The financial news that actually matters
A pound of steak has never cost more at the American grocery store. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the average retail price for uncooked beef steaks at $12.74 per pound in February 2026, the highest reading in the agency’s decades-long tracking series. March held almost flat at $12.73. Ground beef, the cut millions of…
In the spring of 2022, filling up the family car went from routine expense to budget emergency. Between January and mid-May of that year, the national average price of gasoline jumped from roughly $3.30 per gallon to $4.56, according to AAA’s daily tracking data. For a household burning about 41 gallons of fuel a month,…
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…
If you have been waiting for lower mortgage rates, cheaper car payments, or some breathing room on your credit card balance, Kevin Warsh has a message: keep waiting. The Senate is expected to confirm Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve as early as the week of May 11, 2026, making him the…
The U.S. Treasury just gave savers their best reason to buy I bonds in nearly three years. Starting May 1, 2026, newly purchased Series I savings bonds pay a composite annual rate of 4.26%, the highest since November 2023. But the real story is buried one layer deeper: the fixed-rate component jumped to 0.90%, a…
A teacher in suburban Dallas who drives 45 minutes each way to work told a local CBS affiliate in May 2026 that she now spends more on gasoline every month than on her car payment. She is not an outlier. Since the United States launched military operations against Iran in late February, American households have…
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…
Iran delivered a 14-point counterproposal late Thursday night through Pakistani intermediaries, answering a U.S. peace framework with a plan of its own to end the military conflict between the two countries and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump said Friday he is reviewing the document but is “not satisfied” with what Tehran has put…