The financial news that actually matters
If you were hoping cheaper borrowing was around the corner, Kevin Warsh just closed that door. The incoming Federal Reserve chairman, who takes the gavel in June 2026, told the Senate Banking Committee during his April 14 nomination hearing that interest rate cuts this year are not happening. Republican senators on the panel cheered the…
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned President Donald Trump during their May 2026 meeting in Beijing that Taiwan is “the most important issue” in U.S.-China relations and that mishandling it will produce “clashes and even conflicts.” That language appeared in official Chinese government summaries published within hours of the sit-down. The White House released its own…
Wholesale prices haven’t jumped this fast in a single month since March 2022, when the Federal Reserve was still scrambling to contain post-pandemic inflation. Four years later, the Producer Price Index just matched that spike, and the broader inflation picture is deteriorating in ways that have prediction markets flashing warnings, the Fed boxed in, and…
When Jerome Powell walks out of the Eccles Building for the last time as Federal Reserve chair on May 15, 2026, he will leave behind the same problem he spent his final two years trying to solve. Inflation is still running at nearly twice the level he was charged with controlling, borrowing costs remain punishing…
The last time gasoline cost this much in the United States, Russia had just invaded Ukraine and the world was still shaking off pandemic lockdowns. Now a different conflict is pushing prices toward the same ceiling. Regular gasoline averaged $4.53 a gallon nationally for the week ending May 19, 2026, according to the Energy Information…
On May 14, 2026, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun stood before reporters in Beijing and delivered a message aimed squarely at Washington: China’s opposition to any toll on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz is “consistent and clear.” In Chinese diplomatic language, that phrasing signals a position that is not open for negotiation….
The ground beef for your Memorial Day cookout costs $6.70 a pound. The gas to get to the store runs about $4.53 a gallon. And if you bought a home in the past year, your 30-year fixed mortgage rate is sitting near 6.46%, more than double the sub-3% deals lenders were handing out in early…
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 50,063.46 on May 15, 2026, gaining 370.26 points and finishing above 50,000 for the first time since February 6, when the blue-chip index settled at 50,115.67 after a 1,206.95-point rally, according to exchange closing records. The index traded as low as 49,735 during the session before rallying into…
At 4 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, May 14, the S&P 500 settled at 7,501.24, slipping past the 7,500 threshold for the first time in the index’s nearly seven-decade history. The close was confirmed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database, which typically publishes daily closing values with a one-day lag sourced from…
Nvidia added roughly $900 billion to its market capitalization in just seven trading sessions, a gain of about 20% that has pushed the chipmaker to the brink of a milestone no publicly traded company has ever reached: a $6 trillion valuation. Shares rose as much as 4.7% on Wednesday, May 14, hitting an intraday high…