The financial news that actually matters
The technology industry has spent the first half of 2026 shedding workers at a pace that has unsettled even people who lived through earlier downturns. Running trackers put the number of tech jobs eliminated this year at roughly 165,000 by early July, a total that kept climbing as more companies filed disclosures. What makes this…
Ray Dalio has spent decades studying the anatomy of market manias, so it carries weight when his own measuring stick starts to flash. The founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, says the proprietary “bubble gauge” he uses to grade the U.S. stock market has climbed to around the 77th percentile of its…
The machines look harmless enough, tucked into the corner of a gas station or a convenience store beside the lottery terminal and the air pump. They accept cash and convert it to cryptocurrency in minutes, and that speed is exactly what has made them a favorite tool of scammers who prey on older Americans. In…
A large pool of tariff money that the government collected and a court later declared unlawful is now being pushed back out the door, but not evenly. Billions have already been queued for refund, and billions more remain contested, with the outcome hinging on a single question of who filed a lawsuit and who did…
The scheme worked in the most personal way imaginable. Older Americans, convinced their savings were in danger, packed bundles of cash into boxes and shipped them across the country to people they had never met, believing they were protecting their money rather than handing it to criminals. Federal prosecutors say one man sat near the…
Federal agents have started doing something unusual in the fight against online investment fraud. Instead of waiting for a scheme to run its course and then chasing the money afterward, they are reaching victims while the crime is still unfolding. Through an initiative the bureau calls Operation Level Up, the FBI has identified thousands of…
Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission have moved in tandem against a $160 million investment-fraud scheme that regulators say was aimed at ordinary retail investors. The parallel action — a criminal case from the Justice Department alongside a civil case from the SEC — is a structure the government reserves for large frauds,…
Beneath the individual store closures and corporate bankruptcies making headlines this year runs a larger current, and it is measurable. Across the country, employers have quietly filed formal notices warning that hundreds of thousands of jobs are being cut, and the running total offers a cleaner read on the labor market than any single company…
Another familiar mall tenant is shrinking its physical footprint, and this time the retreat is happening without a bankruptcy filing to force it. Torrid, the plus-size women’s apparel chain found in shopping centers across the country, is pulling back from brick-and-mortar retail in a big way as it shifts the business toward online sales. The…
Kroger, the largest traditional supermarket operator in the United States, plans to close about 60 stores over the next 18 months as profits come under pressure. The grocery giant disclosed the plan to investors, framing it as a way to sharpen a sprawling store network at a moment when the economics of selling groceries have…