Opinion: Americans are feeling poorer for good reason: Household wealth was shredded by inflation and Fed tightening

U.S. households’ real wealth plunged at a record 20.9% annual rate to $143 trillion in the second quarter of the year, with modest gains in home values offset by high inflation and a big selloff in th...

Outlook for Tech Stocks Darkens After Rocky Stretch

Sept. 10, 2022 5:30 am ET Listen to article (2 minutes) A rally in technology shares helped the stock market snap a three-week losing streak. There are already signs that reprieve may be short lived. ...

These are the 10 major housing markets that just saw the biggest declines in home equity

Plus, what to know if you’re thinking about taking out a HELOC. Getty Images/iStockphoto As home prices soared in recent years, homeowners enjoyed record levels of tappable home equity, which is the a...

Quantitative Tightening Is About to Ramp Up. What It Means for Markets.

The Federal Reserve now owns about a third of both the Treasury and mortgage-backed-securities markets as a result of its emergency asset-buying to prop up the U.S. economy during the Covid-19 pandemi...

2-year Treasury yield rises to highest level since 2007

Treasury yields rose on Friday, with the two-year yield rising to its highest level since 2007 as Federal Reserve officials suggested the central bank would likely hike its benchmark rate by another 7...

U.S. stocks suffer largest weekly outflows in 11 weeks as investors brace for possible jumbo Fed rate hike

Investors withdrew billions of dollars out of U.S. equities funds over the past week as central bankers’ hawkish messaging fueled fears of deeper economic downturn.  U.S. stock funds recorded the bigg...

Chinese Banks Lose a Mortgage Safety Net as Developers Slide Into Distress

Listen to article (2 minutes) China is increasingly counting on its banks to step up mortgage lending and help boost a sinking housing market. But there is a problem: Lenders are stuck with many mortg...

A surging U.S. dollar is already sending ‘danger signals,’ economists warn

The Federal Reserve’s aggressive efforts to wring out inflation have sent the U.S. dollar soaring to historic highs — further aiding the effort to get price pressures under control. Beware, however, t...

Market Volatility Spells Opportunity for Options-Savvy Investors

Text size American Express stock offers a way to monetize the view that the wealthy won’t be terribly affected by an economic downturn. Nora Tarvus/Dreamstime.com Once again, the stock market is confr...

Inflation Could Be Harder to Tame Than the Fed Anticipates

Text size Another 75-basis-point hike in the federal-funds target is looking very, very likely. Ting Shen/Bloomberg Market participants returned from their summer holidays apparently undaunted by the ...

Europe’s Unfolding Crises Could Impact U.S. Stocks. Here’s How.

U.S. investors are watching the Federal Reserve but the European Central Bank is likely to keep hiking rates to pull down prices, and those moves deserve more attention. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg Text si...

Paul Volcker didn’t wait for inflation to get back to 2% before pivoting

Paul Volcker is back in the limelight after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell approvingly cited his interest rate-hiking flurry to tame inflation back in the 1970s. But what’s less talked about is t...

With inflation, many retirees will pay more federal income taxes

The federal income tax is generally indexed for inflation. Most particularly, the income brackets to which the marginal tax rates apply are increased in line with the “Chained CPI-U.” While the chaine...

Why the ECB’s jumbo rate hike isn’t helping the beaten-down euro

The European Central Bank went big on Thursday, delivering a historically outsize 75 basis-point interest rate increase in its effort to get a grip on record inflation. Yet the euro, after a brief bou...

Yellen pledges to target high-earning Americans in bid to keep U.S. finances on ‘sound footing’

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday pledged to pursue tax increases for high-earning Americans in a bid to keep U.S. finances sound, as she gave a speech in Michigan on the Biden administ...

Inflation expectations are ‘collapsing’ — here’s why that could spur a rebound in stocks

A closely watched U.S. bond-market gauge of near-term inflation expectations has fallen below the Federal Reserve’s 2% target for the first time in two years in a sign that stocks could find some near...

Exxon Mobile and 3 Other Energy Stocks Whose Dividends Look Resilient

Many energy company’s stocks—and their dividends—took a big hit earlier in the pandemic, even those of large firms. The global economy contracted along with oil and gas prices, forcing many companies ...

Dividends for Tough Times: 4 Energy Stocks That Raised Payouts During Covid

Many energy company’s stocks—and their dividends—took a big hit earlier in the pandemic, even those of large firms. The global economy contracted along with oil and gas prices, forcing many companies ...

Preferred stocks can offer hidden opportunities for dividend investors. Just look at this JPMorgan Chase example.

This is shaping up to be a brutal year for bank stocks. But a deeper look can highlight an opportunity for income-seeking investors to make money on banks’ preferred stocks. But the S&P 500 SPX, +...

Fed on Path for Another 0.75-Point Interest-Rate Lift After Powell’s Inflation Pledge

Updated Sept. 7, 2022 10:29 am ET Listen to article (2 minutes) The Federal Reserve appears to be on a path to raise interest rates by another 0.75 percentage point this month in the wake of Chairman ...

‘No sign of a rebound’: Mortgage applications hit 22-year lows, as home buyers pull back

The numbers: As mortgage rates head towards 6%, would-be home buyers continue to stay on the sidelines, putting off purchases and refinances. Weak demand from buyers is reflected in the Market Composi...

U.S. stock futures edge higher ahead of key speech from Fed’s Brainard

U.S. stock futures inched higher Wednesday, ahead of a key speech from Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard and the release of the latest Fed-compiled look at the U.S. economy. What’s happening Fu...

U.K. may be on road to another IMF bailout, strategist warns

Is the U.K. on the road to an International Monetary Fund bailout? That’s the view of Peter Chatwell, head of global macro strategies trading at Mizuho Securities, as expressed in an interview on Bloo...

When It Pays to Have a Mortgage in Retirement—and When It Doesn’t

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‘Vulnerable time for the housing market’: Mortgage rates are now double what they were a year ago, and will weigh on house prices

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.66% as of Sept. 1, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac. That’s up 11 basis points from the previous week — one basis point is equal to one hun...

Russia to Keep Nord Stream Pipeline Shut, Citing Mechanical Problems

Russia indefinitely suspended natural gas flows to Europe via a key pipeline hours after the Group of Seven agreed to an oil price cap for Russian crude—two opposing blows exchanged between Moscow and...

British Pound Falls to Lowest Level Since 1985 as U.K. Economic Pain Mounts

Updated Sept. 4, 2022 5:41 pm ET Listen to article (2 minutes) The British pound slid to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar since 1985, a reflection of the U.K. economy’s dire economic situation...

GameStop, Apple, Kroger, NIO, and Other Stocks for Investors to Watch This Week

Text size U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed on Monday for Labor Day. It’s a quiet week on the earnings calendar once investors return from the long weekend, but a few major economic-data rele...

Rising Pressure on Profits Darkens Outlook for Tech Shares

Micron Technology is among the companies that have warned about softening PC demand. Courtesy Micron Text size In early summer, I wrote a Tech Trader column previewing the June quarter earnings season...

Germany Agrees on Gas Relief Package for Businesses, Consumers

BERLIN—Germany unveiled its third energy crisis relief package this year to shield consumers from soaring prices over the winter, a day after Russia indefinitely suspended gas deliveries to Europe’s l...

2-year Treasury yield sees biggest one-day drop since July after U.S. jobs report

U.S. Treasury yields moved lower Friday, handing the 2-year rate its biggest one-day drop in more than a month, after the August nonfarm payrolls report had traders paring expectations for an aggressi...

Compounding a disastrous year for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency: IRS proposes controversial new question about digital assets

The Internal Revenue Service could have a potential head-scratcher of a question about your crypto investments and what’s taxable, according to a major accountants’ association. For two years, the IRS...