday with another pullback for stocks and the S&P 500’s first weekly loss in three weeks.

The benchmark index fell 0.8%, its fifth straight decline, and ended 1.7% lower for the holiday-shortened week. That’s it’s biggest weekly drop since June. The other major U.S. stock indexes also posted weekly losses.

The S&P 500 fell 34.70 points to 4,458.58. The index is now within 1.8% of the all-time high it set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 271.66 points, or 0.8%, to 34,607.72. The techheavy Nasdaq composite shed an early gain, dropping 132.76 points, or 0.9%, to 15,115.49.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gave up 21.58 points, or 1%, to 2,227.55.

Restaurant and arcade operator Dave & Buster’s rose 1.2% after reporting solid financial results. Endo International surged 32.9% after settling opioid cases with the state of New York and two large counties in a $50 million deal.