Fed rate hikes are coming — how to tackle your savings, mortgage, car payments and credit-card debt in advance

Wall Street investors and Washington D.C. lawmakers are closely listening to what Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says Wednesday about the central bank’s next steps in its fight against decades...

‘This feels very unfair.’ I’m 73 and worked full-time in education. Over 17 years, I made only one late payment on my student loans. I still owe $12K. Can you help?

Getty Images/iStockphoto Question: I’m 73 years old. I took out student loans in 1999 and consolidated in 2004. I have made only one late payment in the 17 years I’ve repaid. I worked full time at two...

Opinion: ‘Easter Bunny cartoon cash’ — how Bill Maher called the Bitcoin crash

Young people were already feeling depressed about their future retirement prospects, according to polls. Still more following the collapse of all their cryptocurrency bets, one suspects. More than $1 ...

8 tech stocks poised to bounce after Nasdaq plunge, according to AI platform

Nvidia Corp. tops a list of technology stocks that would be expected to bounce back strongly over the next month based on the reaction to past plunges by the Nasdaq Composite, according to an artifici...

Opinion: Warren Buffett’s advice for a volatile market: patience pays

Certainly you’ve been watching the stock market over the past few days. It would be hard not to. Even the most hands-off investor has likely noticed the scare headlines popping up on the evening news,...

Older Investors Have a Lot of Money in Stocks. How to Check if It’s Too Much.

A suddenly sliding stock market is sending a wake-up call to older Americans that maybe they shouldn’t invest like they used to. Many are likely to ignore that call. Thanks to a long bull market that ...

Fed will raise its policy interest rate above the inflation rate ‘sooner rather than later,’ says ex-governor Quarles who resigned last month

Former Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles said Tuesday that he thinks the Fed will move swiftly to raise its policy interest rate above the inflation rate because that is the only way to defeat i...

Opinion: Thankfully, the Fed has decided to stop digging, but it has a lot of work to do before it gets us out of hole we’re in

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Project Syndicate)—The Federal Reserve has turned on a dime, an uncharacteristic about-face for an institution long noted for slow and deliberate shifts in monetary policy. While the...

Opinion: Whenever the Dow and the S&P 500 fall below this key support level, stocks typically come roaring back

Breaking the 200-day moving average is not the kiss of death for U.S. stocks, which might explain why the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.76% on Jan. 24 recovered from a 1,000-point plunge and f...

Why the Floor for Bitcoin’s Price Is Zero

Text size What matters for Bitcoin is price momentum. Dreamstime A few thoughts early in the trading week: Recent crypto buyers who are sitting on deep losses surely don’t need me reminding them that ...

Opinion: Retirees in the U.S. do not live on ‘fixed incomes’

As inflation has gained traction in the last year, commentators constantly remark about how it is particularly hard on retirees who live on a “fixed income.”  Please stop. Retirees do not live on fixe...

‘Waiting for the perfect moment may not be the best strategy’: 3 things Americans can do right now as stock markets plunge

Americans woke up Monday morning to a stock market in sharp decline. In many ways, it was a replay of what investors have seen in recent weeks. Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.57%...

Monday’s worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 are down as much as 42% for 2022

Monday’s stock-market decline accelerated, and a closer look at the day’s worst performers highlighted painful double-digit year-to-date drops. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.92% was down a...

Opinion: Restaurant stocks are on the menu for investors as the pandemic’s end nears

Omicron is ripping through the population at a shocking rate, but there’s an upside. The coronavirus variant is milder and on track to leave the U.S. faster than delta. If so, this will favor “reopeni...

Can Microsoft acquisition cure Activision Blizzard’s toxic workplace?

Besides concerns about antitrust scrutiny and a record $68.7 billion price tag, Microsoft Corp.’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. also raises a key question: How will it deal with the ...

Tech Stocks Got Hit Hard. Where to Find Bargains Now.

The technology sector may not be on sale, but it certainly has gotten cheaper lately. Major technology stocks like Apple (ticker: AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (FB) are...

Opinion: Peloton’s stock price is disconnected from reality, and it will fall below $15 before hitting bottom

We have been recommending that investors short Peloton since October 2020. Even after falling 76% in 2021 and continuing to drop this month, Peloton’s valuation remains disconnected from the reality o...

These money and investing tips can shelter your portfolio from the stock market’s worst storms

Don’t miss these top money and investing features: Sign up here to get MarketWatch’s best mutual funds and ETF stories emailed to you weekly! INVESTING NEWS & TRENDS Can you name today’s biggest r...

The 4% Rule Might Not Work, This Retirement Expert Says. Here’s His Strategy for a Downturn.

Economist Wade Pfau has been thinking about retirement since he was in 20s. But not just his own retirement.  Pfau started studying Social Security for his dissertation while getting his Ph.D. at Prin...

How a Russian invasion of Ukraine could trigger market shock waves

The threat of a devastating European ground war hasn’t done much to rattle financial markets so far, but investors still appear likely to snap up traditional safe-haven assets should Russia attack Ukr...

The Market’s Priced in a Rate Rise. Now the Fed Has Lots of Other Issues to Decide.

Watch what they say, not what they do, at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting this coming week. The obverse of the famous advice from Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, is what eco...

Where to Find Bargains Among Tech and Growth Stocks

The technology sector may not be on sale, but it certainly has gotten cheaper lately. Major technology stocks like Apple (ticker: AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (FB) are...

Weekend reads: Is this the end of the bull market for stocks?

The Federal Reserve is reversing course to fight inflation, but interest rates remain low, which means bond prices remain high. Meanwhile, stock valuations are high relative to earnings, in part becau...

It’s Time to Bargain Hunt. 27 Picks to Beat the Stock Market From Barron’s Roundtable Experts.

“There is no easier way to make money in the market than to buy a great company under pressure due to short-term concerns.” So said the newest member of the Barron’s Roundtable, David Giroux of T. Row...

We’re in our 60s, my husband plans to work until he ‘drops dead’ and our medical bills are overwhelming – how can we retire like this?

My husband works for the county making approximately $55,000 a year but before that was in retail with earnings of only about $36,000. In 1996, our daughter was diagnosed with a life threatening incur...

Should I claim Social Security at 70, or take it earlier and invest the money?

Few things are certain, yet Social Security retirement benefits are among the safest sources of retirement income: Inflation-adjusted monthly benefits backed by the federal government for as long as y...

The Huge Tax Bills That Came Out of Nowhere at Vanguard

It’s easy for a small investor to make big mistakes. It would be even easier for giant investment firms to help prevent them—but, sadly, the asset-management industry seems to have other priorities. J...

I’m an attorney with more than $200K in student loans. How should I handle this?

Getty Images/iStockphoto Question: I’m an attorney with over $200,000 in federal student loan debt, and I desperately want to file for bankruptcy on these loans. I’m on an income-driven repayment plan...

‘Good luck! We’ll all need it’: U.S. market approaches end of ‘superbubble,’ says Jeremy Grantham

The U.S. is approaching the end of a “superbubble” spanning across stocks, bonds, real estate and commodities following massive stimulus during the COVID pandemic, potentially leading to the largest m...

Johnson & Johnson’s got a new CEO and a plan to split the company in two. Here’s what else to expect out of J&J’s earnings

Johnson & Johnson JNJ, -0.31% has long been viewed as a bellwether stock for other health care companies, given its early slot in the earnings calendar and a business model that spans everything f...

Microsoft could have just kicked off a Big Tech gold rush, which helps videogame stocks but maybe not gamers

Microsoft Corp.’s agreement to buy Activision Blizzard Inc. would be the largest tech acquisition ever, and the chance it could prompt other Big Tech names to make their own acquisitions sent videogam...