The financial news that actually matters
A weekly fill-up that cost about $52 in January now runs nearly $64, and in California it is closing in on $86. The national average price of regular unleaded gasoline has climbed to $4.56 a gallon, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data for the week ending May 5, 2026. It is the first time…
Crude oil plunged below $99 a barrel during trading on June 4, 2026, after reports that Iran is actively reviewing U.S. proposals to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial tanker traffic. For a few hours, energy traders allowed themselves to imagine one of the world’s most dangerous shipping chokepoints finally clearing. Then the moment…
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…
Private Payrolls Beat Expectations With 109,000 Jobs in April – but 56% of All New Hiring Came From One Industry: Healthcare The U.S. private sector added 109,000 jobs in April, comfortably clearing the roughly 75,000 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast, according to the ADP National Employment Report released in May 2026. On…
President Donald Trump told Iran on Sunday that it would be “bombed at a much higher level” if it refuses to sign a proposed 14-point peace deal, delivering the threat during a White House Mother’s Day lunch that doubled as the latest escalation in a standoff already rattling global energy markets. By Monday morning, crude…
By the time Marco Reyes unlocked the pumps at his Chevron station in Bakersfield, California, on a Monday morning in late March 2026, the price board already read $5.89 a gallon for regular. A month earlier, before U.S. strikes on Iranian military targets began in late February, it had been closer to $3.87. One of…
The U.S. Treasury on May 1, 2026, set the new Series I bond composite rate at 4.26% for all bonds purchased between May 1 and October 31, 2026. That marks a notable jump from the previous cycle and pairs with a 0.90% fixed rate that locks in for the bond’s full 30-year life. A saver…
A driver in Los Angeles paying $5.89 a gallon for regular on Friday morning could be forgiven for wondering whether the oil market crash everyone was talking about was happening on a different planet. Brent crude futures fell roughly 7% this week, settling near $101 a barrel after President Trump floated a deal with Iran…
Kevin Warsh is on track to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve, and if the Senate vote goes the way both parties expect, he will get there without a single Democratic vote. That would make him the first Fed chair confirmed on purely partisan lines since at least 1979, when the modern confirmation…