The financial news that actually matters
American manufacturers just posted their strongest expansion in a year, but the forces driving that growth carry a sharp edge for costs. The ISM manufacturing PMI registered 54 percent in May, the highest level since May 2022, while 42 percent of respondent comments pointed to the Iran war as the primary source of price pressure….
Seven oil-producing countries will pump an additional 188,000 barrels per day starting in June, the third step in rolling back the 2.2-million-barrel voluntary production cut that OPEC+ members adopted to prop up prices. The group’s ministers are scheduled to reconvene on June 7 to decide whether July output will rise further, hold steady, or slow…
American workers looking for new jobs face a strange contradiction: employers are advertising far more positions than they were a month ago, yet fewer people are actually getting hired. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on June 2, 2026, that job openings jumped 731,000 in April to reach 7,618,000, the highest total since May 2024….
Bond investors are pricing in persistent inflation at levels not seen in nearly two years, a signal that carries direct consequences for mortgage rates, retirement portfolios, and the Federal Reserve’s next moves. The 5-year Treasury breakeven inflation rate reached 2.71 percent, its highest reading since June 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St….
Homebuyers shopping for a 30-year fixed mortgage and the tens of millions of Americans carrying credit card balances face a summer of unchanged borrowing costs. The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet June 16 and 17, and futures markets assign roughly 97 percent odds that policymakers will hold the federal-funds rate steady. With…
Only seven ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, a fraction of the roughly 100 vessels that pass through on a typical day. The world’s single most important oil transit corridor has now been effectively shut down for 94 days, squeezing global crude supply lines and forcing tanker operators into longer, costlier alternatives. For…
Investors pricing five-year U.S. Treasury debt now expect consumer prices to rise faster than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target every year through 2031. The 5-year breakeven inflation rate climbed to 2.71%, its highest reading since 2023, signaling that the gap between what bond buyers demand on standard Treasuries and what they accept on inflation-protected securities…
Workers across the United States face a tightening set of options. April job openings fell to 7.1 million, the lowest reading since 2020, and the quits rate dropped to 1.8%, the weakest measure of worker confidence since 2018. Together, these two figures signal that the labor market is cooling in ways that directly affect bargaining…
Every baby born in the United States between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, who holds a valid Social Security number and U.S. citizenship is set to receive a $1,000 federal deposit into a new investment account on July 4, 2026. The Treasury Department will fund the deposits as part of a pilot program…
For 16 years, anyone who lent money to the U.S. government and then checked what they earned after inflation got the same answer: almost nothing, or less. A retired teacher in Ohio who bought Treasury bonds in 2015 and held them through 2025 preserved her savings in nominal terms but watched her purchasing power flatline….