Dow tumbles as inflation reading triggers market shock waves: What investors need to know

From Wall Street to Main Street, fears that the U.S. economy could be sliding into 1970s-style “stagflation” have been percolating. References to the sticky situation appeared in news headlines all we...

Peak U.S. inflation? This obscure corner of the financial market says otherwise

In a little-known part of the financial market that’s had the most accurate reads on U.S. inflation so far, traders are pricing in an annual headline rate on the consumer-price index of 8.5% or higher...

Here’s why the stock market gets ‘squirrelly’ when bond yields rise above 3%

Stock-market investors seem to get jittery when the 10-year Treasury yield is trading above 3%. A look at corporate and government debt levels explains why, according to one closely followed analyst. ...

Investors may be in for this rude surprise: History shows inflation can take years to return to normal even when Fed hikes above 10%

History can be a powerful tool, particularly in a high-inflation environment like this one in which no suitable economic model seems to apply. Inflation — running at 8.3% as of April, near a four-deca...

Fed’s quantitative tightening is about to arrive: What that might mean for markets

The Federal Reserve’s almost $9 trillion portfolio is about to be reduced starting on Wednesday, in a process intended to supplement rate hikes and buttress the central bank’s fight against inflation....

Dow books 4th day of gains, stocks rally after Fed minutes signal flexibility on interest rate hikes

Stocks closed higher Wednesday as investors took away a message of flexibility from the release of minutes of the early May Federal Reserve meeting about its path to higher interest rates. How did sto...

Opinion: The Fed must boost rates by a full percentage point at every meeting to bring down inflation and avoid a job-killing recession

The Fed has taken aim at inflation, but it isn’t moving fast enough. Earlier this month the Fed boosted the federal funds rate by half a point, and more half and quarter point increases are almost cer...

Next big shoe to drop in financial markets: Inflation that fails to respond to Fed rate hikes

Traders, investors and strategists are adding one more factor to the list of reasons why financial markets may be in for more volatility through at least the next three to four months: the likelihood ...

Why did the Dow plunge more than 1,000 points? Should I wait for stocks to sink lower? Here’s what some pros think.

What a difference a day makes. Fresh off the best percentage gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -3.12% since Nov. 9, 2020, the blue-chip index got clobbered, along with the rest of the st...

As Dow sinks over 1,000 points, signs of panic-selling emerge in stock market

Panicky behavior was starting to set in on Wall Street on Thursday, at least from a technical perspective, as the Dow industrials shed all of the previous day’s dramatic gains, and then some. Trading ...

‘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...

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....

Gold books worst day in 2 months, after suffering biggest monthly loss since September

Gold futures finished sharply lower Monday, recording their sharpest daily decline in about two months, while building on an April retreat that left the precious metal with its worst monthly performan...

A rough 4 months for stocks: S&P 500 books the worst start to a year since 1939. Here’s what pros say you should do now.

To say that it has been a perilous stretch for bullish stock investors on Wall Street lately is a bit of an understatement. Marked by stomach-churning volatility and bruising losses in once-popular te...

‘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 ...

Weekend reads: How to position your investments before the Federal Reserve causes a bear market

Do you remember all the times Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was quoted as saying inflation in the U.S. was “transitory”? With the Fed now ready to fight inflation, the bond market has quickly...

Dividend Aristocrat stocks can help you keep ahead of inflation. These 15 take top prizes for raising payouts.

Some investors are interested in stocks that pay high dividend yields for a source of income. Others believe it is better to focus on total returns over long periods. The Dividend Aristocrats are a gr...

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...

You need to pay more attention to dividends — this math shows why they beat inflation

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – One of the best bear-market-protection strategies is hidden in plain sight: Dividend-paying stocks. Most investors pay little attention to them. Because the stock market’s dividend...

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...

Mortgage rates soar to highest level in over a decade — even wealthy home buyers are feeling the pain

Mortgage rates are soaring, and no one is being spared. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5% as of the week ending April 14, representing an increase of 28 basis points from the pr...

Why the stock-market rally may be nothing more than ‘wishful thinking,’ according to Morgan Stanley CIO

Listen to the bond market. That is the advice from Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, warning that recent resilience in stocks could be “nothing more than a be...

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 ...

‘Calamity’ may be coming, stock-market setup similar to 1999: Jeffrey Gundlach

 A “calamity” may be coming for markets, potentially in 2023, Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of DoubleLine, warned Tuesday on stage at the Exchange ETF conferen...

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 housing market is running hot. Can the Fed cool it before it crashes?

When the “Bond King” Bill Gross sat down recently with Barry Ritholtz for an episode of “The Big Picture” podcast, the billionaire investor and PIMCO founder took a pretty skeptical view of who might ...

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...

Get ready for a ‘new world order’ that drives stocks and bonds: BlackRock

It’s an end of an era. That’s BlackRocks Inc.’s BLK, +1.62% Tony DeSpirito, chief investment officer in the U.S. fundamental equities division of the world’s largest asset manager, telling investors t...

U.S. stock futures steady early Monday as traders weigh prospect of more sanctions on Russia

U.S. stock index futures were little changed early Monday as traders weighed the prospect of further sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. After the S&P 500 index posted a third straight we...