Opinion: Our student-loan system needs fixing — and this change would be smarter than just forgiving debt

Most of the recent discussion of student debt has focused on the prospect of forgiving that debt—telling borrowers that they don’t have to repay the funds the federal government provided to help them ...

Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ still not signaling stock-market bottom is near, analysts say

Stock-market investors have been on a roller-coaster ride, but a closely watched measure of expected volatility has yet to convincingly signal that the selloff is set to bottom out, analysts said Mond...

‘Unhinged’ markets followed ‘unforced error’ by Fed’s Powell, says David Tepper

“‘Taking the optionality of 75 basis points off the table was an unforced error the Fed didn’t have to do. The Bank of England making a similar mistake the next day caused the market to become a bit u...

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...

Will Fed rate hike be a ‘clearing event’ for battered U.S. stock market? What investors are watching for on Wednesday

A little clarity from the Federal Reserve on the likely size and scope of future rate increases on Wednesday could be a balm for a bruised U.S. stock market, according to some analysts. The meeting co...

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...

Dow makes 612-point turnaround as Nasdaq leads rebound in final hour of trading

U.S. stocks rallied in the final hour of trading on Monday as some investors interpreted the 10-year Treasury yield’s breach of 3% as a sign that the bond-market’s selloff may have exhausted itself fo...

A cruel April just sent the S&P 500 into its second stock-market correction of 2022

An ugly end to a cruel April on Friday saw the S&P 500 post its second correction — a drop of 10% from a recent peak — so far this year. The large-cap benchmark SPX, -3.63% ended a topsy-turvy wee...

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...

Here’s how far the S&P 500 has to fall to enter another stock-market correction

Stocks finished mostly higher Wednesday as an early bounce fizzled, providing a bit of breathing room for the S&P 500 after it came close to entering its second market correction of 2022. The larg...

The bond market has crashed. Why one strategist says embrace the pain and get back in.

Investors are more or less trained to think about assets in stock-market terms. That is, a correction is a 10% drop from its peak, and a bear market is 20% drop, etc. But not all assets are equal. In ...

Market ‘not seeing a low yet,’ says Morgan Stanley’s Wilson after ‘ominous’ signal late last week

“‘Unfortunately, we’re just not seeing the low here yet. We’re students of the market, we respect what the markets are telling us. As we’ve said many times, the best strategist in the world is the int...

The news coming from this giant volcano is even gloomier than the new forecasts from the IMF and World Bank

Investors love looking at esoteric indicators for clues on how the economy is performing, and therefore how stocks, bonds and other assets will trade. How about looking at carbon dioxide emissions? Th...

Biden administration launches student loan review, says 40,000 borrowers will see debt canceled

The Department of Education announced Tuesday a new review of its student debt portfolio, which it says will correct for past mistakes that denied 3.6 million borrowers credit toward student loan forg...

Recession fears and the stock market — Is it too late to play defense?

Recession fears are on the rise as the Federal Reserve gears up to fight inflation. Many stock-market investors are already playing defense and may wonder if those strategies have more room to run. Bu...

Recession is `the most likely’ outcome for U.S. economy, says Larry Summers

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, whose out-of-consensus views about the risks of persistent inflation have come true, is reiterating his concerns about a potential U.S. downturn: He now says a...

Here’s the playbook if the rest of the world breaks free from the U.S. dollar, says Credit Suisse’s monetary plumbing guru

It’s pretty well accepted that no one knows as much about the plumbing of the world’s financial system as Zoltan Pozsar, global head of short-term interest-rate strategy at Credit Suisse, who was the ...

Dow falls more than 400 points, Nasdaq finishes 2.2% lower as Treasury yields keep surging

Dow industrials and the S&P 500 index book their biggest one-day declines since March on Monday, with energy, tech and other growth names bearing the brunt, as Treasury yields soared and investors...

The stock market is behaving a lot like it did during the Iraq war. Here’s the future if the pattern continues.

History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. The Iraq war of 2003 doesn’t have many parallels to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, other than perhaps global unpopularity. But there seems to be at least one ...

Fed must ‘inflict more losses’ on stock-market investors to tame inflation, says former central banker

So much for the Fed put. “‘It’s hard to know how much the U.S. Federal Reserve will need to do to get inflation under control. But one thing is certain: To be effective, it’ll have to inflict more los...

Stocks are rallying because of what an inverted yield curve says about the Fed and inflation, strategist says

The inversion of a key measure of the Treasury yield curve is telling investors more about inflation and the Federal Reserve’s credibility than it is about the prospect of recession, according to a ve...

Opinion: This simple change in words can dramatically increase retirement savings

In today’s increasingly complex financial world, individuals are faced with many competing financial priorities — from student debt to emergency healthcare expenses, just to name a few. As a result, n...

U.S. inflation jumps again and hits 6.4% rate, the Fed’s favorite price gauge shows

The numbers: The Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation calculator rose a sharp 0.6% in February and kept the increase over the past year at a 40-year high, explaining why the central bank plans to move...

S&P 500 set to exit correction: What history says happens next to stock-market benchmark

The S&P 500 index exited market-correction territory Tuesday, a move that has tended to point to near- and medium-term gains for the U.S. large-cap benchmark in the past. The S&P 500 SPX, +1.2...

How would the economy handle $200 oil? Here’s what one simulation found

Oil has been one of the most volatile assets since the Russian invasion of Ukraine as traders balance the impact of sanctions with both the likelihood of increased production elsewhere and the possibi...

Get ready for $900 billion of stock purchases this year, says Goldman Sachs. Here’s who’s buying.

Wall Street is looking a little less surefooted as a new week begins, with oil sliding as fresh COVID lockdowns in China adding to a hefty worry pile. Bonds continue to slump as well. But maybe don’t ...

Perfect contrarian indicator? Jim Cramer declares the bear market is over

The stock market has climbed a pretty sizeable wall of worry over the last two weeks, with the S&P 500 rising 8% during a period of continued war in Ukraine and Federal Reserve rate hikes. Jim Cra...

Investing legend Bill Miller says there are many good values in the market even after relief rally

It’s a good time to get the perspective of the recent market rally from legendary investor Bill Miller, who beat the S&P 500 SPX, +1.43% for 15 years in a row and has seen a cycle or two. “No one ...

Dow ends 200 points lower after Fed’s Powell leaves door open to larger rate hikes

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Samuel Corum/Getty Images Stocks fell Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell left the door open to the prospect of bigger rate hikes to bring down i...

Will the Fed rate increase mean higher interest on your savings and not using your travel card rewards may not be such a bad thing

Hi, MarketWatchers. Don’t miss these top stories. Weekend reads: There’s a recession warning as the Federal Reserve fights inflation Also, value stocks, the wild market for crude oil and a U.S. compan...

Gold at $10,000? Death of the 40-year bull market in bonds? What’s next for the global financial system after Russia’s central bank gets cancelled

The shockwaves are still being felt by the incredible Western sanctions that have rendered the $630 billion in reserves the Russian central bank accumulated virtually unusable. Can the current dollar-...

The Fed got inflation badly wrong — and now it admits there’s no quick fix

Higher prices of gas, groceries, new cars and mortgage rates got you down? Americans may have to get used to it. The rate of inflation might not return to pre-pandemic levels of less than 2% for at le...