News
Stocks soar to their best day since May as the Dow tops 50,000 and bitcoin stops plunging
2+ hour, 46+ min ago (661+ words) The stock market roared back on Friday, as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week and bitcoin halted its plunge, at least for now. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 133.90 points, or 2%, to 6,932,30 for its best…...
Commentary: The Dow just broke 50,000. Here's what that means
8+ hour, 7+ min ago (1254+ words) Round numbers always enchant humans, especially when they're big round numbers. So you'll probably be reading and hearing a lot about how the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 50,000-point threshold Friday for the first time. Actually, "threshold" isn't the…...
Commentary: Your stocks are slumping, but you probably can't blame Trump
13+ hour, 47+ min ago (1431+ words) Tariff turmoil. Threats against Iran. An anti-immigration surge that has taken two innocent lives. And there's a sizable slump hitting the stock, bond, precious metals and cryptocurrency markets. The answer is: Not much. " Investment Manager Barry Ritholtz When it comes…...
Commentary: The best being said for Trump's pick for Fed chair is that it could have been worse
3+ day, 13+ hour ago (1613+ words) The one thing that was clear about President Trump's nomination of Kevin M. Warsh as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, announced Friday, is that the investment community didn't really know what to make of it. The dollar rallied, even though…...
Stocks fall while a break in gold fever sends metals prices plunging
1+ week, 3+ hour ago (842+ words) Financial markets churned on Friday as investors tried to figure out what President Trump's new nominee to lead the Federal Reserve would mean for interest rates. U.S. stocks fell, with the S&P 500 down 0.4% after sinking as much as 1.1% earlier in…...
Applications for jobless benefits, a proxy for layoffs, ticked down last week
1+ week, 1+ day ago (545+ words) Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 24 fell by 1,000 to 209,000 from the previous week's number, which was revised upward by 10,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting 205,000 new applications. Applications for…...
Americans' confidence in the U.S. economy falls to the lowest level since 2014
1+ week, 2+ day ago (449+ words) Consumer confidence declined sharply in January, hitting the lowest level since 2014 as Americans grow increasingly concerned about their financial prospects. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index cratered 9.7 points to 84.5 in January, falling below even the lowest…...
Top U.S. trading partners pledged to invest $5 trillion in America. Some researchers have doubts.
1+ week, 3+ day ago (674+ words) President Donald Trump has strong-armed many of America's biggest trading partners into pledging trillions of dollars of investment in the United States. But a study out Tuesday raises doubts about whether the money will actually materialize and questions how it…...
Contributor: How California can escape its boom-and-bust budget woes
1+ week, 3+ day ago (389+ words) Gov. Gavin Newsom's recently proposed 2026-27 state budget included a pleasant surprise: a deficit of about $3 billion " significantly less than analysts had estimated. But when it comes to California state budgets, good news rarely lasts. Newsom's own estimates warn that the…...
Stocks climb some more after Trump calls off his tariffs for Greenland
2+ week, 1+ day ago (701+ words) Stocks rose again Thursday and regained more of their losses for the week after the latest walk-back by President Trump from tariffs he had earlier threatened. The Standard & Poor 500 gained 0.5% and added to its big gain from Wednesday, when Trump…...