The financial news that actually matters
Berkshire Hathaway has amassed so much cash that even by the standards of corporate America, the number now looks extraordinary. By the end of the third quarter, the conglomerate’s balance sheet showed roughly $381.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term U.S. Treasury bills, a new high for the company and one of the clearest…
The Federal Reserve ended 2025 with a clear message for households, businesses, and investors: even after cutting rates again in December, officials were no longer signaling a quick slide back to cheap money. The central bank’s latest projections pointed to a much slower pace of easing in 2026 than many borrowers had hoped for, suggesting…
The Supreme Court wiped out a major pillar of President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy, ruling that the White House had no authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping import duties across a wide range of goods. On paper, that should have opened the door to relief for businesses and, eventually, for…
The U.S. Supreme Court handed importers and manufacturers a major legal victory when it ruled on February 20 that President Donald Trump could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose sweeping tariffs. But for many businesses, the decision landed after months of higher costs, disrupted planning, and lost sales that…
The inflation report investors and Federal Reserve officials watch most closely did little to reopen the door to lower interest rates. Fresh data on the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, showed inflation still running too hot in late 2025, with the underlying trend proving especially stubborn.For households waiting for relief on mortgages, credit…
Ford Motor Company is making one of its clearest mass-market electric vehicle bets yet, tying a roughly $5 billion commitment to a new universal EV platform, a retooled Kentucky assembly plant, and a lower-cost battery supply chain in Michigan. At the center of the push is a midsize electric pickup with a targeted starting price…
Warren Buffett’s last Berkshire Hathaway portfolio filing as chief executive offered one more lesson in restraint. The conglomerate disclosed that it reduced positions in Apple, Amazon and Bank of America in the fourth quarter of 2025, while adding just one new stock. For investors used to mining Berkshire’s quarterly filings for sweeping signals, the message…
A new Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis found that Americans bore almost the entire cost of the tariff surge that hit imported goods in 2025, undercutting the long-running political argument that foreign exporters would end up paying the bill. The finding is straightforward and hard to spin. Looking across U.S. import data through…
Wendy’s is moving to shrink its U.S. restaurant base after a stretch of weaker sales, signaling that one of the country’s biggest burger chains sees a real need to cut underperforming stores rather than wait for demand to snap back. The company has already told investors that a mid-single-digit percentage of its domestic footprint could…
Electric vehicle sales in the United States lost momentum fast after the federal government’s $7,500 clean vehicle tax credit went away at the end of September. After a rush of buyers moved to lock in the incentive before the deadline, the market cooled sharply in the final months of the year. By the fourth quarter…