The financial news that actually matters
The S&P 500 pulled back from its all-time high at 7,337 — and more than half the year’s gains came from just five stocks. The S&P 500 hit 7,337 on an intraday basis in mid-May 2026, marking a fresh peak before sellers stepped in and dragged it lower by the close. The retreat was small….
A nurse shortage that never ended may be the only thing keeping the U.S. jobs market from looking outright weak. The private sector added 109,000 positions in April 2026, comfortably beating the 97,000 that economists had projected and snapping back from a sluggish March. But strip out healthcare and its adjacent services and the picture…
Bitcoin surged past $81,000 in the first week of May 2026, touching $81,423 during Asian trading hours on May 4 and reclaiming a level it hadn’t seen since January 31. The rally didn’t come out of nowhere. Across April, U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds absorbed a net $2.44 billion in fresh capital, according to daily…
Not long ago, a saver willing to open an online account could earn close to 4.75% APY on plain, FDIC-insured cash. That was late 2025, when Bankrate’s weekly survey of top nationally available accounts showed leading offers clustered near that mark. By late May 2026, the best widely available high-yield savings rates have slipped to…
A household carrying $6,600 in credit card debt at today’s average interest rate will hand roughly $1,386 to its card issuer this year and owe every dollar of the original balance when January rolls around. That single number captures the trap that tens of millions of Americans are stuck in as of mid-2025: high balances…
About 7.5 million federal student loan borrowers are still technically enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan, a plan the U.S. Department of Education now calls “unlawful” and has moved to kill. Starting July 1, 2026, loan servicers will begin mailing notices that force a decision: choose a new repayment plan within 90 days of receiving…
A 15-gallon fill-up now runs about $68, roughly $23 more than it cost before U.S.-Iran tensions began disrupting oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in late March 2026. On Wednesday, the national average for regular gasoline hit $4.54 per gallon, according to AAA, a price American drivers have not faced since pump costs briefly…
A two-car family that spent about $38 to fill a sedan in January is now paying closer to $58 for the same tank. Do that eight times a month across both vehicles and the extra cost adds up to roughly $187, money that four months ago was covering a week of groceries or a childcare…
A two-pound package of steak now costs more than an hour of work at the federal minimum wage. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the national average price for all uncooked beef steaks hit $12.74 per pound in May 2026, the highest level recorded since the agency began tracking the series. Five years earlier, the…
More than 100 million Americans carry a credit card balance from one month to the next. Each billing cycle, a growing share of their minimum payment disappears into interest charges while the principal barely moves. As of early 2025, the scale of that problem has reached a level the consumer credit market has never seen…