The financial news that actually matters
When most people hear “AI stock,” they think Nvidia, Microsoft, maybe a cloud startup. They do not think of a nearly 100-year-old company that sells bulldozers, excavators, and diesel generators. But in late May 2026, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) posted a quarterly earnings beat that sent its shares surging roughly 10% in a single trading…
Sen. Bernie Sanders released a Senate report in April 2026 warning that artificial intelligence could eliminate nearly 100 million American jobs, anchoring his case with a striking claim: that a Verizon chief executive has predicted AI-driven automation may push U.S. unemployment to between 20% and 30%. The warning landed during the same week Verizon confirmed…
Meta Platforms lost roughly 9% of its value in after-hours trading on the evening of May 1, 2026, after the company disclosed a capital spending plan so large it stunned even its most committed backers. In its first-quarter earnings report, Meta said it now expects to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on infrastructure…
Jerome Powell chaired his last Federal Open Market Committee meeting at the end of April 2026 and left with a result that laid bare just how divided the Federal Reserve has become. The committee voted 7 to 4 to hold the federal funds rate at its current target range, but the four dissenting votes fractured…
A gallon of milk costs 18% more than it did two years ago. The average credit card is charging north of 20% interest. And the 3.8% raise the typical American worker received over the past year? After inflation, it barely moved the needle. That is the math confronting households in the spring of 2026, even…
If Brent crude futures were to surge to $126 a barrel during a single session and then reverse by roughly $12 before the close, it would rank among the most violent intraday swings in oil markets since the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The following analysis explores what such a scenario…
Canada’s federal government has proposed banning every cryptocurrency ATM in the country, a move that would make it one of the first major economies to eliminate the machines entirely. The proposal, which emerged during a government consultation in early 2026, targets the kiosks that scammers have used to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from…
A gallon of regular gasoline now costs the average American driver $4.30, the most expensive fill-up the country has seen since the summer of 2022, according to the latest weekly survey from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The price has climbed roughly 60 cents since early March 2026, driven largely by a military confrontation between…
Trading floors across Asia opened to a wall of red on Wednesday as two forces collided: a spike in oil prices driven by the U.S.-Iran standoff near the Strait of Hormuz and a Federal Reserve that made clear overnight it has no plans to lower interest rates anytime soon. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell more than…
Maria Gonzalez, a medical billing clerk in Phoenix who earns $52,000 a year, tallied her April expenses on a kitchen notepad last week: $1,640 for rent on a two-bedroom apartment, $680 for groceries for herself and two children, $410 for utilities and car insurance, and $290 in minimum credit-card payments. After taxes and benefit deductions,…