Why did inflation surge to 40-year highs? Here are 4 causes of the Fed’s mistake

The first was being unaware that the foundation of the U.S. banking system had been eroded away by complex mortgage securities that carried high credit ratings but turned out to be toxic during a broa...

Don’t Expect the Stock Market to Rally, Even if GOP Wins Control of Congress

The outcome of the midterm elections on Nov. 8 could disappoint investors, regardless of which party they support. According to Wall Street lore, stocks usually perform strongly following the midterms...

China outnumbers the U.S. for the first time in this ranking of the world’s ‘best’ universities and U.S. economy will likely fall into recession, former Fed official says

Hi, MarketWatchers. Don’t miss these top stories. China outnumbers the U.S. for the first time in this ranking of the world’s ‘best’ universities Artificial intelligence is among the few fields that b...

IRS releases new federal tax brackets and standard deductions. Here’s how they affect your family’s tax bill.

America’s high inflation rate will produce a 7% increase in the size of the standard deduction when workers file their taxes on their 2023 income, according to new inflation adjustments from the Inter...

Southern California’s Notorious Container Ship Backup Ends

The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared. The queue of ships waiting...

‘Mounting fear is that something else will break along the way’: Stock-market investors look ahead to PCE inflation data amid Fed overtightening worries

Some investors are on edge that the Federal Reserve may be overtightening monetary policy in its bid to tame hot inflation, as markets look ahead to a reading this coming week from the Fed’s preferred...

Stock market’s wild gyrations put earnings in focus as inflation crushes Fed ‘pivot’ hopes

Unrelenting inflation has dashed hopes for a quick pivot away from aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, which in turn is undermining the U.S. corporate earnings outlook for 2023 and ...

The Fed Has Another Problem. States Are Doling Out Stimulus Funds

A spending spree is coming, and it may do more harm than good. An analysis by Deutsche Bank economists shows that 20 U.S. states have recently enacted, or are in the process of enacting, stimulus prog...

What bank earnings tell us about how consumers are doing with high inflation, recession worries — ‘It’s not a crack in current numbers’

For all the worries about inflation’s pinch and the chance of a recession, just-released earnings reports from big banks indicate the wallets of many regular Americans are generally holding up as they...

‘Growing wealth gap and rising inflation … hurt the global economy at almost every turn,’ Jamie Dimon says

What a difference 25 years can make. The world today is a markedly different place from the world that existed at MarketWatch’s inception in October 1997. JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, +1.66% CEO Jami...

The Stock Market Rebound Fizzled. Why a Real Bottom Could Be Forming Soon.

Investors seemingly can’t stop trying to pick a stock market bottom, no matter how bad the news—and it continues to backfire. The day for a real bounce, however, may be coming soon. Consider: This pas...

Fed’s benchmark interest rate may peak above 5% after Sept inflation data, some economists think

When the Federal Reserve started to raise its benchmark policy interest rate by super-sized 0.75 percentage points in June this year, a few Fed officials and private sector economists talked about how...

This is how high interest rates might rise, and what could scare the Federal Reserve into a policy pivot

The stock market’s reaction to the latest inflation report Thursday underlined just how confused and fearful investors are. The S&P 500 SPX, +2.60% plunged as much as 3% shortly after the open as ...

Why stocks scored a historic bounce after another hot inflation report

Stock-market investors can be forgiven for feeling a little dizzy after a day that saw stocks plunge in reaction to another round of hotter-than-expected inflation data only to surge higher and extend...

Why Is the Stock Market Up Today? It’s Complicated.

“Stop making sense,” the Talking Heads once sang. The stock market took it literally on Thursday with a massive rally following an inflation reading that everyone agreed was way too hot. So what gives...

Opinion: $22 billion in I-bond sales can’t be wrong. Why you may want to buy them even when their rate resets soon

I-bonds’ sky-high interest rate is poised to fall to 6.48% when they reset next month, according to industry experts. Still, that would be the third-highest level since they were sold in 1998. Though ...

Inflation Pushes Social Security COLA to 8.7% in 2023, Highest Increase in Four Decades

Social Security checks will be 8.7% bigger in 2023, the largest cost-of-living adjustment to benefits in four decades, the Social Security Administration said Thursday. The extra funds will provide re...

Rates on Treasury I Bonds Will Fall to 6.5% Soon. Get a Higher Rate Now.

The new rate on Treasury Series I inflation-linked savings bonds is likely to be set at 6.5% for bonds purchased starting in November, down from the current rate of 9.6%, Barron’s estimates. The new r...

‘The mood has turned darker’: Desperate to outrun inflation, people are making big (and easy) changes to their habits. You can too.

We never were the same after last summer. Stubbornly high inflation rates in recent months and several interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve are impacting consumer behavior. That’s according...

U.S. stock futures advance ahead of inflation data

U.S. stock-index futures advanced Thursday ahead of the week’s big event, the release of September consumer price inflation data. What’s happening Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, +0....

What stock-market investors will be watching in Thursday’s U.S. inflation report

Hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer-price index readings have triggered some of the stock market’s biggest one-day selloffs in 2022, serving to focus investor attention ahead of the latest measure of r...

That Sky-High I Bond Interest Rate Will Be Coming Down to Earth

Inflation-adjusted Series I savings bonds have been the most enticing place to park your cash this year—nearly 10% interest, backed by the U.S. government, the safest investment around. In a few weeks...

I’m the US chief economist at Vanguard, and here are 5 things investors should consider now amid high inflation

“High inflation is unlikely to become a permanent feature of the economy,” said Vanguard’s U.S. chief economist and head of portfolio construction Roger Aliaga-Diaz. Vanguard Despite the Federal Reser...

Fed’s Mester says there’s been no progress on inflation, so interest rates need to move higher

With little or no progress made on bringing inflation down, the Federal Reserve needs to continue raising interest rates, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said Tuesday. “At some point, you know,...

Opinion: The stock market is in trouble. That’s because the the bond market is ‘very close to a crash.’

Don’t assume the worst is over, says investor Larry McDonald. There’s talk of a policy pivot by the Federal Reserve as interest rates rise quickly and stocks keep falling. Both may continue. McDonald,...

PVC Prices Are Falling. Why Warren Buffett Should Be Worried.

One thing leads to the other. Rising interest rates pummel housing. Lumber prices fall, some 60% this year. And, notes energy research firm and investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt, PVC—the plastic th...

Why Are My Inflation-Protected Bonds Falling When Inflation Is So High?

Listen to article (1 minute) You would think this would be TIPS’ time to shine. Instead, the prices of Treasury inflation-protected securities—government bonds that are adjusted to keep up with inflat...

Opinion: Inflation is going to fall just as fast as it rose, and that’s investors’ cue to enter the stock market

When central banks, most notably the Federal Reserve these days, move too aggressively on interest-rate increases, things break. Believe it or not, this is bullish in the twisted thinking of Wall Stre...

Opinion: Your off-ramp for I-bonds is coming up soon if you bought the securities for their juicy 9.6% yield

You can hold on to Series I bonds for 30 years, but if you jumped in when the interest rate skyrocketed to 9.62%, you might be looking for an off-ramp well before then. If you were attracted primarily...

Fed’s Williams sees steep decline in inflation ahead

Cooling global demand and steady improvements in supply should result in falling rates of inflation for goods over the next year, New York Fed President John Williams said Monday. “These factors shoul...

Opinion: Stock markets will drop another 40% as a severe stagflationary debt crisis hits an overleveraged global economy

NEW YORK (Project Syndicate)—For a year now, I have argued that the increase in inflation would be persistent, that its causes include not only bad policies but also negative supply shocks, and that c...

What will happen with inflation, interest rates and housing? Here’s what to expect in the next two years, and what could go wrong.

This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor...