I’m the chief economist of a mortgage firm that has funded more than $100 billion in loans. These are 3 things to know about the housing market now.

Cameron Findlay As home prices and mortgage rates march upwards, and housing inventory remains seriously constrained, many buyers are wondering: Should I buy? And if I want to buy, what do I need to k...

Opinion: The FAANMGs have been whittled down to the fantastic four

The anticipation of second-quarter Big Tech earnings was palpable. With a broad set of indicators pointing to a slowdown in the global economy, the highest inflation in four decades and a big jump in ...

Will the stock-market rally turn into a selloff? This bond-market gauge could tip investors off

Now that the Federal Reserve appears to have abandoned its forward guidance tool in favor of being “data dependent” to help inform its future path for rates, investors should keep an eye on this gauge...

‘Continuing home price deceleration.’ Here’s what 5 economists and real estate pros predict will happen to the housing market this year

What will happen in the housing market this year? Getty Images When will home price growth really slow down? Will mortgage rates continue their upward climb? What do I need to know if I’m trying to bu...

AMD, PayPal, Starbucks, Uber, Paramount, and Other Stocks to Watch This Week

It’s the peak stretch of second-quarter earnings season, with roughly 150 S&P 500 firms scheduled to report this week. The highlights on the economic calendar will be a pair of purchasing managers...

AMD, PayPal, Starbucks, Uber, Paramount, and Other Stocks for Investors to Watch This Week

It’s the peak stretch of second-quarter earnings season, with roughly 150 S&P 500 firms scheduled to report this week. The highlights on the economic calendar will be a pair of purchasing managers...

China Home Sales Plunge in July, as Mortgage Revolt Deters Buyers

A nascent two-month recovery in China’s home sales ended in July, as a widespread mortgage revolt over concerns that ailing property developers wouldn’t be able to deliver still-unfinished apartments ...

Housing affordability plunges to lowest level since 2006. The property market’s ‘great slowdown’ is here, Bank of America says

A “great slowdown” is happening in the U.S. housing market, a new report from Bank of America says, as mortgage originations shrink and spending on household items softens. Amid weak home sales number...

Investors are snapping up homes at a furious rate — in some regions they bought up to 20% of houses for sale

First-time homebuyers who struggled to snag a property this past spring might have been competing with deep-pocketed investors.  While the share of investor purchases has fallen from its February peak...

Job switchers saw a greater increase in salary than people who decided to stay put. Here’s what’s at stake.

It pays to look around. The number of job switchers reporting wage gains has expanded while the number of job stayers reporting wage gains actually contracted as inflation exacts its toll, according t...

‘Savings are gonna run out’: Already battered by high inflation, Fed’s rate hike will hit lower-income and rural Americans hard

The Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points on Wednesday in an effort to temper the rising costs of consumer goods and services.  While economists say raising the interest r...

Buy Opendoor Stock. The iBuyer Is a Bargain.

Opendoor has more than doubled the number of metro markets in which it operates, to more than 50, since 2021. Courtesy of OpenDoor Text size When Zillow Group abandoned its online buying of homes in N...

U.S. inflation surges again and stays at 40-year high, key price gauge shows

The numbers: A key gauge of U.S. inflation rose a sharp 1% in June, led by higher fuel prices, in a sign that price pressures in the economy are still intense and unlikely to relent quickly. The incre...

Elon Musk says inflation may have peaked. Bill Ackman agrees, but says the Fed is still making a mistake.

The market has been in full-on party mode in the 48 hours since Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was shifting to a data-dependent stance for deciding interest rates. That’s best seen in t...

Opinion: The Fed vowed to crush inflation with higher rates. Then the stock market rallied. Here’s why. (It’s not good news.)

‘‘We are now at levels broadly in line with our estimates of neutral interest rates, and after front-loading our hiking cycle until now we will be much more data-dependent going forward.’’ The Federal...

Stock market’s post-Fed bounce is a ‘trap,’ warns Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson

“‘Ultimately, this will be a trap.’” — Mike Wilson, chief U.S. equity strategist and CIO, Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson, who correctly called the stock market’s 2022 swoon, isn’t convinc...

A Fed Rate-Hike Surprise Could Be a Problem for Stocks

Text size The Federal Reserve continues to play catch-up in its fight against inflation, and there’s no doubt that interest rates are headed higher after its meeting ends on Wednesday. Chip Somo...

Expect Two Recessions, and a Quick End to the Fed’s Interest-Rate Hikes

Forward guidance sounds like a great idea. Central bankers should lay out their longer-term goals to influence financial markets. Just as hockey great Wayne Gretzky would skate where the puck was head...

The Upper Middle Class Is Getting Squeezed

By Dion Rabouin | Photographs by Dina Litovsky for The Wall Street Journal July 25, 2022 5:30 am ET Mark Yu had a profitable pandemic. Like many Americans, he added to his savings and pulled in big ga...

There Are Signs Inflation May Have Peaked, but Can It Come Down Fast Enough?

Growing signs that price pressures are easing suggest that June’s distressingly high 9.1% increase in consumer prices will probably be the peak. But even if inflation indeed comes down, economists see...

The Stock Market Is Entering Its Weakest Months. What to Watch Out For.

Text size Russia restarted natural-gas flows to Western Europe through Nord Stream 1, but President Vladimir Putin can shut it down again. Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images Bad news on the economy was go...

Is China Headed for a Lehman-Style Crisis? This Property Bust Is Different.

Text size The downturn in China’s property market is unlikely to lead to a meltdown that triggers a financial crisis. STR/AFP via Getty Images China’s property slump and suffering economy is lea...

Is the Stock Market Going Up? It Depends on the Definition of Recession.

Text size Tradersat the New York Stock Exchange. Seth Wenig/AP Not since Bill Clinton testified about the meaning of the word “is” has so much hinged on the meaning of one simple word. The word is “re...

Will the Federal Reserve kill the stock-market bounce?

A summer rebound is stirring hopes the bear market in U.S. stocks has seen its lows, but a meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers this coming week might test the nerves of would-be bulls. “I expect ...

TIPS, I Bonds Are Smart Ways to Buy Inflation Protection

Illustration by Liam Eisenberg Text size As a consumer, it is almost impossible to escape the ravages of inflation, which rose at a 9.1% clip in the 12 months ended June, based on the U.S. Consumer Pr...

Expect Two Recessions, and a Quick End to the Fed’s Hikes

Forward guidance sounds like a great idea. Central bankers should lay out their longer-term goals to influence financial markets. Just as hockey great Wayne Gretzky would skate where the puck was head...

Microsoft Stock Is a ‘Good Place to Hide.’ This Analyst CutsPrice Target Anyway.

Text size Microsoft updated its guidance to reflect higher foreign exchange headwinds ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings report. Jeenah Moon/Getty Images Microsoft won’t be immune to an economic slo...

Google’s stock split won’t matter in a recession, analyst says

Shares of Alphabet Inc. slumped Monday, with MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni saying the impact of an economic slowdown could offset the benefits from the long-waited stock split taking effect. The...

Toys Are Staples, Making Mattel a Buy in a Recession, Says Analyst

Shares of Mattel rose this past Monday, but fell for the week, after an upgrade from Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng, who argued that the toy maker had the ability to navigate economic uncertainties....

When will inflation peak? Consumers and economists see light at the end of the tunnel (but it’s a long tunnel)

Consumers think inflation still has to boil over before it cools, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest read on people’s economic expectations. Inflation hit 9.1% on the year in J...

Fed Officials Preparing to Lift Interest Rates by Another 0.75 Percentage Point

Federal Reserve officials have signaled they are likely to raise interest rates by 0.75 percentage point later this month, for the second straight meeting, as part of an aggressive effort to combat hi...

Homeowners who locked in low mortgage rates have one reason to ‘celebrate’ right now, economist says

The government’s inflation numbers confirmed that the price of literally everything has gone up. But an economist said that there’s one group who actually may have benefitted from rising costs. Inflat...