The financial news that actually matters
PayPal is preparing to shed roughly 4,760 jobs over the next two to three years. Upwork, the freelance-work marketplace, already eliminated about 24% of its workforce in what the company’s SEC filing describes as a restructuring plan adopted in May 2026. Both companies pointed to artificial intelligence as a driving force, and both made their…
The S&P 500 just hit another record high at 7,399 — while gas costs $4.55, mortgage rates are 6.37%, and 1.55 million workers dropped out of the labor force The S&P 500 closed at 7,398.93 on May 8, 2026, a fresh all-time high. That same morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its April jobs…
The Senate returns on May 11 with a vote that has no precedent in the Federal Reserve’s 113-year history: confirming a chair over the unified opposition of the minority party. Kevin Warsh, the former Fed governor and longtime critic of the central bank’s communication playbook, is expected to clear both of his nominations, one for…
Employers hired at nearly twice the pace economists expected in April 2026. Yet the share of Americans who are actually working or looking for work just fell to a level the country has not seen in half a century, outside the brief pandemic shutdown. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls grew by…
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…