The financial news that actually matters
During the last full week of May 2026, West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the spot market lost roughly $18 a barrel, sliding from about $126 to $108. It was one of the sharpest weekly declines in recent memory, driven by shifting expectations around OPEC+ output and a pullback in the geopolitical risk premium that…
The first batch of May 2026 Social Security payments arrives on Tuesday, May 13, and for the roughly 68 million Americans who depend on these benefits, every deposit this year reflects a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment that kicked in back in January. For the average retired worker, that translates to about $56 extra per month. Not…
Spirit Airlines is done flying. The ultra-low-cost carrier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2024, attempted a restructuring, and then pulled the plug entirely in spring 2025, announcing an orderly wind-down of all operations. Every remaining flight was canceled. Passengers were told not to show up at the airport. As of June 2026,…
Filling a 15-gallon tank now costs about $66.45 at the national average, up from roughly $45.15 three months ago. That difference, nearly $80 a month for a once-a-week fill-up, traces directly to a military conflict the White House says is already over. Regular unleaded gasoline averaged $4.43 a gallon nationally for the week ending May…
Tens of millions of Americans who paid late-filing or late-payment penalties to the IRS between 2020 and 2023 may be entitled to get that money back, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate. But the window to act is closing fast. July 10, 2026, is the general deadline for filing a refund claim, and once it…
The number on the little white sticker has never been this high. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the national average price for uncooked beef steak reached $12.74 per pound in February 2026, the most expensive monthly reading in the history of the agency’s tracking series. March barely budged, landing at $12.73. Compare that with…
The S&P 500 hit a new all-time high at 7,230, but your grocery bill, gas tank, and mortgage rate all went up this week too. Somewhere between the closing bell and the grocery checkout, the American economy split in two again this week. The S&P 500 closed above 7,230, a fresh all-time high that fattened…
About 74 million Americans will receive Social Security payments in May 2026, with the first round of retirement deposits scheduled to hit bank accounts on Wednesday, May 13. The remaining two waves follow on May 20 and May 27, depending on the recipient’s date of birth. For retirees who maxed out their earnings over a…
American households now owe a record $1.28 trillion on their credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve’s G.19 revolving credit report. That number alone is striking, but a second statistic may be more revealing: roughly 61% of cardholders say they have carried a balance for more than a year, per a Bankrate survey published in…
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.21% for the week ending May 22, 2026, up 11 basis points from 6.10% the week before, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey tracked through the Federal Reserve’s FRED database. The jump snapped a brief downward streak and arrived during a week when energy-driven inflation,…