The financial news that actually matters
Millions of American drivers are set to hit the road for the July 4 holiday weekend as gasoline prices slip below a symbolic threshold. AAA reported a national average of $3.999 per gallon for regular gasoline on June 18, 2026, the first time the price has dipped under $4 since March. That relief at the…
American homeowners face a fifth consecutive year of rising insurance costs in 2026, with the national average premium projected to hit $3,057. That figure follows a 12 percent jump in 2025, and Louisiana policyholders are absorbing the steepest increases, with premiums up 58 percent in recent data. As costs climb, at least one state legislature…
Retirees age 70½ and older who want to give to charity while cutting their tax bill have a direct path: send up to $108,000 from a traditional IRA straight to a qualified organization, and the transfer never counts as taxable income. The mechanism, known as a qualified charitable distribution, also satisfies all or part of…
Rivian cut hundreds of jobs in its service and customer organization this week, trimming less than 2 percent of its workforce as the electric-vehicle maker works to control costs ahead of the R2 launch and a planned ramp in autonomy spending. The reductions, which also touch sales and marketing roles, took effect Tuesday and come…
Workers turning 60, 61, 62, or 63 during 2026 can now set aside up to $11,250 in additional catch-up contributions to a 401(k), 403(b), or similar workplace retirement plan. The figure comes from a 150 percent formula spelled out in SECURE 2.0 Section 109, and the IRS has confirmed it through final regulations and recent…
The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, a valuation measure with roots in a 1988 academic paper by John Y. Campbell and Robert J. Shiller, has climbed near 40. That level has been reached only once before, at the peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000. For investors holding U.S. equities, the reading raises a direct question:…
Roughly 1,200 workers at an Ohio auto-parts manufacturer face layoffs after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging First Brands Group executives Patrick James and his brother Edward James with orchestrating a multibillion-dollar fraud. The criminal case and a nearly simultaneous Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing have thrown the company’s future into doubt, raising sharp questions about…
Anyone with more than $250,000 in a single bank account faces a straightforward risk: the amount above that line is not federally insured. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation protects deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category, and that protection is calculated dollar-for-dollar, including principal plus accrued interest through the date…
UPS plans to eliminate up to 30,000 operational jobs this year and shut down 24 buildings during the first half of 2026, extending a restructuring campaign that already shrank the company’s U.S. workforce by roughly 34,000 positions and closed 85 facilities permanently during the first nine months of 2025. CFO Brian Dykes disclosed the new…
Taxpayers seeking penalty relief for both 2020 and 2021 face a paper-filing requirement that doubles their administrative burden: the IRS demands a separate Form 843 for each tax year, meaning two distinct claims must be prepared, signed, and mailed rather than one. The rule, spelled out in the December 2024 revision of the form’s instructions,…