The financial news that actually matters
Jerome Powell handed the Federal Reserve chairmanship to Kevin Warsh on May 15, 2026, closing an eight-year tenure that steered the U.S. economy through a pandemic shutdown, the worst inflation spike since the early 1980s, and a bruising cycle of interest-rate increases that reshaped the cost of borrowing for millions of Americans. Powell is not…
Open your latest credit card statement and look at the section most people skip: the minimum-payment disclosure box. If you’re carrying a balance anywhere near the national average, that box tells a brutal story. At today’s average annual percentage rate of 21.5%, a cardholder revolving $6,600 in credit card debt is forking over roughly $1,462…
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 50,063.46 on May 15, 2026, gaining 370.26 points and finishing above 50,000 for the first time since February 6, when the blue-chip index settled at 50,115.67 after a 1,206.95-point rally, according to exchange closing records. The index traded as low as 49,735 during the session before rallying into…
The cost of producing and distributing goods in the United States shot higher in April at a pace not seen since the worst of the post-pandemic supply crunch, a jolt that caught Wall Street off guard and raised pointed questions about where consumer prices are headed this summer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that…
NEW YORK – Wall Street delivered a split-screen session on May 13, 2026. The S&P 500 climbed roughly 0.6% to close at a fresh record, and the Nasdaq Composite surged about 1.2% to its own all-time high. But the rally ran headlong into a pair of troubling data points: wholesale inflation reportedly running near 6%…
Kevin Warsh is now a sitting Federal Reserve governor, and he is one vote away from running the place. The Senate confirmed him to the Fed’s Board of Governors on Monday morning, 51 to 45, along strict party lines, then immediately moved to set up the bigger question: whether to hand him the chair of…
Energy costs did more to push consumer prices higher in April 2026 than every other category combined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index report released in May 2026. Gasoline prices surged 28.4% year over year. The broader energy index climbed 17.9%. And on a single-month basis, energy alone accounted for more…
Americans checking their brokerage accounts on Monday, May 19, saw the S&P 500 close at an all-time high of 7,412.84, according to market data from S&P Global. Americans filling their gas tanks saw something very different: a national average of $4.52 per gallon, the highest pump price since fuel briefly topped $5 in the summer…
President Donald Trump blew up what remained of U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in early May 2026, posting on Truth Social that Tehran’s latest counter-proposal was “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Oil markets reacted within hours. Brent crude, the global benchmark, surged roughly 4% to around $105 a barrel, and the national average price of regular gasoline climbed above $4.52…
When your homeowners insurance renewal arrives and the number has jumped by $800, something else in the family budget has to give. For millions of Americans, that something has been a vacation, a roof repair, or the savings account they were trying not to touch. A Pew Research Center survey conducted March 16 to 22,…