‘The pandemic boom in home sales is over’: Mortgage rates soar to highest level since 2009 as the Fed pressures the housing market

Mortgage rates are skyrocketing thanks to the Fed, but buyers who can tough out this difficult, changing market will be rewarded. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.27% for the week ending May...

These 10 stocks in the S&P 500 soared at least 8% after the Fed made its big move — but only 3 have gains for 2022

Wednesday turned into a big day for stocks — the S&P 500 index had its largest one-day percentage gain in nearly two years — after the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by half a perce...

Fed lifts interest rates and will wind down $9 trillion bond stockpile in double-pronged attack on high U.S. inflation

“Inflation is much too high and we understand the hardship it is causing,” said Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in what he called a direct message to the American public. “We are moving expeditiously to br...

What the Fed’s Interest-Rate Increase Means for Your Mortgage, Loans, Savings

The Federal Reserve raised its short-term benchmark rate by a half-percentage point on Wednesday, the sharpest increase since 2000, to a range between 0.75% and 1%. Though widely expected, the move wi...

How high can the Fed hike interest rates before a recession hits? This chart suggests a low threshold.

The days when the Federal Reserve could raise its benchmark interest rate significantly above 5% without sparking a recession may be a thing of the past, according to Wells Fargo Investment Institute....

Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson says S&P 500 could tumble toward 3,400 if a ‘true growth scare’ is on the cards

Morgan Stanley’s bearish chief U.S. equity strategist Mike Wilson has some bad news and some good news for investors. On the heels of the worst April for stocks since 1970, Wilson and a team of strate...

With interest rates rising, it’s time to focus on MANG stocks instead of FAANG, according to Jefferies

Heading into the Federal Open Market Committee’s policy meeting, analysts at Jefferies on May 3 advised investors to avoid the popular FAANG + Microsoft group of stocks. They pointed instead to a grou...

Powell wants to get rates closer to neutral. But what’s neutral? Think between 5% and 6%, former top Fed staffer says

With U.S. inflation surging higher than anyone expected, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, has laid out a policy path where the Fed is going to move quickly to get its benchmark interest rate up to “to a mo...

Home Buyers Are Finding Ways to Take the Sting Out of Rising Mortgage Rates

Mortgage rates are at their highest level in more than a decade. Home buyers are fighting back.  More borrowers are paying fees to cut their interest rates and making higher down payments to lower the...

Storied VC says investors are unlearning the lessons of the last bull market. Jeff Bezos says you should listen.

Investors are mustering some courage following the worst month since the pandemic, and Friday’s session that ended with the Dow DJIA, -2.77% tanking nearly 1,000 points and the S&P 500 SPX, -3.63%...

‘It is costing more to survive now.’ I owe $109K in student loans, and the balance keeps going up as the loan servicer ‘continuously tacks on more money.’ With high inflation, how can I even cope with my student loans now?

Unfortunately, it is possible for a loan balance to increase, even as you are making payments. iStock Question: I have student loans in excess of $109k.  I am on an income-driven plan but my biggest p...

Gas prices are up roughly 40% from just a year ago. So you may want to try this method to get ‘basically free money’ for gas — but there’s a catch

Is a gas credit card right for you? Getty Images Amid high inflation, rising prices of crude oil and the war in Ukraine, gas prices have jumped from an average of about $2.88 per gallon a year ago, to...

Strong Dollar Aids U.S. Inflation Fight, Adds to Price Pressures Abroad

Text size Chinese 100 yuan bank notes. Paul Yeung/Bloomberg While your attention probably was focused on that big takeover of a certain social-media site, the gyrations in the global currency markets ...

‘I think we’re in the final innings.’ Pimco’s Kiesel thinks the housing market has hit its top

Mark Kiesel is thinking of selling his California home and becoming a renter. Families looking to buy a home make want to take heed. Kiesel, who serves as global credit chief investment officer at Pim...

I-bonds are all the rage — what’s the best way to use them?

With the release of March’s Consumer Price Index, we now know that a risk-free investment yielding 9.6% will be available as of May 2. I’m speaking, of course, about Series I savings bonds from the U....

‘So bad, it’s good.’ This beleaguered stock market has one big asset on its side, say strategists.

A rough month for stocks is drawing to a close, and many investors likely won’t be sad to see the back of it. And the last day of April trade is looking weak as Apple and Amazon failed to raise the ba...

Opinion: There’s a big hole in the Fed’s theory of inflation—incomes are falling at a record 10.9% rate

The most concerning thing about Thursday’s report on U.S. gross domestic product for the first quarter wasn’t that the first line of the first table showed that real GDP fell at a 1.4% annual rate. It...

‘Buyers of a median-price home are looking at a monthly mortgage payment that is almost 50% higher than it was a year ago.’ The 30-year mortgage rate dips slightly to 5.1%

The interest rate on the country’s benchmark mortgage product edged downward for the first time since early March, but that doesn’t mean the housing market will see a reprieve. The 30-year fixed-rate ...

Boomers are leaving the stock market. Here’s what comes next, says this strategist.

Stocks are in the green for Thursday, with Facebook parent Meta Platforms in the driver’s seat after less disastrous than feared results. Gains are a bit less than what stock futures were promising th...

The Fed’s Interest Rate Hikes Could Be Even Worse Than Feared

Text size Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Tom Williams/Pool/Getty Images Don’t fight the Fed has long been a Wall Street motto. But the nation’s central bank thus far has been a reluctant figh...

The 10-Year Treasury Yield Is Nearing 3%. That’s a Bad Omen for the Stock Market.

Interest rates may finally be getting real. To investors with a sense of history, the near-zero and even negative interest rates of recent years might have seemed unreal, and indeed were unprecedented...

Bitcoin Prices Fall as Crypto Market Slammed by Hawkish Fed Expectations

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped Monday as expectations that the Federal Reserve will move aggressively to tighten monetary policy continued to rock the digital asset space. Bitcoin fell mor...

Oil joins tumbling commodities as China COVID spread triggers fresh demand worries

Oil prices tumbled on Monday, amid fresh worries that spreading COVID cases and more lockdowns in China will hurt demand. That has added to concerns that Federal Reserve tightening could also weaken p...

Asian markets tumble amid worries about earnings, Fed rate hike

TOKYO — Asian shares declined Monday after U.S. stocks ended last week on a tumble as global markets’ expectations for higher interest rates continued to set the tone. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 NIK...

Saudi Royals Are Selling Homes, Yachts and Art as Crown Prince Cuts Income

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Saudi princes have sold more than $600 million worth of real estate, yachts and artwork in the U.S. and Europe since the kingdom’s de facto ruler tightened the purse strings of th...

The Fed Wants to Raise Rates Quickly, but May Not Know Where to Stop

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is shifting monetary tightening into a higher gear. His goal sounds straightforward—lift interest rates to “neutral,” a setting that neither spurs nor slows grow...

The Fed May Make Fewer Raises. Interest Rates Are Already Up.

The Federal Reserve might have to stop short of raising interest rates as many times as expected. That’s because rates across the economy are already starting to rise, posing a threat to economic dema...

‘The issues with the IRS are still present and very real’: Millions of Americans are racing to file their tax returns, and filing extensions

Tax Day came and went earlier this week, so if your upcoming weekend plans are just chilling after the last-minute tax time bustle, you might have company. April 18 marked the deadline in most states ...

What’s next for stock market as Federal Reserve moves toward ‘peak hawkishness’

Investors will watch for another gauge of U.S. inflation in the week ahead after the stock market was rattled by the Federal Reserve ramping up its hawkish tone and suggesting large interest rate hike...

Gold Is Heading Higher as Inflation Rages. Why the Next Stop Could Be $3,000 an Ounce.

Gold bugs have been a lonely bunch, but that may be starting to change. In the past week, gold made another run at $2,000 a troy ounce, a level above which it has closed only once, back in August 2020...

Why did the stock market fall? Dow finishes nearly 1,000 points lower in worst day since October 2020

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday to suffer their biggest one-day drop since 2020, as investors continued to weigh hawkish comments on interest rates a day earlier by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome ...

A Key Bond Yield Nears 3%. It’s a Bad Omen for Stocks.

Interest rates may finally be getting real. To investors with a sense of history, the near-zero and even negative interest rates of recent years might have seemed unreal, and indeed were unprecedented...