Bloomberg News
Private Equity and 401(k)s Aren’t a Great Match

Some of America’s leading financial firms are hoping to sell the White House on what sounds like a compelling idea: Open employer-sponsored retirement plans to the private investments they manage, so regular folks can reap returns currently reserved for the wealthy.
Investors See High-Grade Debt, MBS as Top Bets of 2025

The best performing US blue-chip bond funds of 2024 are sticking to their winning playbook: investing in debt from riskier blue-chip companies, as well as firms that can handle economic turbulence — and avoiding corporations sensitive to interest-rate risk.
US Job Growth Slowed in January After 2024 Downward Revision

US job growth moderated in January while annual revisions from the government also revealed less vigor in the labor market last year than previously thought.
Investors Eye Data Center IPOs to Ride AI Infrastructure Boom

Investors are hungry for a piece of the US data centers powering the artificial intelligence boom, and a handful of initial public offerings expected in 2025 would feed that appetite.
Treasuries Extend Losses as Jobs Report Leaves Fed Path Intact

US government bonds fell as mixed employment data left traders holding tight to expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates steady until later this year.
Bessent Says Trump Wants Lower 10-Year Yields, Not Fed Cuts

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration’s focus with regard to bringing down borrowing costs is 10-year Treasury yields, rather than the Federal Reserve’s benchmark short-term interest rate.
Amazon Cloud Needs to Deliver After Microsoft, Alphabet Misses

Amazon.com Inc. shares have largely climbed on the back of two trends: strength in its cloud business and a focus on costs. Now both could be in question.
Principal, Pimco Bet on Debt From Riskier High-Grade Companies

The best performing US blue-chip bond funds of 2024 are sticking to their winning playbook: investing in debt from riskier blue-chip companies, as well as firms that can handle economic turbulence — and avoiding corporations sensitive to interest-rate risk.
The Job Market Is Weaker Than It Looks

The resilience of the labor market over the past year has, in large part, been about strength in sectors such as education, health care and government that are somewhat immune to economic cycles.
‘Debanking’ Dispute Highlights a Real Problem

Why would a bank suddenly shut down a customer’s adequately funded account? Some leading Republicans, echoing tech titans like Marc Andreessen, have warned of a conspiracy among regulators to “debank” conservatives and crypto enthusiasts.
Magnificent Seven’s Slowing Growth Threatens S&P 500 Rally

Last week, DeepSeek’s emergence as an AI threat wiped half a trillion dollars of value off Nvidia Corp. Last night, Alphabet Inc.’s disappointing earnings sparked questions about its capital expenditures and put its stock on pace for the worst drop in more than a year.
Bessent’s Treasury Sticks With Yellen-Era Long-Term Debt Plan

The US Treasury on Wednesday maintained its guidance on keeping sales of longer-term debt unchanged well into 2025, despite newly installed Secretary Scott Bessent having criticized the issuance strategy of his predecessor before he was picked for the job.
Macquarie Shuts US Debt Capital Markets in Private Credit Pivot

Macquarie Group Ltd. is shuttering its US debt capital markets arm, a business that includes leveraged loan origination, syndication and trading, to focus resources on private credit, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Traders Rush to Safety in Loan ETFs Again on Interest-Rate Pain

Investors plowed record cash into a pair of leveraged loan ETFs last week, in a high-conviction bet that the Federal Reserve will be slow to slash interest rates.
Alphabet’s Discounted Valuation Is an Antidote to Tariff Risk

Despite being targeted by Beijing in retaliation to US trade tariffs, Alphabet Inc.’s durable growth and attractive valuation may offer insulation from all the geopolitical uncertainty.
Apollo Raises Record From Private Wealth as Credit Grows

Apollo Global Management Inc.’s plan to tap wallets of rich clients is paying off, with its wealth business raking in record capital last year and boosting assets from the sector 50%.
DeepSeek Is Just the Latest Hedge Fund Innovation

Hedge funds have long gotten bad press. Criticized for short selling, corporate agitation or destructive greed, their contribution to economic activity isn’t always clear.
US Exceptionalism Is the Only Game in Town

The dollar and US stocks have benefitted tremendously from recent global portfolio inflows. As of June 2023, the latest data available, foreigners owned a record 17% of US equities.
Bessent Takes the Helm on US Debt Sales After Blasting Yellen

After repeatedly blasting Janet Yellen last year over her department’s strategy for issuing federal debt, it’s now up to Scott Bessent to make the call on sales of Treasuries, with bond dealers conflicted over what he’ll do in a pivotal release due Wednesday.
Vanguard’s Average Fee Is Now Just 0.07% After Biggest-Ever Cut

Vanguard Group has slashed the fees for dozens of its mutual funds and ETFs in a record move that’s likely to send a shock wave through the asset management industry.
US Oil Outpaces Global Price Gains as Tariffs Menace Supply

The US crude benchmark outpaced gains in other oil markets after President Donald Trump announced tariffs that threaten flows from two of America’s biggest foreign suppliers.
Bond Traders Warn of Inflation Shock as US Yield Curve Flattens

US bond markets are flashing a warning to US President Donald Trump that his move to unleash tariffs on top trading partners risks fueling inflation and stymieing growth.
Goldman Knows DeepSeek Affects the Future of Work

I recently asked DeepSeek to model the impact of artificial intelligence on US labor productivity growth.
The Fed’s Best Bet Is Patience as Confusion Reigns

A lot has changed since a new administration took charge on Jan. 20, so the Federal Reserve’s decision last week to maintain its policy rate might seem odd.
Apple’s ‘Best Quarter Ever’ Leaves Much to Be Desired

Apple Inc. described its latest results as its “best quarter ever,” but that’s only true if you stop reading near the top of the press release issued Thursday evening. Overall revenue may have reached record levels, but big questions lurk about large parts of the iPhone maker’s business.
UPS’ Amazon Reduction Is the Right Move

Carol Tomé, chief executive officer of United Parcel Service Inc., is ripping off a Band-Aid in one excruciating shot of pain to fix the courier’s post-pandemic problem with depressed profit margins.
Extending the 2017 Tax Cuts Would Be Fiscally Reckless

For the new Congress, deciding the fate of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will present an immediate dilemma. Allowing the law’s provisions to expire as scheduled at the end of the year would effectively raise taxes on tens of millions of Americans.
Apple’s Flagging AI Hopes Get Revival From DeepSeek’s Emergence

Concerns over Apple Inc.’s first-quarter results have met with 11th-hour optimism that it could eventually benefit from the same force that recently wreaked havoc on the tech sector.
Tariffs Dominate Earnings Calls With Firms Bracing for Fallout

It’s early days, but there already appears to be a clear buzzword among corporate executives this earnings season: tariffs.
Credit Skeptics Place a $10 Billion Bet in High-Priced Market

A small band of Wall Street skeptics are moving to protect their credit portfolios against a market priced like nothing in the economy could possibly go wrong.
Boeing’s Rosy Outlook Negates the Need for a Fire Sale

Boeing Co. reported on Tuesday that it burned through $14 billion of cash in 2024 and is likely to post negative cash flow this year as well. Regardless, its shares jumped as much as 7.6%.
DeepSeek Calls for Deep Breaths From Big Tech Over Earnings

By now, almost everyone has heard about DeepSeek, the Chinese-made AI that has taught the US a thing or two about building cheaper artificial intelligence.
Lutnick Says Trump’s Tariffs Will Restore US Economy and Respect

Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, offered a detailed defense of tariffs in his confirmation hearing, the clearest signal yet from a cabinet pick that the new administration is prepared to impose the levies on allies and adversaries alike.
Powell Says Fed Doesn’t Need to Be in a Hurry to Lower Rates

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said officials are not in a hurry to lower interest rates, adding the central bank is pausing to see further progress on inflation following a string of rate reductions last year.
Treasuries Slip as Traders Scrutinize Powell’s Inflation Remarks

US Treasuries were lower as traders parsed tweaks to the Federal Reserve’s policy statement regarding progress on the fight against inflation.
Crypto Enters the Debanking Debate With a Weak Case

“Debanking” is about to get a lot of airtime in US politics, but be warned: This debate is a chimera. Crypto enthusiasts, culture warriors and banks all have dogs in the hunt, with each leaning on the others’ interests and narratives to advance their own.
DeepSeek Is Coming for Sam Altman’s Other Company Too

If OpenAI LLC were a listed company, Monday would have been a very bad day for the stock.
Fed’s Balance-Sheet Plans Mystify Wall Street as Officials Meet

Buried in a rote US Treasury survey released on the eve of the latest holiday weekend was a question that all of Wall Street wants the answer to: What’s the Federal Reserve’s plan once it’s done drawing down its crisis-era bond holdings?
How Trump Can Slash Red Tape and Enrich America, Too

Every year, millions of Americans living abroad suffer a profound administrative indignity: complying with a US income-tax regime that treats them like miscreants and complicates the lives even of those who owe nothing.
If Wall Street Wants to Buy More Houses, Let It

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed restrictions on large financial firms buying homes, and state legislators in Virginia and Nebraska have similar ideas.
Microsoft Probing If DeepSeek-Linked Group Improperly Obtained OpenAI Data

Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI are investigating whether data output from OpenAI’s technology was obtained in an unauthorized manner by a group linked to Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, according to people familiar with the matter.
Oaktree’s Howard Marks Says Don’t Expect Low-Rate Era to Return

Oaktree Capital Group LLC co-founder Howard Marks says investors who made a fortune in the era of easy money should not expect the same strategies to deliver such exceptional returns in the future.
The Fed Will Duck and Weave on Policy, But Not for Long

When it comes to degrees of difficulty, this week’s Federal Reserve meeting is shaping up as a walk in the park compared to what awaits policymakers down the road.
Nvidia’s Stock Crash Solves a Wall Street Puzzle

DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has developed a model that can apparently answer questions as well as any chatbot in the US. It might even help answer a long-running question on Wall Street without being asked.
DeepSeek Exposes Market Risk Hiding in Plain Sight

The S&P 500 Index plummeted as much as 2.3% on Monday over DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup that developed a model competitive with the US’s very best — and, supposedly, on the cheap.
Pimco, Apollo Among Funds Looking at Next $3 Billion of X Debt

Pacific Investment Management Co. is among asset managers looking at buying a portion of $3 billion of debt tied to Elon Musk’s buyout of X, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Investors to Watch Powell’s Tone as Market Teeters

As the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting begins, investors have accepted that the central bank probably won’t be cutting interest rates this time.
AI’s Electricity Demand Means Cool New Tech Is Coming to Boring Grids

Bosses at artificial intelligence companies aren’t worried about the end of the world or the start of government regulations. Their biggest worry is more mundane: finding enough electricity to keep servers running at data centers.
Bullish Tech Traders Made Record Wrong-Way ETF Bets Before Rout

Exchange-traded fund investors who placed record bets on the US technology space last week are getting crushed Monday as anxiety over competition from a Chinese startup’s AI model is hitting tech stocks hard.
US Yields Fall to Lowest This Year as Tech Slump Fuels Haven Bid

Treasuries rallied on Monday as investors flocked to the safety of US government bonds after equities slumped in a selloff driven by technology shares.
DeepSeek Buzz Puts Tech Shares on Track for $1 Trillion Drop

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek’s latest AI model sparked a $1 trillion rout in US and European technology stocks, as investors questioned bloated valuations for some of America’s biggest companies.
Bitcoin Follows Tech Stocks Lower as New AI App Rattles Markets

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies tumbled, following technology stocks lower, as the emergence of a new Chinese artificial-intelligence model triggered a global selloff in riskier assets.
The Three Forces Shifting the Investment Landscape

Three factors heavily influenced the financial landscape over the last 12 months — AI-focused technological optimism, hoped-for leveling up, and higher government bond yields.
DeepSeek Shows Silicon Valley’s Huge Blindspot on AI

Last year, the chief executive officer of a leading AI firm was asked at a private Silicon Valley dinner about how his company differentiated from others building “foundation models,” the systems underpinning chatbots like ChatGPT.
Pimco, Dodge & Cox Lead Revival in Actively Managed Bond Funds

US bond funds actively managed by industry heavyweights like Pacific Investment Management Co. attracted the most new investment last year as money returned after a two-year dry spell.
Apple Tests Key Technical Level in Worst Start Since 2008

Apple Inc.’s stock has had a rough start to the year and is now flirting with a key level that could signal more downside ahead if breached.
Vanguard’s S&P 500 Fund Is About to Become World’s Largest ETF

A seemingly unstoppable flood of money has Vanguard Group Inc. on the brink of claiming a crown that State Street Corp. has held for decades.
Trump's Big AI Goals Start Small: 57 Jobs at a Texas Data Center

In a small Texas city nearly 200 miles west of Dallas, the first data center associated with the $100 billion Stargate venture from OpenAI, SoftBank Group Corp. and Oracle Corp. is taking shape.
Meta to Spend as Much as $65 Billion on AI Efforts in 2025

Meta Platforms Inc. plans to invest as much as $65 billion on projects related to artificial intelligence in 2025, including building a giant new data center and increasing hiring in AI teams, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said Friday.
Crypto’s Richest Man Turns VC Firm Into Giant Family Office

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, a few months out of prison and worth $70 billion thanks to the relentless crypto rally, is turning the former venture capital arm of his Binance Holdings Ltd. into a family office.
US Existing-Home Sales Pick Up at End of Worst Year Since 1995

Sales of previously owned homes in the US rose for the third straight month in December, entering 2025 with some momentum after the worst year in nearly three decades.
GE Needs a Greater Balance Between Dividends and Buybacks

General Electric Co., known now as GE Aerospace, has reclaimed its position as the largest industrial company by market value as jet engine production and after-market service both ramp up.
America’s Best Stock Picker Keeps Beating Passive Funds

For the third time in four years, the stock picker beating everyone is Fidelity Investments Inc.’s decoder of computer chips, crushing every measure of performance as the more popular passively managed index funds tracking market benchmarks proved little more than also-rans in 2024.
Wall Street’s Tech-Powered Bond Trades Hit Record $1 Trillion

A tech-powered approach to bond trading that helps firms move hundreds of securities in one go has just posted its best year yet.
SpaceX Addition Spurs Flood of New Cash Into Little-Known ETF

An exchange-traded fund from a relatively unknown shop is catching the attention of online traders and gathering flows after investing in Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Oracle Takes Run at Cloud’s Big Three With Trump-Backed AI Pact

Oracle Corp. has charged out of the gate in 2025, after its best year in a quarter-century.
How Trump’s Protectionism Could Increase Free Trade

Free trade is in trouble. That’s hardly startling news when the US has an avowed protectionist in the White House, but the problem runs deeper than it may at first appear.
Are US Taxes Too High or Too Low? Choose Your Chart

The gap between US federal spending and tax revenue is currently bigger, as a share of gross domestic product, than it’s ever been outside of major war or other crisis.
Saudi Crown Prince Makes $600 Billion Investment and Trade Pledge to Trump

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told President Donald Trump he’s willing to expand investments and trade with the US in the coming four years by $600 billion, according to the kingdom’s state-run news agency SPA.
Netflix Shares Soar to Record After Huge Gain in Subscribers

Netflix Inc. shares soared to a record high on Wednesday after the streaming giant reported its biggest quarterly subscriber gain in history, buoyed by its first major live sporting events and the return of Squid Game.
Nvidia Zero-Day Options Are the Next Big Bet for One ETF Upstart

The ETF industry’s upstart-in-chief is back with another roll of the new-product dice — this time betting on a game-changing expansion of Wall Street’s zero-day options boom.
JPMorgan’s Dimon Sees Inflated Stocks as ‘Animal Spirits’ Return

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s dealmakers are spending their time in the Swiss Alps huddling with ebullient clients, but the boss of the biggest US bank is striking a more cautious tone.
No, Ray Dalio, There's Not a UK Debt Death Spiral

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has a new book to promote. So while I am loath to fuel the sales campaign, his latest bomb in an interview with the Financial Times — warning of a “death spiral” for Britain’s sovereign debt — requires a riposte.
SoftBank Joins OpenAI, Oracle in AI Pact Unveiled by Trump

SoftBank Group Corp., OpenAI, and Oracle Corp. are forming a $100 billion joint venture to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure, an effort unveiled with President Donald Trump aimed at speeding development of the emerging technology.
Apple’s Tough January Worsens as Analysts Cut on iPhone Risk

Apple Inc. received a pair of analyst downgrades, in the latest sign that soft iPhone sales are becoming an increasing concern for investors, as artificial intelligence fails to act as a hoped-for growth catalyst.
There Are Stock Gems to Mine Before the Bots Take Over

There’s a lot of chatter on Wall Street about artificial intelligence replacing analysts — the folks at banks and brokerages who tell investors which stocks to buy, hold or sell. The bots should be able to make those recommendations just as well as humans.
Restoring Fiscal Control Can’t Wait Much Longer

Since the start of the new year, the bond market has been urging Congress to come to terms with America’s spiraling budget problems. Soon it might be demanding immediate action.
US Bonds Advance as Trump Delays on Tariffs, Oil Prices Fall

US government bond yields approached their lowest levels of the year after President Donald Trump refrained from immediately implementing tariffs and oil prices declined, easing inflation concerns.
Trump Starts Reshaping US Energy With Focus on Oil and Gas

President Donald Trump launched a sweeping overhaul of US energy policy hours after taking office Monday, putting the weight of the federal government behind fossil-fuel production and pulling back from the fight against climate change.
Trump’s Tariff Shifts Are a Warning for Corporate America to Expect Whiplash

Donald Trump opened his second term as US president with a market-jolting recalibration of his tariff policies, in a sign of turbulence ahead for investors and corporate executives.
The US Gas Comeback Is Real

New Yorkers bowing their heads into a cutting wind is typically a bullish sign for natural gas prices, and this January is no exception.
Raising the SALT Cap Is Supposed to Benefit Whom, Exactly?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that President Donald Trump signed into law in December 2017 imposed a $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted on a federal income tax return.
The Definitive Guide to Where the US Has Squeezed Russia’s Oil Flows the Hardest

The latest US sanctions on oil tankers hauling Russian petroleum look set to cause severe disruption across the nation’s export machine, with some of Moscow’s flows at risk of a near wipeout if history is any guide.
The Fed’s Stress Tests Are Facing a Stress Test

The Federal Reserve faces a reckoning: Sometime soon, it’ll probably have to subject its stress tests to public scrutiny, highlighting serious flaws in what has become its primary tool for ensuring the resilience of the banking system.
Surging Long-Term Rates Stoke GOP Tensions on Paying for Tax Cut

Surging long-term interest rates and stubborn inflation are inflaming divisions among congressional Republicans over paying for the sweeping tax cuts Donald Trump promised, complicating the path to passage with the party’s already tenuous majority.
Trump Team Readies Oil Sanctions Plan for Russia Deal, Iran Squeeze

Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are crafting a wide-ranging sanctions strategy to facilitate a Russia-Ukraine diplomatic accord in the coming months while at the same time squeezing Iran and Venezuela, people familiar with the matter said.
BlackRock’s Amped Up ETF Taps Into Wall Street’s Stock Anxiety

BlackRock Inc. is tapping into a fast-growing corner of the options-powered ETF world with an offering aimed at Wall Street investors bracing for the S&P 500 to tread water.
MicroStrategy May Soon Rival Amazon, Alphabet in Common Shares

MicroStrategy Inc.’s Michael Saylor may soon have almost as many common shares at his disposal to help fund the company’s Bitcoin buying spree as market behemoths Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have outstanding.
Mexico Cozies Up to Trump With Crackdown on China Trade

First came the raid on a Mexico City shopping center known for selling Chinese-made clothing, toys and electronics
Microsoft’s Stock Revival Hinges on Showing Growth From AI Binge

Microsoft Corp. has plowed tens of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence. With its stock struggling, the key question is how quickly those investments can prove to be successful.
Canada a ‘Good Place to Hide’ If US Stocks Drop, Contrarian Says

Canada’s stock market — where returns have lagged the US for two straight years — might offer investors protection against a downturn in US stocks, a Toronto-based asset manager says.
Elon Musk’s Robotopia Will Bloom in Aging Europe

There will be more humanoid robots than people by 2040, Elon Musk recently bragged.
US Bond ‘Death Spiral’ Risk Brushed Aside by Foreign Funds

Whether you’re speaking with Europe’s largest money manager, Australia’s giant pension funds, or a cash-rich insurer in Japan, there’s a resounding message you’ll hear when it comes to US Treasuries: They are still hard to beat.
Big US Bank Profits Surge as Biden Era Comes to a Close

For all of Wall Street’s excitement about Donald Trump’s growth agenda, the biggest banks are ending the Biden years on a high note.
Wall Street Has Best CPI Day Since at Least 2023: Markets Wrap

Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief after a surprise slowdown in inflation spurred a stock rally and a plunge in bond yields, reinforcing bets the Federal Reserve is on track to keep cutting rates this year.
The Inflation Genie Is Moving to the White House

The latest updates on the labor market and consumer prices show President-elect Donald Trump inherits an economy where inflation is poised to return to the Federal Reserve’s target later this year.
BlackRock Gets Record Client Cash, Revamps Leadership Team

BlackRock Inc. attracted an annual record of $641 billion in client cash, underlining the firm’s global reach across public and, increasingly, private assets as it integrates multibillion-dollar acquisitions and reshapes its leadership.
Nvidia’s $3 Trillion Rally Is On Edge, Wall Street Is Unfazed

Nvidia Corp.’s $3 trillion run-up in market value in the two years since ChatGPT helped trigger an AI frenzy is bigger than any stock rally in history in such a short time span.
Jamie Dimon’s Succession Race Just Lost a Top Candidate

Jamie Dimon, who turns 69 in March, will one day retire as chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. The candidates to succeed him have been well advertised.
So Long, Net Neutrality, and Good Riddance

One of the longest, most technical and, as it turns out, most inconsequential public-policy debates of the 21st century was about net neutrality.
The $2 Trillion Home Insurance Nightmare Is Getting Even Worse

On top of the human tragedy they’re still inflicting, the Los Angeles wildfires are exposing a gap between what people thought their homes were worth and what they’ll actually get from insurance companies when those houses have been reduced to ash. Potentially thousands of homeowners are learning it won’t be nearly enough.
Treasuries Surge as Easing Inflation Boosts Fed Rate-Cut Bets

US government bonds surged as benign inflation data prompted traders to resume their bets on additional Federal Reserve interest rate cuts by July.
Wall Street Set for Higher Open on Tariff Report

Wall Street was set for a higher open on Tuesday, though a renewed rise in Treasury yields damped the sentiment boost offered earlier by the prospect of gradually imposed US trade tariffs.
China Weighs Sale of TikTok US to Musk as a Possible Option

Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok if the company fails to fend off a controversial ban on the short-video app, according to people familiar with the matter.
Traders Brace for Biggest S&P Earnings-Day Reactions Ever

Traders are bracing for one of the most volatile earnings periods in stock market history.
Don’t Bank on Your Banking Job Outlasting AI

Over the past few months, I’ve had occasion to speak at a number of conferences concerned with the impact of artificial intelligence on financial jobs.
Private Equity Does Not Belong in Your 401(k)

Private equity wants access to Americans’ retirement accounts, and is lobbying President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to get it.
Surging Bond Yields Make a Strong Case for Fiscal Sanity

The recent surge in bond yields is directing renewed attention to America’s grim fiscal outlook.
US Reliance on Saudi Oil Is Nearing Its Endgame

For decades, one of Saudi Arabia’s most strategic overseas outposts was a little-known office in New York City that coordinated its oil sales to American clients.
Goldman Sees Dollar Rallying 5% or More as US Growth Dominates

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has upgraded its dollar forecasts, citing a robust US economy and likely higher tariffs that may slow monetary easing.
Treasuries Selloff Ripples Through World Markets After Jobs Data

Treasuries extended their drop after Friday’s blowout employment report strengthened speculation that the Federal Reserve is poised to pause its interest-rate cuts for virtually all of this year.
OpenAI Emphasizes China Competition in Pitch to a New Washington

OpenAI’s top executives are planning to host events in Washington DC and two key swing states to bolster support for investment in artificial intelligence as the company adapts to the biggest change in the US political landscape since ChatGPT launched.
TSMC Sales Beat Estimates in Boost for AI’s Outlook in 2025

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of AI hardware spending will extend into 2025.
Chinese Traders’ Demand for Global Stocks Prompt Rare ETF Halts

Chinese investors’ fierce appetite for overseas shares has triggered rare, full-day suspensions on a pair of exchange-traded funds tracking global equities.
Energy Sector Goes From S&P 500’s ‘Worst to First’ in 2025 Start

Energy is the star sector of the S&P 500 Index in the early days of 2025, shaking off two consecutive years when it was a market laggard, and gaining despite Wall Street’s dim outlook for oil and gas stocks.
A New World for Facebook and Instagram: Zuckerberg’s Splinternet

When Mark Zuckerberg earnestly looked at a camera and told the world (or President-elect Donald Trump) that he was shutting down all fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, he left out some important context.
US 30-Year Yield Hits 5% as Traders Push Back Next Fed Rate Cut

US Treasuries plunged as evidence of a resilient labor market pushed traders to shift their expectations for the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate cut to the second half of the year.
Indonesia’s Showdown With Apple Is Far From Over

Indonesia isn’t taking a step back from its hardball approach to Apple Inc. The showdown has turned into quite a spectacle, but it’s unlikely the wins will be sustainable.
Big-Tech Love - And Fear - Fuels Record Boom for Invesco’s ETFs

Invesco Ltd.’s ETF lineup absorbed a record amount of cash in 2024 from at least two classes of investors: those chasing AI-driven gains, and those shying away from big tech’s sway.
Janus Henderson Takes CLO-Tracking Fund to Europe After US Win

After cementing its position as the dominant player in the US for a niche but highly lucrative investment vehicle, Janus Henderson is looking to try its luck in Europe.
Who’s Afraid of Rising Treasury Yields? Not Stocks

Stock investors have been watching the runup in US Treasury yields with considerable alarm of late.
Boeing Investors Shouldn’t Bank on a GE-Style Windfall

A contestant could be forgiven for guessing Boeing Co., but the correct answer would be General Electric Co., and the talented executive is Larry Culp.
US-China Tech Breakup Is a Race to the Bottom

A messy, ongoing tech breakup between the US and China is forcing a rethink about what the industry might look like for consumers in a decoupled world.
Can Howard Marks Spot a Stock Bubble Twice?

Most people assume that the S&P 500 Index will go up over long holding periods.
Bankers Need the Right Trump Outcome to Justify Stock Optimism

US investment banks have little room for error in their upcoming full-year results.
Fed’s Harker Says More Rate Cuts Are Coming But Timing Uncertain

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker said officials are on track to lower interest rates this year, but the exact timing will depend on what happens with the economy.
Biden to Further Limit Nvidia AI Chip Exports in Final Push

President Joe Biden’s administration plans one additional round of restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence chips from the likes of Nvidia Corp. just days before leaving office, a final push in his effort to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of China and Russia.
US 30-Year Mortgage Rate Just Shy of 7% Bridles Home Purchases

US mortgage rates edged up to just shy of 7% at the turn of year and a gauge of home-purchase applications tumbled to the lowest level since February, adding to evidence of a struggling housing market.
Trump Gathers SALT-Focused Republicans Before Tax Fight

A cohort of about 20 Republican House members from New York, New Jersey and California was invited to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate Saturday ahead of a looming fight over an extension of his 2017 tax cuts.
Treasury Market Gets First 5% Yield in Sign of What Could Come
The 20-year Treasury bond offered a grim warning as a selloff fueled by inflationary angst gripped global debt markets: 5% yields are already here.
Google’s Most Serious Rival Isn’t Microsoft. It’s a Startup

The AI boom of the past two years has largely been a two-horse race. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp.-funded OpenAI have duked it out for customers, while Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have nibbled at the margins for market share.
Bitcoin Is Not a Nothing, But Not a Something Either

A few weeks ago, a reader emailed to challenge what he described as our “cautionary, skeptical and net negative” stance on Bitcoin.
ECB's Lagarde Faces a Make-or-Break 2025

Every central banker has a make-or-break moment. As the euro crisis raged in 2012, then-European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi took to describing the common currency as a “bumblebee”:
Privatize the USPS? Not in an Era of Crony Capitalism

President-elect Donald Trump is said to be interested in the privatization of the US Postal Service, a prospect that also appeals to his DOGE project and its allies in Congress.
Fed’s Cook Says Officials Can Be More Cautious With Rate Cuts

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said policymakers can proceed more cautiously with additional rate cuts, citing a sturdy labor market and recent bumpiness in inflation data.
Nvidia Investors Look to Huang CES Speech to Spark Next Breakout

Nvidia Corp. investors have high hopes that Monday’s speech from CEO Jensen Huang will spark a fresh breakout in the chipmaker’s shares, which have plateaued since November after roaring higher for much of 2024.
Biden’s Steel Move Is No Way to Treat an Ally

The most telling moment in the Biden Administration’s decision to block Nippon Steel Corp.’s attempted takeover of United States Steel Corp. was unintentional.
Gold Investors Stay Bullish for 2025 on Trump Volatility

Money managers are seeing plenty of reasons to remain bullish on gold, following a stellar 2024 that saw the precious metal post its biggest annual gain since 2010.
Biden Bars Offshore Oil Drilling in US Atlantic and Pacific

President Joe Biden is indefinitely blocking offshore oil and gas development in more than 625 million acres of US coastal waters, warning that drilling there is simply “not worth the risks” and “unnecessary” to meet the nation’s energy needs.
Three Ways the Fed's Message Falls Short — and How to Fix Them

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has indicated that the central bank’s communication will be part of its 2025 monetary policy review.
How Trump Can Achieve Sustained 3% GDP Growth

The incoming Trump administration has set a goal of growing the economy by 3% per year, similar to promises made during Donald Trump’s first term in office.
Fast-Money Quants Saw Big Year Go Bust in Wild Cross-Asset Ride

Quant funds that make money surfing the momentum of markets saw a promising year slip away in 2024 when big bouts of volatility lashed everything from Japanese stocks to cocoa futures and Treasuries.
ETF Companies Are Racing to Launch the Next ‘Hot’ Crypto Fund

Purveyors of exchange-traded funds are finding ever more creative — and potentially riskier — ways to lure investors into the crypto craze.
Reserves at Fed Sink Below $3 Trillion to the Lowest Since 2020

The US banking system’s reserves, a key factor in the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep shrinking its balance sheet, tumbled below $3 trillion to the lowest since October 2020.
Biden Blocks Nippon Steel’s $14.1 Billion Takeover of US Steel

President Joe Biden has blocked the $14.1 billion sale of United States Steel Corp. to Nippon Steel Corp., killing a high-profile deal that sparked a political firestorm and tensions between the US and Japan.
Don’t Fear the Froth. Stay Invested Even If Stocks Are Overvalued.

Maybe you have a pile of cash to invest, but you’re terrified of putting it into a US stock market near record highs.
A ‘Made in China’ Crisis Awaits Big Auto

When Jaguar’s “copy nothing” brand reboot hit late last year, one self-styled car enthusiast replied on X: “What the actual hell is this.” Jaguar’s response: “The future.”
Regulation, Deals and Crypto: Fintech Themes to Watch in 2025

The clouds that hung over the financial-technology industry in 2024 appear to be clearing as interest-rate cuts, recoveries in fintech stocks and promises of a looser regulatory environment in the second Trump administration paint a more promising outlook for startups.
Stock Bears Are Going Extinct. Time to Worry?

It’s that time of year when Wall Street soothsayers look ahead 12 months and try to divine the path of US stocks.
Where the Smart Climate Tech Venture Money Is Going in 2025

This year is shaping up to be a dramatic one for climate tech investors.
Chinese Stocks Tumble in Worst Start to a Year Since 2016

Chinese stocks posted their worst start to a year in nearly a decade as investors braced for economic uncertainties with weaker-than-expected manufacturing data and an anticipated hike in tariffs.
The Fed Has to Fix Its Communication Problem

The Federal Reserve has begun one of its reviews of “monetary policy strategy, tools and communications.” This month’s cut in interest rates and investors’ reaction to it underline just why such a review is needed.
A Crypto Optimist’s Guide for 2025

Before I undertake the hard task of predicting where the crypto industry will go in 2025, let’s take a minute to recall where it has been.
European Stocks Decline as Year-End Rally on Wall Street Fades

European stocks fell in the penultimate trading session of 2024, a year of modest gains for the region that contrasted with the bullish Wall Street rally.
Crypto’s $205 Billion Stablecoin Market Set to Go Mainstream

While Bitcoin’s surge above $100,000 captivated the headlines in 2024, many financial firms were more focused this year on a different type of cryptocurrency whose price is never meant to rise — or fall for that matter.
S&P 500’s 2024 Rally Shocked Forecasters Expecting It to Fizzle

By this time last year, the stock market’s rally had blown past even the most optimistic targets and Wall Street forecasters were convinced it couldn’t keep up the dizzying pace.
Gold’s 27% Advance Stands Out in Mixed Year for Metals Markets

Gold is heading for one of its biggest annual gains this century, with a 27% advance that’s been fueled by US monetary easing, sustained geopolitical risks, and a wave of purchases by central banks.
Where Are Stocks and the Economy Going? Ask Bonds

I will be looking at a few indicators in 2025 to tell me where financial markets are going. Most of them relate to the bond market, because it is both a window into the overall economy and an important component of how stocks and other risky assets are valued.
Bond Vigilantes Are Putting Governments on Notice

On a rather quiet final Friday of the year, I used my Bloomberg Terminal to check how key government bond yields in advanced economies have changed in 2024.
Technology Will Make the Pace of Change Even Faster

Advances in AI, including artificial general intelligence, are very likely to continue — but it’s unclear how much of a difference they’ll make.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin Fund Became ‘Greatest Launch in ETF History’

BlackRock Inc.’s iShares unit offers more than 1,400 exchange-traded funds around the world, yet none of them have performed quite like this.
Bitcoin Rally Fizzles as Token’s Record-Breaking Year Winds Down

A Bitcoin rally is fizzling in the final days of a record-breaking year for the digital asset, as investors assess the remaining impetus from President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of the cryptocurrency sector.
Treasuries Trade Mixed, With 30-Year Yield Near 2024 Highs

Treasuries were mixed in thin trading as traders absorbed the prospect of a less aggressive path ahead for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and priced in greater risk for US long-term debt.
Dollar Eyes Best Year in Almost a Decade

The dollar is headed for its best year in almost a decade as US economic strength reins in expectations for the Federal Reserve’s rate-cutting cycle and President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of harsh tariffs underpin bullish bets on the currency.
Tokenization Has Become Wall Street’s Latest Favorite Crypto Buzzword

Tokenization, or the process of creating digital representations of real-world assets on a blockchain, has become one of this year’s buzzwords in both conventional and crypto finance circles.
Boeing Headlines Industrial Prospects and Pitfalls in 2025

The new year will start with plenty of intrigue, especially in manufacturing, aerospace and logistics, the area where I hunt for interesting storylines about how companies navigate opportunities and pitfalls.
OpenAI Mulls Plan for a More Conventional For-Profit Business

OpenAI, founded a decade ago as a research organization, is considering a change to the AI company’s structure that would create a more conventional money-making corporation alongside a nonprofit arm.
Books We Read in 2024 to Prepare Us for the Future

Recommend reading that provides a bed of knowledge for the key themes we think will define 2025. Ours differs from other lists you might see elsewhere at this time of year in that we focus on relevance rather than recency, though there are new books here, too.
Dollar Dominance Is the Key to US Debt and Deficits

The eclipse of the dollar, and with it the ability of the US to borrow on a scale that would cripple any other country, has been long predicted. For at least half a century, skeptics have counted on something — or someone — coming along to knock American assets from their perch. Don't plan for a requiem just yet.
Treasuries Fall as Long Rates Expand Gap Over Short Maturities

Treasuries were under pressure in a holiday-shortened session as investors remain wary to park cash in US government debt that matures in a decade or more.
US Oil Exports to China Dwindle as Demand Wanes, Buying Shifts

US crude exports to China plunged by almost half this year as shifts in the nation’s economy weighed on demand and it bought more barrels from other countries including Russia and Iran.
US Continuing Claims Rise to Highest in More Than Three Years

Recurring applications for US unemployment benefits rose to the highest in more than three years, adding to signs that it is taking longer for out-of-work people to find a job.
The 5 Biggest Forces to Watch in Corporate America

The C-suites and boardrooms of corporate America should be on high alert entering 2025.
In American Debt We Trust — But for How Long?

America’s national debt would have horrified Ronald Reagan.
China Mulls Record $411 Billion Special Bonds, Reuters Says

China’s policymakers plan to sell a record 3 trillion yuan ($411 billion) of special treasury bonds in 2025, Reuters reported on Tuesday, a move aimed at bolstering the slowing economy.
Obamacare Is More Popular and Costlier Than Ever

A rude surprise could be in store for the millions of Americans who get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act. If Congress doesn’t act next year, enhanced premium subsidies will expire by December, causing enrollees’ payments to increase by more than 75% on average.
Good Debt? Bad Debt? There’s No Such Thing

People often make a distinction between “good debt” and “bad debt,” in terms of both personal finances and public spending.
For Emerging Markets, ‘Better Luck Next Year’ Is a Hard Sell

Emerging markets-focused investors have had little to celebrate over the past year.
US Regains Primacy in Crypto Market on Trump Agenda, ETF Demand

The crypto market’s center of gravity is back in the US as 2025 approaches, courtesy of Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency and widening demand for the nation’s digital-asset funds and derivatives contracts.
Hedge Funds Cut Nuclear Technology Exposure After ‘Hard’ Rally

Some hedge fund managers are sounding the alarm on overvalued nuclear power stocks and scaling back exposure after a stunning rally this year.
MicroStrategy’s Long-Shot S&P 500 Bid Stokes Wall Street Agita

To Michael Saylor’s online fanbase, it’s the next step in the great normalization of crypto: Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy Inc. enters the S&P 500 next year, forcing the likes of index-tracking funds to buy his controversial company en masse. Whether they like it or not.
Europe’s Hottest Stock Has an American Architect

Forced to seek a government rescue barely a year ago, Siemens Energy AG was an unlikely candidate for Europe’s best performing stock of 2024.
America Needs to Break Its Debt Addiction — Crisis or Not

This is the first part of a series of Bloomberg Opinion columns exploring the risks related to the US’s rapidly expanding debt and budget deficit.
OpenAI Unveils More Advanced Reasoning Model in Race With Google

OpenAI is preparing to launch a new artificial intelligence model that it said is capable of more advanced human-like reasoning than its current offerings, ratcheting up the competition with rivals such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
Billions of Dollars, Bold Action: EMs Battle a Surging Greenback

From Brazil to South Korea, emerging-market central banks are forming a line of defense as a rising dollar pushes their currencies to multi-year lows.
A View to 2025: Enough With the Central Bank Hawks and Doves

Delivering the first cuts in interest rates since the early days of the pandemic was the easy part.
Private Credit Plots Expansion in Bid for $40 Trillion Prize

Private credit firms want more than corporate lending. The largest are laying the groundwork to finance everything from auto loans and residential mortgages to chip manufacturing and data centers in an effort to swell the size of the market by the trillions.
Trump Is Right: Abolish the Debt Ceiling

Amid Donald Trump’s chaotic, last-minute intervention into congressional negotiations about government funding, he has stumbled upon a good idea: He wants to abolish the debt ceiling.
Quantum Computers: Getting Real?

Take it from Niels Bohr: “Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.”
Wall Street Needs to Prepare for an AI Winter

Surely one of the silliest things that happened in tech stocks in 2024 was the sudden tumble in Nvidia Corp. shares moments after its fiscal second-quarter earnings release in August.
Bitcoin Slumps as Trump Euphoria Gives Way to Wariness on Fed

Bitcoin extended its slide from this week’s record high to almost 15% as hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve prompted traders to sell an asset that has more than doubled this year.
Twin Boom-and-Bust Hits $10 Trillion ETF Industry in Overdrive

The $10.4 trillion US exchange-traded fund industry’s blockbuster year comes with an asterisk: even amid record inflows and launches, funds are shuttering at a nearly unprecedented clip.
Treasuries Gain as Key Fed Inflation Figures Trail Estimates

US Treasuries gained after a closely watched batch of inflation data came in below expectations, leading traders to lift the outlook for Federal Reserve interest-rate reductions next year.
Central Banks Started a Rates Descent They Can’t Finish

Central banks’ climbdown from the post-pandemic inflation peaks commenced amid both optimism and trepidation.
Wall Street Traders Rush for Exit After Fed’s Rate-Cut Shift

Almost exactly one year after sparking a furious rally in financial markets, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell did the exact opposite on Wednesday, staking out a cautious view on interest-rate cuts in 2025 that stunned investors.
The Fed Is as Clueless as Markets

In normal times, the conduct of monetary policy is a lot like driving a car through a thick fog of uncertainty. You have a general idea of where you’re going, but you want to move slowly to avoid accidents. At the moment, it’s more like driving while double blindfolded — in a car with malfunctioning brakes. The most prudent move is to stop.
US Existing-Home Sales Rise as Buyers Accept High Mortgage Rates

Existing-home sales in the US topped a rate of 4 million in November for the first time in six months as house hunters begrudgingly accept mortgage rates above 6%.
BlackRock ETF Buys First Muni Bonds Issued Through Blockchain

A BlackRock Inc. fund has bought municipal debt issued earlier this year in a first-of-its-kind deal that relies exclusively on blockchain technology.
Walmart’s 78% Surge Leaves Retail Foes Big and Small in Dust

At a time when the American consumer’s resiliency has been questioned amid signs of a slowing economy, Walmart Inc. has thrived. The world’s largest retailer, famed for its discount prices but increasingly known for its pursuits in advertising and an online marketplace, is headed for its best year since 1998.
Bill Gates-Backed Fund Bets $40 Million on Carbon Removal Firm Deep Sky

The clean-tech venture firm founded by Bill Gates is providing a $40 million grant to carbon-capture startup Deep Sky Corp., which seeks to build large-scale facilities to clean carbon from the air.
S&P 500 Buyers Step in Ahead of Fed Meet Despite Narrow Breadth

While concern has grown in the past week that narrowing market breadth has tapped the brakes on the S&P 500 Index’s blistering rally, it turns out that stock bulls are still stepping in to snap up shares ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision.
Bond Traders Target Deeper 2025 Fed Rate Cuts Than Market Expectations

Some bond traders have been boosting options and futures wagers that the Federal Reserve is about to signal deeper interest-rate cuts next year than the market anticipates.
Google Is Pushing Quantum Computing Closer to Reality

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has reanimated excitement over quantum computing with an announcement about how its new chip, Willow, trounced a classical computer to solve a mathematical equation much faster.
The New AI Stock Pickers Are Destined to Disappoint

Meet the new stock pickers. They will remind you of the old stock pickers.
Mutual Fund Conversions Hit Record in ETF Industry’s Epic Year

New exchange-traded funds riding buzzy investment themes are helping fuel record industry growth this year. Yet, it’s also shaping up to be a banner era for money managers revamping their tried-and-tested mutual funds into the tax-efficient product.
Broadcom’s ‘Nvidia Moment’ Has Arrived. Now It Needs to Deliver

Broadcom Inc.’s massive rally after last week’s earnings report is reminiscent of when Nvidia Corp. shares first started to take off back in 2023.
MicroStrategy’s Nasdaq Entry Kicks Off New Era of Momentum Risk

MicroStrategy Inc.’s entry into the Nasdaq 100 opens up the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin to a new — and untapped – investor: the index-tracking juggernauts.
The Trump-Xi Bromance Has a Chance in 2025

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump's bromance could be rekindled in 2025, if both sides play their cards right.
The Federal Reserve Should Wait Before Cutting Again

Investors see recent inflation data as a green light for the Federal Reserve to trim another quarter point from the short-term interest rate.
A 500% Rally Shows the Elon Musk Euphoria for Bold-Faced Fund

From Wall Street funds to small-time day traders, those who dared to bet big on Elon Musk’s business empire are closing out the year with hefty payoffs, as Donald Trump’s US election win turbocharges the fortunes of the world’s richest man.
Wall Street Eyes 2025 Volatility Spikes on Trump Tariffs, Geopolitics

Investors anticipating another calm year in 2025 should be on guard for more shocks like the one seen in August as uncertainty around Donald Trump’s tax and tariff policies threaten to roil markets.
Jeremy Grantham’s GMO Goes Mainstream With ETF and Mega-Cap Bets

Jeremy Grantham’s valuation-oriented investment firm is famous on Wall Street for trumpeting the contrarian, and decidedly bearish, views of its co-founder, seemingly every passing year.
The Fed Faces an Important Choice After This Rate Cut

There is widespread agreement in markets and among economists that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its policy meeting on Wednesday.
Chip Cities Rise in Japan’s Fields of Dreams

Rice paddies that lay fallow for decades in some of Japan’s most far-flung regions are now its hottest properties.
The Fed Can’t Ignore All of Trump’s Intentions

When US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell faces the media after the central bank’s policy-making meeting next week, he’ll probably get a politically fraught question: How will the Fed incorporate president-elect Donald Trump’s stated plans — including tax cuts, tariffs and deportations — into its economic outlook and monetary policy?
Broadcom Shares Jump After Chipmaker Predicts AI Sales Surge

Broadcom Inc., a chip supplier for Apple Inc. and other big tech companies, rallied in premarket trading after predicting a boom in demand for its artificial intelligence chips.
Fed to Cut Once More Before Slowing Pace in 2025, Economists Say

Federal Reserve officials will lower interest rates this month for a third straight time and pare back the number of rate cuts they anticipate next year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
A 500% Rally Shows the Elon Musk Euphoria for Bold-Faced Fund

From Wall Street funds to small-time day traders, those who dared to bet big on Elon Musk’s business empire are closing out the year with hefty payoffs, as Donald Trump’s US election win turbocharges the fortunes of the world’s richest man.
Currencies Drop as China Disappointment Rattles Emerging Markets

Emerging-market currencies in Asia and the South African rand retreated as China’s policy makers appeared to disappoint investors expecting fiscal measures to boost the economic outlook.
Xi Readies Bargaining Chips for US Trade War

China got a head start on a looming trade war with the US by showcasing a new range of tools it’s prepared to use if Donald Trump makes good on his threat to punish the world’s second-biggest economy with tariffs.
Hedge-Fund Startups Dwindle as Managers Battle Pressure on Fees

The near-$5 trillion hedge fund industry is having one of the toughest years in decades in convincing fee-conscious investors to fork out cash for new market players.
Exxon's AI Power Play Aims to Beat Nuclear

To most of us, a power plant is a source of electricity. To Exxon Mobil Corp., it’s a machine that converts natural gas into money. And this is a propitious time for doing that.
Big Tech Is Betting on AI. Should You?

In the two years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, artificial intelligence has come to dominate investor consciousness more than any other technological breakthrough in the past two decades.
SpaceX Valuation Jumps to About $350 Billion in Insider Deal

SpaceX and its investors have agreed to purchase as much as $1.25 billion of insider shares in a transaction valuing Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at about $350 billion, according to an internal email seen by Bloomberg.
US Inflation in Line With Forecasts Solidifies Bets on Fed Cut

US consumer prices rose at a firm pace in November that was in line with expectations, solidifying expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next week.
Treasuries Rise as Inflation Data Fuels Wagers on a Fed Rate Cut

US Treasuries gained and traders boosted their bets on a Federal Reserve interest-rate reduction next week after a report showed consumer prices last month accelerated in line with expectations.
Does Bitcoin at $100,000 Signal a Last Laugh for HODLers?

What is there to say with Bitcoin at $100,000 for those of us who thought $10,000 looked nuts.
From TikTok to Nvidia, the Tech War Is Getting Uglier

ByteDance Ltd.’s options for TikTok in the US are looking increasingly desolate, as the tech war between Washington and Beijing boils over.
Google Rolls Out Faster Gemini AI Model to Power Agents

Google debuted a new version of its flagship artificial intelligence model that it said is twice as fast as its previous version and will power virtual agents that assist users.
India Shouldn’t Let Its Data Turn Chinese

India’s institutional strength used to be reflected in the reliability of its national accounts.
Worried About Stocks? $1 Trillion in Buybacks Will Help

December is a big month for stock buybacks, and by month’s end, companies are expected to spend more money repurchasing shares this year than ever before.
Crypto Volatility Picks Up as Trump-Fueled Rally Starts to Fray

A bout of selling buffeted crypto as the optimism sparked by President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of the sector begins to cool.
Google Invests in Venture to Build Energy Parks for Data Centers

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is investing in mega energy parks that will generate renewable power as the company races to fuel its data centers.
Wall Street Wealth Chiefs See Hottest Money in Private Markets

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. wealth executives are seeing private markets increasingly shape their businesses, marking a major shift from liquid assets that historically drove financial markets.
Dollar Optimism Is Spreading From Hedge Funds to Asset Managers

A resilient US economy and deepening geopolitical tensions around the world are making asset managers rethink their expectations for a weaker dollar.
Nvidia Hit With China Probe in Escalation of Global Tech Wars

China has opened a probe into Nvidia Corp. over suspicions that the US chipmaker broke anti-monopoly laws around a 2020 deal, taking aim at the AI heavyweight as Washington ramps up sanctions.
The US Can’t Manufacture Its Way to a Thriving Middle Class

he economic-policy consensus that prevails in the US is right about one thing.
Wall Street Banks Predict Biggest China Rate Cuts in Decade

China’s central bank will deliver the biggest interest-rate cuts in a decade next year as policymakers intensify efforts to shore up growth and arrest deflation, in the view of a number of Wall Street lenders.
JPMorgan Asset Prefers Real Estate and PE to Direct Lending

Private credit may be all the rage among investors, but there are better alternatives, according to JPMorgan Asset Management.
GM Is on a Road to Nowhere in China

Getting a stay of execution doesn’t mean you’re no longer on death row.
BlackRock’s Big Bet on GIP Puts Fink’s Firm in Local Spotlight

In the port city of Duluth, Minnesota, local activists and Washington-based groups are coalescing to scrutinize — and possibly stall — a $6.2 billion acquisition of a power utility led by Global Infrastructure Partners.
Africans Demand a Bigger Share of Their Natural Resources Wealth

If you thought the detention and subsequent release of Resolute Mining Ltd.’s chief executive by the government of Mali two weeks ago was a one-off, you would have been wrong.
A Bitcoin Reserve Would Be a Bad Deal for Americans

Bitcoin has shot up more than 40% since Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, in part on hopes that he’ll champion a government reserve devoted entirely to the cryptocurrency.
A $500 Billion Haul Reignites Passive Controversy on Wall Street

The passive-investing juggernaut is picking up speed — and it’s stirring up fresh angst about the dangers posed by the index-tracking boom across Wall Street.
Mid-Caps Could Be the Magnificent Refuge Tech Investors Need

There was a great chart in a recent Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report that got me wondering whether medium-size companies might have superpowers. Here’s my adaptation of the original graphic
Bond Traders Leaning on Fed Rate Cuts Eye Payrolls for Clues

Bond traders seeking support for bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this month will closely watch Friday’s US employment report for November.
Asness’ AI Twin Heralds End of Human Fund Managers

Hedge fund executive Cliff Asness says artificial intelligence is becoming “annoyingly better” at doing parts of his job.
Bitcoin Soars Past $100,000 on Trump’s Pro-Crypto Pick for SEC

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of a crypto proponent to be the next head of the US securities regulator lifted Bitcoin to $100,000 for the first time as traders warmed to the prospect of relaxed regulations.
Hedge Funds Make MicroStrategy Wall Street’s Hottest Trade

To sate his multibillion dollar rampant appetite for Bitcoin, Michael Saylor has tapped demand from retail investors transfixed by MicroStrategy Inc.’s more than 500% rally this year. He’s also benefited from hedge funds who care far less where the stock trades.
This Is Not France’s "Truss" Moment

Quite a few observers have described the dramatic fall of the Barnier government in France not just as a political crisis but also an economic and financial crisis.
$8 Billion for Intel Won’t Fix America’s Chip Problem

Since its enactment in 2022, the Chips and Science Act — a $280 billion splurge intended to revive US semiconductor manufacturing — has been at best a mixed success. A $7.9 billion grant to Intel Corp., announced by President Joe Biden’s administration last week, shows how this gravy train may be headed off the rails.
Emerging Currencies Hold Gains After Powell While Won Rebounds

Emerging-market currencies held gains after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said policymakers could move cautiously as they lower interest rates. The South Korean won rebounded on Wednesday as President Yoon Suk Yeol rapidly reversed his martial law declaration.
Fed’s Powell Expects Good Relations With Trump Administration

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the prospects of tension with the incoming Trump administration and said he expects officials can move cautiously as they continue lowering interest rates.
China Tech Stocks Left Behind in Traders’ Hunt for AI Winners

China’s major technology stocks have been left behind in this year’s global frenzy over artificial intelligence, and a lack of demand for actual AI usage coupled with geopolitical pressures make it unlikely they can cash in anytime soon.
Health-Care Spending Is Sinking the Federal Budget

The $1.8 trillion federal budget deficit in the fiscal year that ended in September was the third biggest ever in dollar terms, trailing only the pandemic deficits of the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years. As a share of gross domestic product, a better gauge for historical comparisons, it was, at 6.4%, the biggest ever outside of a large war or global crisis.
How the ECB Can Safely Store Its Crisis Toolkit

Next week’s European Central Bank meeting is more important than it might first appear.
BlackRock Pays $12 Billion to Catch Up in Private Credit

The trend is your friend. Or, in Larry Fink’s case, your primary acquisition tickbox.
Tariff Inflation Will Likely Be Transitory, But Fed Won’t Say So

Donald Trump’s tariff barrage may trigger a response from the Federal Reserve that the new president won’t like.
Bond Traders Position for US Treasury Market to Extend Rebound

Bond traders are positioning for the US Treasuries market to extend its recent advance, showing confidence that yields will continue to pull back from the peaks hit after Donald Trump’s election victory.
Dollar Faces Treacherous December on Trump, Rate Risks

Dollar bulls emboldened by Donald Trump’s win are entering a month that has historically punished the greenback.
BlackRock Buys Credit Firm HPS in $12 Billion All-Stock Deal

BlackRock Inc. agreed to buy HPS Investment Partners in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $12 billion, a purchase that will propel the world’s largest asset manager into the highest ranks of private credit.
Enron 2.0 — So Bad It’s Good?

It’s the anniversary of the first-ever controlled nuclear fission chain reaction. And it’s the day that Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001.
Smarter Taxes and Higher Revenues Are Vital in 2025

One of the most important issues for Congress next year is tax reform.
The Fed’s Next Big Policy Rethink Needs Rethinking

Next year, the US Federal Reserve will undertake an exercise with global implications: the periodic monetary policy framework review, at which it rethinks its approach to managing the world’s largest economy.
Investment Banks Will Lose Billions of Dollars to Private Rivals

Big banks have been warning their investors about the competition they face from private credit, electronic market makers and others for some time.
The Wrong Oil Price Is Truthfully a Problem for OPEC+

he best scandals are those that start when someone, somewhere, decides to say something utterly shocking: the truth! A senior official of the OPEC+ oil cartel has said publicly what many thought privately — the group has been keeping oil prices too high, effectively subsidizing its rivals.
Treasuries Drop as Market Braces for Big Data Week, Fed Speakers

US Treasuries fell on Monday as traders awaited a hefty week of economic data and speeches from Federal Reserve officials that will likely determine expectations for the central bank’s policy decision later this month.
Biggest Hedge Funds Make the Most of the Trump Trade in November

The world’s biggest hedge funds made the most of trading opportunities sparked by Donald Trump’s reelection last month, keeping the industry on track to post its strongest returns in at least four years.
The Vintage Year for US Stock Markets That Few People Expected

2024 is set to enter Wall Street’s hall of fame of bull years.
This $7 Trillion Pile Won’t Save the Bulls

The money-market industry just reached a significant milestone with Crane Data reporting that these cash-like funds have amassed a record $7 trillion in assets. There are many ways to think about this development.
ChatGPT’s $8 Trillion Birthday Gift to Big Tech

Saturday marks two years since OpenAI posted an oddly named widget called ChatGPT to the web. Its staffers placed bets on how many users it would accumulate, the highest estimate being 100,000. How wrong they were.
US Bitcoin ETFs Head for Record Monthly Inflow on Trump Optimism

A group of one dozen US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds is on the cusp of a record monthly net inflow, bolstered by the digital asset’s historic surge toward $100,000 on President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of crypto.
Corporate Bond ETFs Are Fueling a Rise in Monster Block Trades

The boom in portfolio trading, where investors can buy or sell scores of corporate bonds with just a few clicks of a mouse, is fueling mega trades that were rare in credit markets just a few years ago.
Buffett’s Life Advice May Be More Valuable Than His Portfolio

On Monday, Warren Buffett announced that he was donating more than $1 billion in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shares to four family foundations — a continuation of his commitment to give away the vast majority of his wealth to charity rather than pass it on to his family.
Comcast’s Spinoff Plan Is Too Good to Ditch for Quick Cash

“Think of what we could do together” is a touching line at the denouement of Wicked: Part 1, the movie currently raking it in at the box office for Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures.
Payment Scams Are Surging. Banks Need Help

’Tis the season for a surge in financial frauds and scams, a huge and growing problem that caused nearly $500 billion in losses globally last year, along with untold human suffering.
Kneecapping Google Would Be Bad For Tech Competition

We call them “Silicon Valley rivals,” but when you think about it, the big tech titans have mostly stayed in their respective lanes for the past 20 years.
Bessent Has $6.7 Trillion Mountain of Worry Waiting at Treasury

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen came under fire this year from economists such as Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini for stepping up the issuance of short-term Treasury bills.
Trump’s Trade Chief Advocates ‘Strategic Decoupling’ From China

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the top trade position sees China as a “generational challenge” to the US and has advocated for a strategic decoupling from the country.
US GDP Grows at Solid 2.8% Pace, Helped by Consumer Spending

The US economy expanded at a solid pace in the third quarter, largely powered by a broad-based advance in consumer spending as inflation continued to cool.
Google Chrome's Divorce Is the DOJ's Antitrust Warm-Up Act

News broke this week that the US Department of Justice wants to force Alphabet Inc.’s Google to sell Chrome, its dominant web browser. That has led to much head scratching in the tech industry.
Rocket Lab Shows SpaceX Isn’t the Only Game in Orbit

While space startup Rocket Lab USA Inc. prepares to test-launch its new medium-sized rocket next year, its shares have already blasted into orbit.
MicroStrategy Accelerates Bitcoin Buying With Record Purchase

MicroStrategy Inc. bought a record $5.4 billion in Bitcoin, the third major purchase announced this month by the crypto hedge fund proxy.
Apple Should Have Learned a Chinese Lesson on EVs

High-tech manufacturing in China over the past year has often felt like watching a looking-glass parody of the US.
Bond Market Halts Brutal Run as Buyers Pounce on 4.5% Yields

The US bond market is finally showing signs of steadying after a two-month selloff, with investors starting to swoop in whenever yields test new peaks.
Dollar, US Yields Fall on Bets Bessent Will Dilute Trump Plans

The dollar fell and US government bonds rallied after Donald Trump picked Scott Bessent to run the Treasury, a Wall Street veteran who investors expect will take the sting out of the administration’s more aggressive trade and economic policy proposals.
Gold Tumbles as Traders Mull Treasury Pick and Fed Outlook

Gold tumbled as traders digested Donald Trump’s pick of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary and looked toward the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision.
Trump Set to Supercharge Options Boom Driven by Retail Investors

Donald Trump’s presidency is set to bring a fresh bout of volatility to markets, supercharging an options boom driven by retail traders.
Booming MicroStrategy ETFs Are Straining Limits at Prime Brokers

Amid a red-hot run in the shares of MicroStrategy Inc. last month, Matt Tuttle got some bad news from the prime brokers for his booming leveraged ETF linked to the shares of the crypto-centric company.
Backdoor Private Credit Funds Are Luring Billions From Insurers

The world’s biggest private credit managers are turning to an obscure investment product to help raise billions from deep-pocketed insurance companies, testing the limits of industry safeguards meant to curb risk.
How Germany Can Make Peace With Trump on Trade

The second coming of Donald Trump is unquestionably bad news for Germany.
Charles Schwab Eyes Spot Crypto Trading Once Regulations Change

Charles Schwab Corp.’s incoming chief executive officer, Rick Wurster, said the firm is looking to offer spot cryptocurrency trading once US regulations make doing so easier — something that’s more likely once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
MicroStrategy's Infinite Money Glitch Won’t Last

“Overheated” is how short-sellers Citron Research described MicroStrategy Inc. on Thursday.
Blackstone Private Credit Fund Taps Debt Market for $1.5 Billion

Blackstone Inc.’s main private credit fund stormed the investment-grade bond market to raise a combined $1.5 billion in a single day, adding to the rush of direct lenders trying to lock in cheaper financing costs.
Trump Is Making the 60/40 Portfolio Great Again

The post-election stock market is already giving investors a wild ride. Big individual stock selloffs, massive rallies, and a dizzying array of market narratives built on Wall Street’s best attempts to read President-elect Donald Trump’s mind.
Fidelity Ramps Up Quant Franchise With Five New Active ETFs

Fidelity Investments is expanding its reach in the competitive world of systematic strategies for the masses, with the launch of five new active ETFs.
Banks Hoping For Looser Trump Reins Are Too Giddy

US banks enjoyed a sharp stock price jump on Donald Trump’s election victory; two weeks later, they’ve held onto those gains. There’s one good reason for this — and several poor ones, all to do with regulation.
Buffett’s $325 Billion Cash Hoard Is an Early Warning Signal

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported its stock holdings last week — a widely anticipated quarterly update of Warren Buffett’s latest trades. There were some notable ones, including the addition of Domino’s Pizza Inc. to Berkshire’s portfolio and more trimming of its stake in Apple Inc.
Bitcoin Climbs Closer to $100,000 on Trump’s Support for Crypto

Bitcoin approached the historic $100,000 level, fueled by optimism that President-elect Donald Trump’s support for crypto heralds a boom as the US pivots to friendly regulations in place of a crackdown.
Elon Musk’s Neuralink Cleared to Start Brain Chip Trial in Canada

Canada’s University Health Network said its Toronto Western Hospital would be the first non-US site of a trial for a device created by Neuralink Corp., Elon Musk’s brain-implant company.
Nvidia Says New Chip on Track After Forecast Disappoints

Nvidia Corp. assured investors that its new product lineup can maintain the company’s artificial intelligence-fueled growth run, though the rush to get the chips out the door is proving more costly than expected.
Bitcoin Rises to Record With MicroStrategy Stepping Up Purchases

Bitcoin climbed to a record high for a second consecutive day, with MicroStrategy Inc. accelerating the pace of its massive purchases of the cryptocurrency.
Roubini Launches Treasury-Alternative ETF to Ride Trump-Era Risk

Nouriel Roubini is seizing on Donald Trump’s inflation-threatening policy agenda to make a case for an alternative haven trade to Treasuries in a world of elevated volatility.
Will Trump’s $280 Billion Housing Trophy Stay Out of Reach?

In the months before Donald Trump entered the White House the first time around, speculation mounted that he would release mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the federal conservatorship they’d operated under since being bailed out during the global financial crisis.
AI’s Slowdown Is Everyone Else’s Opportunity

The multi-trillion-dollar artificial intelligence boom was built on certainty that generative models would keep getting exponentially better. Spoiler alert: they aren’t.
Bitcoin Sets Another Record Amid US’s Growing Embrace of Crypto

Bitcoin set another all-time high, supported by a series of developments highlighting the deepening embrace of the digital-asset industry in the US under crypto cheerleader Donald Trump.
Trump Should Bring On a Great American Housing Boom

Most Americans, from both parties, say the government needs to increase the supply of affordable housing. For President-elect Donald Trump, that should offer a good opportunity to summon his instincts for development — and self-promotion — to get America building again. Call it the “Trump Building Boom.”
Nvidia Is Helping Google Design Quantum Computing Processors

Nvidia Corp., the chipmaker at the center of a boom in artificial intelligence use, is teaming up with Alphabet Inc.’s Google to pursue another technology once relegated to science fiction: quantum computing.
Powell’s Wait-and-See on Trump Policies Is a Switch From 2016

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says he wants to wait and see what policies the incoming Trump administration will implement before the central bank forecasts what it means for the economy.
Citadel’s Ken Griffin Says Multistrategy Hedge Fund Boom Is Over

The era of explosive growth in multistrategy hedge funds is over, according to billionaire Ken Griffin, who runs one of the biggest such firms.
Google’s Chrome to Fetch Up to $20 Billion If Judge Orders Sale

Alphabet Inc.’s Chrome browser could fetch as much as $20 billion if a judge agrees to a Justice Department proposal to sell the business, in what would be a historic crackdown on one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
America Got the World Driving. Now It’s Going Home

Germany’s Carl Benz might have invented the automobile, but it’s the United States that got us to drive them.
Crypto’s Coming Back. Here’s How to Avert Disaster

The crypto party seems to be getting restarted. Bitcoin is surging and big players are celebrating amid expectations that President-elect Donald Trump will make the US, as he put it, “the crypto capital of the world.”
Holiday Outlooks Due From Major Retailers in Test of US Consumer

Last week’s selloff, which comes on the heels of what has been a generally successful earnings season for Corporate America, has investors bracing for one final test: a reading on the state of the consumer from a series of retail bellwethers who report in the coming days.
Prominent Wall Street Bear Wilson Sets Bullish US Stocks Target

Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson, well known for his bearish views on US equities in recent years, has an outright bullish outlook for 2025.
Trump’s Scoreboard Is the S&P 500, and It’s Wall Street’s Best Hope

If Wall Street learned one thing during Donald Trump’s first term as president, it’s that the stock market is a way he keeps score. At various points he took credit for equities rallies, urged Americans to buy the dip, and even considered firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who he blamed for a selloff.
Musk Escalates Altman Legal Feud, Casting OpenAI as Monopolist

Elon Musk is ramping up his feud with Sam Altman, alleging in a court filing that OpenAI is trying to corner the market for generative artificial intelligence and sacrificing safety in a race to get ahead.
Traders See Just a 50% Chance That Fed Cuts Rates in December

Traders see an interest-rate cut next month as a coin toss as resilient economic data empowers Federal Reserve officials to take a potentially more-cautious approach to easing.
Gold Faces Worst Week Since 2021 as Fed Signals No Rate-Cut Rush

Gold traded near a two-month low, on course for its worst week since June 2021 as traders wind back expectations for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut next month.
Treasury Yield Surge Draws Buyers After 10-Year Tops 4.5%

The highest Treasury yields in months — reached Friday after a batch of strong economic data cast additional doubt on whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again next month — proved appealing to bond investors.
China Trade War Is One Trump Doesn’t Have to Fight

This isn’t the same China that greeted Donald Trump after his first win in 2016. The economy, once widely believed on a course to knock the US off its perch as the preeminent commercial power, has since revealed some acute vulnerabilities that don’t seem to be going away. And the president-elect seems to be gearing up for a trade war he no longer needs to fight.
Fink Pushes BlackRock Into High-Stakes Bet on Private Markets

Larry Fink turned to big deals to get BlackRock Inc. out in front of a decade of money gushing into index funds. Now he’s doing the same to make sure his firm isn’t left behind in the stampede into private assets.
Druckenmiller Leads Family Offices Boosting US Bank Stock Bets

Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office led investment firms for the world’s rich in boosting allocations to US bank shares last quarter, putting them in line to profit from a rally in financial stocks.
A Near-$1 Trillion ETF Rush This Year Breaks Wall Street Records

This year was already a landmark one for exchange-traded funds, but as of Friday the ETF universe can add another superlative: biggest annual inflows on record.
Trump’s ‘Epic’ Deregulation Must Preserve Financial Stability

Given that he was just elected, Donald Trump’s plans for financial regulation are, like so much else, a mystery. Yet his campaign’s disdain for the administrative state — and the public’s growing exasperation with red tape — suggests the country is in for a period of bureaucratic humility. Here’s hoping the financial system doesn’t become vulnerable as a result.
Trump Is Right: Expat Taxes Are Too Complicated

President-elect Donald Trump pledged last month to eliminate “the Double Taxation of overseas Americans.” Never mind the clumsy wording — taxes on US citizens working abroad aren’t excessive so much as excessively complicated — this is one campaign promise that may actually be fulfilled, given the Republican control of both houses of Congress. That would be a good thing not only for those Americans but also for America.
US Producer Prices Rise, Risking Pressure in Fed’s Favored Gauge

US producer prices picked up in October, fueled in part by gains in portfolio management costs and other categories that feed into the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge.
Bitcoin Briefly Tops $93,000 on Trump Agenda, Fed Policy Outlook

Bitcoin spiked above $93,000 for a short period as expectations of further interest-rate reductions by the Federal Reserve added to the impetus from President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance.
Private Equity Finds Yet Another Way to Keep the Money Coming In

Private equity’s recent splurge of piling ever more debt onto already highly leveraged bets has sparked fears about financial-system risks. Banks, however, are positioning themselves to take advantage.
Traders Ramp Up Bets on a Treasury Selloff After Trump’s Win

Treasuries held on to recent losses ahead of the US inflation report, with traders loading up on bets for further declines in anticipation that Donald Trump’s pledged policies will fan price increases and keep interest rates high.
Bitcoin Rises Above $90,000 as Rally Resumes on Trump Optimism

A surge in Bitcoin that paused earlier Wednesday is regaining steam, sending the original cryptocurrency above $90,000 for the first time, as traders assess the remaining market impact of President-elect Donald Trump’s rhetorical support for crypto.
Trump May Be Good for Crypto — But Bad for Bitcoin

The price of Bitcoin has jumped by more than $20,000 since the Nov. 5 elections in the US, with about one-third of the gains coming with favorable early results for Republicans, and the rest trickling in as Donald Trump’s victory became certain and his party continued to pick up seats in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Wall Street Sees Dollar Soaring More, But Splits on How Much

The US dollar’s rally is gaining momentum alongside Donald Trump’s threat of sweeping tariffs, leaving currency strategists in agreement it has further to rise while war-gaming just how far it will go.
Buffett’s Berkshire Is Being Packaged Into a Leveraged ETF

Warren Buffett created Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Class B shares almost 30 years ago to stymie money managers who sought to split the high-priced conglomerate’s stock.
Wall Street’s Higher-for-Longer Rate Brigade Plunges Into Loans

Investors are piling into US leveraged loan ETFs, betting that President-elect Donald Trump’s policies will potentially boost inflation and push the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer.
Powell Doesn’t Fear Trump. He Also Can’t Contain Him

The US Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, are rightly choosing not to act on any assumptions about what Donald Trump might do as president. That said, if he follows through on his more extreme campaign promises, they’ll struggle to contain the economic consequences — a problem that equity investors ignore at their peril.
The Bitcoin Bubble Isn’t All About Trump

I think I finally understand value of cryptocurrencies: They add some volatility to your portfolio. Maybe that’s why they have found such a champion in Donald Trump, who if nothing else adds some volatility to our politics.
BlackRock Targets Money-Market Fund Business in New ETF Push

BlackRock Inc. is throwing its weight behind an early push to bring exchange-traded funds to money-market investors.
Wall Street Bets on New Riches Ahead in Markets All-In on Trump

All year, a slew of Wall Street pros have questioned the durability of an indiscriminate risk rally that has fattened stock prices by trillions of dollars, sent Bitcoin soaring, fueled a credit bonanza, and more.
Bitcoin Options Show Traders Betting on $100,000 by Year-End

Bitcoin options traders buoyed by Donald Trump’s election victory are already eyeing a landmark price of $100,000 for the original cryptocurrency, after it surged to a fresh record on hopes for a more crypto-friendly administration.
Can Chevron Win Back Wall Street in 2025?

Mike Wirth became the king of Big Oil on Oct. 7, 2020. That was the day the chief executive officer of Chevron Corp. elbowed out archival Exxon Mobil Corp. to become America’s largest oil corporation by market value. It was the zenith of a honeymoon between Wall Street and Wirth.
Trump Inherits an Economy at a Tricky Time

Donald Trump will inherit, to all appearances, a solid economy when he assumes the presidency in January. After all, the stock market is at record highs, unemployment is low by historical standards and gross domestic product has been expanding at a healthy pace of around 2.5% so far this year.
Bond Market on Risky Path as Traders Regroup From Wild Week

The bond-market selloff unleashed by Donald Trump’s presidential victory last week ended almost as quickly as it began.
Hedge Funds Shorting Tesla Just Lost More Than $5 Billion

Since Donald Trump’s election win, the hedge funds clinging on to bets against Tesla Inc. have lost billions of dollars, as they feel the fallout of the special relationship between the president-elect and Elon Musk.
Lucrative Bonuses for Wall Street CEOs Take Shape on Trump Win

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is already starting to tee up a deluge of bonuses in Wall Street’s corridors of power.
Oil Falls on China Demand Woes Even as Market Remains Rangebound

Oil fell after Chinese stimulus measures disappointed speculators, but not enough to jolt prices from the narrowest trading band since July.
AI Takeoff Turns Data Centers Into America’s New Building Boom

US companies are plowing money into building data centers as they race to get ahead in artificial intelligence.
Banks’ New Trick Could Mean Trouble for Everyone

If you’re unfamiliar with synthetic risk transfers, there’s a chance you’ll hear all about them when the next financial crisis hits. They’re the latest way for big banks to game rules designed to safeguard the system, and they’re growing fast. So far, regulators seem all but oblivious.
Online Travel Firms Show Post-Pandemic Boom Still Has Steam

A few months ago, travel companies were warning that the great post-pandemic boom in consumer travel was losing steam.
S&P 500 Is on Track for Its 50th Record This Year

Stocks rose at the end of their best week in 2024 after solid consumer sentiment data and bets that newly elected President Donald Trump’s pro-growth agenda will keep fueling Corporate America.
Debt, Arms and Nuclear Power Are Key to German Renaissance

The collapse of Germany’s deeply unloved and dysfunctional three-party coalition offers Europe’s biggest economy an opportunity for political and economic renewal. Two important questions arise: Will Germany put aside political squabbles and grab its golden opportunity.
Austin Exposes New York City’s Broken Housing Market

Here’s something that would have seemed pretty much inconceivable two years ago: According to Zillow, home prices have now risen more in New York City and its environs since the beginning of 2020 than in metropolitan Austin, Texas.
Tesla and Detroit’s Automakers Price In a Trump Joyride. Good Luck.

Detroit voted overwhelmingly for Vice President Kamala Harris, but investors in “Detroit” backed President-elect Donald Trump. Shares in General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. jumped on news of Trump’s election win, with GM reaching a new high for the year and Ford up by almost 6% on Wednesday, more than double the S&P 500 Index’s gain.
Bentley Motors Delays Its Master Plan for Electric Vehicles

Bentley Motors Ltd. is delaying a plan to offer only fully electric vehicles by 2030 as EV sales continue to disappoint projections across the industry.
Nvidia Is Clear Winner In a Lackluster Big Tech Earnings Season

Results from tech giants largely underwhelmed this earnings season — but they included plenty of good news for Nvidia Corp.
Does Nvidia’s CEO Dream of Electric Androids?

One of the memorable moments of Nvidia Corp.’s most recent conference for developers came toward the end of the chip giant’s semi-annual event.
AI Will Transform Medicine. There's Just One Catch

Cerebrospinal fluid leaks, caused by tears or holes in the spinal cord, are rare and difficult to identify. Because the symptoms aren’t uncommon — including nausea, neck pain, ringing in the ears and debilitating positional headaches — patients can spend years without a proper diagnosis. Some have been told they have allergies.
Traders Sense an Inflation-Constrained Fed Is Back

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower its benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Thursday to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. The big question is how much lower the Fed might go from there during this rate-cutting cycle. The bond market suggests it won’t be as low as some expect or as low as policymakers signaled less than two months back.
Commodities Slide as Trump Win Boosts Dollar, Threatens Trade

Commodities broadly declined on prospects that a stronger dollar and potential trade disputes under a Donald Trump presidency will weaken the appeal of raw materials in global markets.
The LNG Market Will Remain Tight Until 2027

At the height of summer, Europe had hoped that the coming winter would be its last difficult one to secure enough natural gas. By the middle of next year, liquefied natural gas was expected to turn into a buyer’s market, easing the squeeze the region has suffered since Russia invaded Ukraine. No longer.
The ‘Happiness Plateau’ Doesn’t Exist

The idea that money can’t buy you happiness is one of the world’s most persistent tropes. King Midas is granted his wish that everything he touches will turn to gold only to starve to death.
Credit Risk Drops in a Knee-Jerk Reaction to Trump’s Win

Credit risk fell in reaction to Donald Trump’s US presidential win, even though his presidency may be marred by tariffs and possible trade wars.
Palantir Earnings Provide Litmus Test for 140% AI-Fueled Rally

Palantir Technologies Inc.’s premium valuation will be put to the test when the data analysis and software company reports results after the market close on Monday.
Apple Explores Push Into Smart Glasses With ‘Atlas’ User Study

Apple Inc. is exploring a push into smart glasses with an internal study of products currently on the market, setting the stage for the company to follow Meta Platforms Inc. into an increasingly popular category.
US Voting Day Is Here at Last After a Bruising 2024 Campaign

The 2024 presidential campaign was marked by two assassination attempts, a candidate switch, divisive rhetoric and warnings about the fate of democracy. And that may have only been the beginning.
Bond Traders Greet a Momentous Week With Their Wagers Reeled In

After driving Treasury yields higher for weeks, traders are taking chips off the table before the US election, reluctant to take bold bond bets with the presidential race too close to call.
Typical US Homebuyer More Likely to Be Older, Single and a Woman

The age of a typical homebuyer jumped to an all-time high of 56 in the US, with many young people locked out of the housing market while older owners tap their accumulated home equity for cash purchases or to make large down payments, according to a report.
‘Trump Trade’ Doubts Drag on Dollar, Boosting US Treasuries

Treasury yields fell sharply and the dollar weakened as investors pared bets on Republican Donald Trump prevailing in Tuesday’s US election.
‘Dead Heat’ Election Has S&P 500 in Wavering Mode: Markets Wrap

Stocks struggled for direction, bonds rose and the dollar fell, with polls continuing to depict a tight race in the US presidential election ahead of the Federal Reserve decision.
Ryanair Cuts Passenger Growth Target Amid Boeing Jet Delays

Ryanair Holdings Plc cut its passenger growth target for next year because of delivery delays from aircraft supplier Boeing Co.
Intel, Samsung Results Rallies Seen Short-Lived on AI Challenges

Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. have shed a total of $227 billion in market value this year on their lack of leadership in artificial intelligence.
Amazon Reassures Investors With Cloud Growth, Cost-Cutting

Amazon.com Inc. reported strong results that showed a company humming on all cylinders, a testament to its efforts to cut and reallocate costs and put the cloud computing and e-commerce giant on sounder footing.
Tech Giants Are Set to Spend $200 Billion This Year Chasing AI

Three months ago, Wall Street punished the world’s largest technology firms for spending enormous amounts to develop artificial intelligence, only to deliver results that failed to justify the costs.
Bond Traders Scour US Jobs Data for Clues on Fed’s Rate Plan

Investors who’ve been hedging against a deeper selloff in US Treasuries are preparing for volatility as Friday’s hurricane- and strike-tinged US employment report offers final clues ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve policy decision.
Brain Tech Is Here and Not as Creepy as You Think

A middle-aged man who works in emergency services in the US had been battling depression and suicidal thoughts for 17 years, unable to sleep most nights and leaving his wife and teen daughter walking on eggshells because of his irritability, before he opted for a shot in the dark.
Squeezed Homebuilders Are Bad News for the Housing Market

Builders are an important part of any plausible fix for the housing shortage in the United States — not only constructing more homes but also finding ways to improve affordability.
Apple Sparks Concerns With Tepid Forecast, China Weakness

Apple Inc., heading into its most critical sales period of the year, sparked fresh concerns about revenue growth and lingering weakness in an intensely competitive China market.
Apple’s AI and Vision Pro Products Don’t Meet Its Standards

Today, Apple is having to become a different type of company. Its two most important products are being developed very much in the full view of the public, and I would say before they have met the previous Apple standard. “It just works” is now “we’re working on it.”
DoubleLine Sees Compelling Case to Buy Asset-Backed Securities Tied to Data Centers

It’s a good time to buy asset-backed securities tied to data centers, according to a October research note from DoubleLine Capital LP, as demand for digital infrastructure is booming and supply is constrained by energy requirements.
Meta Warns of Worsening AI Losses After Sales Narrowly Beat

Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg will ramp up heavy investments in AI and other futuristic technologies, continuing a years-long tug-of-war between the company’s long-term bets and the core advertising business that provides the vast majority of Meta’s revenue.
Open Banking Will Be Great — With Guardrails

For the land of free markets and open competition, the US has surprisingly little choice when it comes to payments. Americans use cards for most of their purchases, and most of those transactions are handled by just two companies, Visa or Mastercard, which levy billions of dollars of fees on the merchants that rely on them.
Key US Inflation Gauge and Spending Pick Up in Solid Economy

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying US inflation posted its biggest monthly gain since April, bolstering the case for a slower pace of interest-rate cuts following last month’s outsize reduction.
A Hybrid That America’s Truck Lovers Can Love — for Now

If Elon Musk sold plug-in hybrid vehicles, he surely wouldn’t call them plug-in hybrid vehicles, or PHEVs, or anything else that sounds coined by an engineer. Far too clunky. Surely “Cyborgtruck” would offer a more futuristic spin on these marriages of gasoline and batteries?
JPMorgan Sees Fear Receding in a $1.8 Trillion Loans Market

In a corner of the credit market that regulators last year characterized as a potential hot-bed of greenwashing, there are signs that bankers have been cracking down on corporate pitches.
Gold Rises to Record High as Looming US Election Fans Demand

Gold rose to a record on Wednesday on haven demand before the US election, and held a narrow gain after jobs and GDP data that showed the ongoing resilience of the US economy.
Alphabet’s Pricey AI Bet Pays Off With Cloud, Search Growth

Google parent Alphabet Inc. is showing an expensive foray into artificial intelligence is starting to pay off, delivering better-than-expected sales for its cloud-computing business and driving more usage of its flagship search engine.
Private Credit’s Banking Romance May Turn Sour

To understand the wave of bank partnerships with private-credit fund managers during the past year or so, think back to the boom in mortgage lending through securitization in the early 2000s. The same forces are at work: a huge demand for finance, limited and costly bank capital and investment bankers’ ingenuity and desire to generate business.
BP Needs a Swifter Reality Check on Share Buybacks

In corporate-speak, when a company says a key target is “currently” unchanged but it plans to disclose a “review” soon, you know trouble is coming. And indeed, there’s trouble ahead for BP Plc.
Alphabet Needs More Than Strong Results to Tame Wall of Worries

Alphabet Inc. shares have gone nowhere for months, trailing Magnificent Seven peers as investors struggle to price risks confronting the company. It’s a stretch to believe Tuesday’s results will blow away those concerns.
Wall Street CEOs Tout US Resilience Against Concerns Over Europe
The titans of finance who congregated in Riyadh this week for Saudi Arabia’s annual Davos-style confab were mostly upbeat on the prospects for the US economy, but concerned about more sluggish growth in Europe.
Banks’ New Trick Could Mean Trouble for Everyone

If you’re unfamiliar with synthetic risk transfers, there’s a chance you’ll hear all about them when the next financial crisis hits. They’re the latest way for big banks to game rules designed to safeguard the system, and they’re growing fast. So far, regulators seem all but oblivious.
Weird Things Are Happening in the Bond Market

The US presidential election Nov. 5 is shaping up to be the mother of event risks so you’d think the safest of all havens would be holding up. But it’s not — and that’s only one of the notable anomalies springing up in financial markets. Yields on 10-year US Treasuries have risen nearly 70 basis points since the Federal Reserve's punchy half-point initial rate cut on Sept. 17.
Bitcoin Traders Refocus on $70,000 With Cash Flowing Into ETFs

Bitcoin traders are targeting the $70,000 price level last reached in June once again after cryptocurrencies briefly dipped across the board late Friday and US exchange-traded funds continued to see steady inflows.
Apple Rolls Out AI Platform Alongside New iMac With M4 Chip

Apple Inc., heralding a “new era” for its devices, started rolling out its first set of Apple Intelligence features and introduced a new 24-inch iMac desktop with a faster, AI-focused M4 processor.
The Porterhouse at Weis Points to Inflation’s Demise

Although Americans say they don’t like paying the current level of prices for goods and services that resulted from the worst bout of inflation in 40 years, they can take comfort from the fact that those prices, while admittedly not coming down in most cases, are actually becoming more affordable.
A Boeing Space Exit Would Be a Win-Win-Win

A true win-win-win situation doesn’t come along often. One could be brewing with a Boeing Co. decision to look at a potential sale — or perhaps more realistically a spinoff — of its space business.
AI Power Demand Might Actually Turn Out to Be Good for Climate

Big energy companies are making the case that skyrocketing electricity demand from data centers — and the need to build more power sources to meet it — will end up being good for the climate.
Haven’t Worked at the Same Place for 10 Years? Join the Club

Been with the same employer for 10 years or more? That doesn’t exactly make you a rarity in the US, where 30.2% of employed wage and salary workers were in that situation as of January 2024, according to data released last month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while this percentage is down from a decade ago, it’s close to where things stood for the much of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
Starmer Looks to Win Over Skeptics With UK Plan to Lead on AI

At his party’s inaugural investment summit last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer positioned himself as a champion for artificial intelligence. Appearing alongside former Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, Starmer called AI an “opportunity,” rather than something to be scared of, and said his country “needs to run towards” it.
The Inflation Struggle Is Over. Just Don’t Tell Anyone

Even with inflation well and truly on the way down after the most aggressive interest-rate tightening in a generation, central banks are averse to declarations of victory. That the pace of price increases has been reined in without a major economic downturn is an accomplishment that warrants some trumpeting.
The Intelligent Investor Is Still Worth Reading 75 Years Later

When Warren Buffett calls a book on investing “by far the best book about investing ever written,” it is common sense to concede the point.
Stock Investors Grapple With String of Coin-Toss Risk Events

Equity investors face a bewildering sequence of tough-to-predict outcomes and confusing market signals. Patience and a steady hand look like valuable attributes in navigating through the noise.
How a $33 Billion Fund Manager Scored a Perfect Record Betting on Value

To those who argue that value investing has gotten too hard in today’s momentum-chasing, passive-driven world, Scott McBride’s results are a bit of a conundrum.
Economists Boost US Growth, Spending Forecasts Into Early 2025

Economists nudged up quarterly US economic growth projections through early next year on more sanguine views of consumer demand and maintained views that limited inflation will keep the Federal Reserve on a path toward lower borrowing costs.
AI’s Effect on the US Economy Will Be Wildly Uneven

One of the only things growing faster than progress in AI applications is speculation about AI’s effect on the economy. I don’t have all the answers, not by a long shot, but I do think we should expect great unevenness in adaptation, and that itself will alter our world.
Hundreds of ESG Funds Are Being Wound Down, Morningstar Says

Asset managers in Europe and the US have spent 2024 winding down hundreds of ESG funds, as the investment strategy continues to bump up against regulatory headwinds.
The World Bank Somehow Lost Track of at Least $24 Billion

Imagine if humanity decides it doesn’t have enough amusement parks. All the world’s nations announce they will be financing new ones across the planet. Bankers stand next to models of future parks and hand comically large loan checks to the developers. It’s not nearly enough to end the global amusement-park crisis, but they still win accolades and shareholder approval for doing their part.
US Treasuries Rebound as Market Takes Break From Days of Losses

The sharp selloff in Treasuries abated on Thursday, with US bonds rallying alongside European peers, after three straight days of declines.
Tesla Delivers Blowout Quarter and Upbeat Outlook for 2025

Tesla Inc.’s shares surged after the carmaker reported surprisingly strong earnings and forecast as much as 30% growth in vehicle sales next year.
Disney’s Happily Ever After Iger Is Finally On Track

Last year, James Gorman told the In Good Company podcast that now that he had stepped down as CEO of Morgan Stanley, he wanted a board role that was more than an easy paycheck. "I want something that is complicated. I like solving problems,” he said.
Say Goodbye to Cheaper Rent and Airfares

It’s inevitable that the market dynamics that have delivered cheaper airfares, used cars and rents in the past year will eventually turn around. One high-profile reminder came from United Airlines’ earnings last week.
US Previously Owned Home Sales Fall to an Almost 14-Year Low

US sales of previously owned homes declined to an almost 14-year low in September as prospective buyers waited for a further decline in mortgage rates and more attractive asking prices.
Treasuries Slide for Third Straight Day as Fed-Cut Bets Wane

Treasury yields climbed for the third straight day amid growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates at a gradual pace and as traders fretted about the potential inflationary implications of the US presidential election.
Vanguard Sticks to Higher-Quality Debt ‘Playbook’ as US Economy Expected to Slow

Vanguard Group Inc. sees more opportunities in the lowest rung of investment-grade bonds, even as spreads for triple-B notes reached their tightest since 1998 last week.
SEC to Increase Scrutiny of AI Tools Used by Brokers, Advisers

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s examiners will step up scrutiny of financial firms’ use of artificial intelligence next year, the latest sign of regulators’ growing concerns about the emerging technologies.
Bonds Slump Globally as Traders Rethink Fed’s Rate Cut Path

Bonds extended losses as investors mulled the prospect of slower US interest-rate cuts, a trend that risks upending debt positions everywhere.
AI's Power Drain Demands a Novel Solution: Us

Big Tech is going nuclear in its pursuit of artificial intelligence. Power-hungry datacenters are just one part of a broader freak-out over how the US grid will handle even bigger loads including electric vehicles and re-shored factories, plus withstand extreme weather, all while decarbonizing at a reasonable cost.
China Stimulus Is More Than Just One ‘Damn Number’

Ironically, China’s President Xi Jinping has been cornered into the same uncomfortable spot reserved for high-profile chief executives like JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon: Impatient stock investors are brushing aside the intricacies of running complex businesses and demanding simplistic numbers to justify their euphoria.
Decade of Big S&P 500 Gains Is Over, Goldman Strategists Say

US stocks are unlikely to sustain their above-average performance of the past decade as investors turn to other assets including bonds for better returns, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists said.
Treasury 10-Year Yields Will Test 5% in Six Months, T. Rowe Says

Benchmark Treasury yields may soon hit a key level on the back of rising inflation expectations and concerns over US fiscal spending, according to T. Rowe Price.
The Energy Transition Is Powered By — Wait for It — Coal

In what should be one of the least surprising developments, global electricity demand is soaring everywhere as the world moves to electrify everything. Out go gasoline cars, in come electric vehicles; out go gas boilers, in come heat pumps; and so on and so forth. That’s the energy transition.
Boeing's Union Finally Has a Labor Deal That Makes Sense

A dark cloud will be hanging over Boeing Co. when it releases its third-quarter earnings report Wednesday morning and Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg, who has only been in the job since August, presides over his first quarterly conference call with analysts for the storied planemaker.
Netflix Beats Wall Street’s Forecasts in Every Major Metric

Netflix Inc. added more than 5 million customers in the third quarter and eclipsed Wall Street’s expectations on every major financial metric despite a new programming slate constrained by last year’s strikes in Hollywood.
IPhone 16 Sales Soar 20% in China Debut as Demand Returns

Sales of Apple Inc.’s newest iPhones in China are up 20% in their first three weeks compared with 2023’s model, a positive sign for a device that struggled this year to gain traction in the world’s largest smartphone market.
How Market Forces Came for the Dinosaurs

Around 110 million years ago, a dinosaur went hunting. Stalking through ferns along a riverbank, he twitched his nose to the wind and caught scent of a plant-eater ahead. His head darted upward. His eyes locked on the target. The dinosaur drew his sickle claws upward, ready to make a lethal strike. But something wasn’t right.
A Bull Run in Emerging Markets Is Overdue and Easily Missed

In China’s resurgent stock market, there’s a lesson for investors about the perils of market timing.
In Space, No One Can Hear Musk's Rivals Scream

Navigating space is hard. It’s expensive, complex, time-consuming and dangerous. And yet you have to hand it to Elon Musk: His SpaceX firm makes it look easy.
Trifecta of Fed Rate-Cut Regret Is an Illusion

We’ve had several weeks of strong data since the Federal Reserve cut policy rates by a half percentage point. It started with a surprisingly robust jobs report, followed by a janky and above-expectations inflation report.
Shakeup in Bond Futures Stands to Reignite Burned Treasury Trade

The unwinding of positions in Treasury futures stands to rekindle a popular bond-market wager that’s been burned as traders pare back expectations for aggressive Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.
US Mortgage Rates Climb to 6.52%, Highest Since Early August

US mortgage rates rose sharply for a second straight week, reaching the highest level since early August while prompting steep declines in both home-purchase and refinance activity.
TSMC Hikes Revenue Outlook in Show of Confidence in AI Boom

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. raised its target for 2024 revenue growth after quarterly results beat estimates, allaying concerns about global chip demand and the sustainability of an AI hardware boom.
Boeing Is Flexing the Financial Muscle It Has Left

Boeing Co. is flexing its financial muscle even in light of a crippling labor strike and a disgraceful period of execution that resulted in two deadly plane crashes, the near-disaster of a midair door-panel blowout and whistleblowers who have detailed a culture of putting profit over quality.
BlackRock’s Third Pivot Is Its Most Adventurous Yet

When BlackRock Inc. completed its initial public offering in 1999, it fell a bit flat. There was no first day pop; Founder and Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink didn’t even get to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Valued at just under $900 million, the firm was one of 30 large investment-managers in the US, managing $165 billion of assets.
Fitch Sees More Stress for Colleges With Budgets Under Pressure

Fitch Ratings predicts an even gloomier financial outlook for US colleges and universities, with smaller private schools being hit the hardest.
Some Hedge Funds Are Missing a Trick — Volume Alpha

Machine learning is ubiquitous in financial markets, and we tend to associate it with the sexy parts of hedge fund investing: what to buy, what to sell and how to pick a bottom or a top.
US Weighs Capping Exports of AI Chips From Nvidia and AMD to Some Countries

Biden administration officials have discussed capping sales of advanced AI chips from Nvidia Corp. and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said.
Bitcoin Rally Pauses as Traders Assess US Outlook, ETF Inflows

A rally in Bitcoin paused as traders evaluated whether an improving regulatory outlook in the US and rising exchange-traded fund inflows will be sufficient to spur further gains.
Jerome Powell Is Not the Greatest Fed Chair Ever

Even if he does oversee a soft landing for the US economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will not deserve a place in the annals of history as the greatest central banker of all time.
Boeing’s Endless Doom Loop Gives No Respite to CEO Ortberg

As Boeing Co. lurches from one crisis to the next, there’s been one constant for the embattled planemaker: Its predicament appears to be only getting worse.
Five Themes for Traders to Watch as Earnings Season Kicks Off

Earnings season is here, and the US stock market’s furious $9 trillion 2024 rally is facing perhaps its biggest test of the year.
AI Will Transform Philanthropy, Too

In an age of accelerating progress in artificial intelligence, everyone is debating AI’s implications for the labor market or national security. There is far less discussion of what AI could or should mean for philanthropy.
Vietnam’s Relationship With Big Tech Is at a Crossroads

Vietnam may be quickly outgrowing its role in the global tech industry as the attractive manufacturing sidepiece to China.
Money Should Work Better. Crypto Can Actually Help

If money makes the world go around, it hasn’t been doing a very good job lately. Beyond developed nations — in eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa — people and businesses are increasingly finding themselves cut off from global payments. An unintended consequence of necessary measures to enforce sanctions and thwart criminals, the trend is doing significant damage to trade and economic growth.
Volatile Bond Market Puts Traders on Defense Amid Fed-Cut Doubts

Bond investors are going on defense as the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cutting path turns more uncertain.
Hedged-Up Wall Street Traders Still Haunted by August Meltdown

Take a snapshot of markets right now, and it’s a picture of health. Stocks are at records, corporate bonds show no signs of worry and commodities remain buoyant on global economic optimism.
Nvidia Rides Fierce Blackwell Demand Toward Stock Record Again

Nvidia Corp.’s shares are roaring back after the company successfully calmed investor concerns about product delays and its long-term growth prospects.
Boeing Needs Some Help to Stem Its Cash Burn and Losses

It’s almost always bad news when a statement from a prominent company hits late on Friday. For those who missed Boeing Co.’s release at 4:30 p.m. New York Time ahead of a three-day weekend for the bond market, Boeing laid out the ugly truth of blowout operating losses at its commercial aircraft and defense businesses during the third quarter, which combined for about $6.4 billion.
Jamie Dimon Is Right. Forget the ‘Damn Number.’

The top corporate conference calls are attended by dozens of Wall Street analysts whose job it is to maintain detailed earnings and valuation models filled with minutiae. Quarter after quarter, they populate their spreadsheets with revenue and cost assumptions to predict exactly what earnings per share will be months and years into the future.
Chinese Stocks Climb as Traders See Hope in Beijing’s Promises

Chinese stocks overcame a bout of early volatility to post their biggest gain in a week on Monday, suggesting that investors are hopeful the government will deliver on its promise of more fiscal support.
Bond Traders’ Big Week Ends With Fed Rate Cuts Even Less Certain

The bond market is growing less convinced by the day that the Federal Reserve will embark on two further interest-rate cuts this year.
When Will Musk’s Robotaxis Actually Arrive?

The key moment during the Tesla Inc. robotaxi event Thursday night came when a member of the audience interrupted Chief Executive Elon Musk’s spiel about the benefits of autonomous vehicles. He had just opined about Airbnb-like fleets of money-earning robotaxis that you could care for like a shepherd tends their flock — stirring stuff, this — presaging “a glorious future” when someone shouted: “When will they be available?”
BlackRock Enters New League With $450 Billion in Alternative Assets

BlackRock Inc. reaching $450 billion in alternative assets is putting a finer point on a case it has been making all year: it’s not just an ETF powerhouse.
JPMorgan’s Silver Lining Still Comes With a Cloud

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s net interest income was the hot topic of its third-quarter results, much to the irritation of Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who grew impatient with quibbling over details of the bank’s outlook on its earnings call on Friday.
US Credit Draws In Foreign Investors Eying Lower Costs to Hedge

Foreign investors have been buying more US corporate bonds, a trend that will likely continue as Federal Reserve monetary easing lowers the cost of hedging and investors hunt for yield.
Hong Kong ETF Investors Make Record Bet on Stock Market Decline

Investors in Hong Kong have bet a record amount on exchange-traded funds that profit when stocks decline, showing how quickly sentiment is shifting following a breakneck rally.
Dollar Extends Weekly Gaining Trend as Traders Trim Fed Cut Bets

Traders are pushing the dollar toward its second-straight weekly gain in anticipation of a slower pace of interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The IPO Slump Is Fine Unless You’re Jamie Dimon

Two senior Wall Street executives complained this week that over-regulation is discouraging initial public offerings. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon partly blamed the zeal of securities regulators for the drop in IPOs that began in March 2022, a sentiment echoed by Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao.
Musk Shows Tesla Cybercab, Sees Sub-$30,000 Cost and 2026 Production

Elon Musk unveiled Tesla Inc.’s highly anticipated self-driving taxi at a flashy event that was light on specifics, leaving investors questioning how the carmaker expects to achieve its ambitious goals.
For Bond Traders, It’s Wait Till Next Year (Again)

A return to lower yields has been every bond fund manager's dream since the nightmare of 2022. But now, with expectations dashed that they’d get their wish this year, it appears they’ll have to hang their hopes on 2025.
China Has Taken Out an Insurance Policy, Not a Bazooka

With many having characterized China as “uninvestible” just a few months ago, investors’ enthusiastic response in recent weeks to a perceived shift in the authorities’ policy reaction function is also likely to be an overreaction. It grossly oversimplifies the competing priorities of a country with internal imbalances, inefficient resource allocation channels, and exposure to further geopolitical tensions.
US CPI Rises More Than Forecast, Stalling Inflation Progress

Underlying US inflation rose more than forecast in September, representing a pause in the recent progress toward moderating price pressures.
Elon Musk Readies the Robotaxi He Is Betting Tesla’s Future On

Elon Musk went all-in to get robotaxis onto roads, sacrificing a widely anticipated cheaper car, gutting teams focused on other projects and downplaying Tesla Inc.’s sales slowdown.
US Weighs Google Breakup in Historic Big Tech Antitrust Case

The US Justice Department is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off parts of its business in what would be a historic breakup of one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Why Robinhood Is Seeking Merry Traders Overseas

Britain’s stock-investing culture has been withering for years, with the only real growth coming from consultants, policymakers and commentators generating ideas on how to revive it. So why is Robinhood Markets Inc. so keen to expand in the UK? The draw may be more the country’s enthusiasm for online betting than allocating savings to equities.
Unions Need to Join the 21st Century Economy

It is hard to be “the most pro-union president in American history,” as Joe Biden likes to claim, while also leading an effort to “reimagine and rebuild a new economy,” as he has also promised. That’s because these goals are fundamentally incompatible: America’s unions no longer fit the modern economy.
Google Should Worry About Regulators’ Case Against Its AI Push

If investors in Alphabet Inc. weren’t all that worried at first about the possible consequences of Google losing its search antitrust case, they perhaps should be now.
Is China Breaking Out or Breaking Bad?

China’s recent stimulus announcements sparked a massive rally in its stocks, and a growing chorus of analysts see more gains ahead. Is this a reawakening of the country’s long slumbering stock market or just another false start? Bloomberg Opinion’s Nir Kaissar and Shuli Ren, based in the US and Hong Kong respectively, met online to discuss the risks and opportunities.
How to Think About the Surprising US Jobs Data

Judging from the public commentary, last Friday’s US jobs report confused economists in terms of their understanding of economic developments in the world’s largest economy and the policy approach of the Federal Reserve.
US Bonds Slip Again as Traders Price In Gradual Fed Rate Cuts

The rout in US government debt extended slightly on Tuesday, with longer-dated yields at the highest levels since late July and inflation data later in the week expected to enable Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.
Wall Street Sees More Room for Defense Stocks’ Torrid Advance

It’s no secret that betting on defense suppliers when geopolitical tensions ratchet higher pays off — at least in the short term. But Wall Street says there’s more to this latest rally.
US Corporate Bond Spreads Rally to Three-Year Low, Bucking Risks

US investment-grade corporate bond spreads have narrowed to the lowest level in more than three years, a clear sign of just how bullish credit investors are even as macro and geopolitical risks mount.
America’s Jobs Market Has Entered the Twilight Zone

The strong gain of 254,000 jobs in September was a welcome surprise after months of cooling in the labor market and reinforced other signs of strength in the US economy. However, one month does not make a trend, and even with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, a sustained turnaround in hiring will take time.
Raise the $1,000 Limit on Emergency 401(k) Withdrawals

Thanks to new legislation, Americans with retirement plans now have easier access to cash in the event of a financial emergency. A provision in the Secure Act 2.0 that took effect this year allows individuals with 401(k)s and other retirement plans to withdraw up to $1,000 without triggering a 10% early distribution penalty.
Oil Bets Most Bullish in Two Years as Mideast Tension Flares

Oil futures posted their largest gain in more than a year last week. And the frenzy was even bigger in the options market.
Corporate Bonds Gain an Edge Over Stocks as Fed Cuts

The outlook for corporate debt is improving now that the Federal Reserve has begun cutting interest rates, according to the latest Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey.
Bond Traders Buckle Up for ‘No Landing’ After Jobs Surprise

The “no landing” scenario – a situation where the US economy keeps growing, inflation reignites and the Federal Reserve has little room to cut interest rates – had largely disappeared as a bond-market talking point in recent months.
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Private Equity-Backed Texas Housing Development Taps Muni Market

In suburban Texas, a neighborhood complete with an amphitheater, dance hall and goat farm is scheduled to be erected 40 miles from Houston’s downtown — providing municipal-bond investors a window to bet on one of the fastest-growing areas of the US.
Traders Rip Up Bets on Big Fed Cuts as Jobs Data Hits Bonds

Traders slashed their bets on the pace of future Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts after September US employment data blew past estimates and signaled a robust hiring trend.
OpenAI Gets $4 Billion in Credit on Top of $6.6 Billion Fundraise

OpenAI has tapped global banks for a $4 billion revolving line of credit on top of its recent $6.6 billion fundraising, building a massive war chest to stay ahead in the costly race to develop more sophisticated artificial intelligence.
El-Erian Warns Fed After Jobs Data: ‘Inflation Is Not Dead’

Mohamed El-Erian says the Federal Reserve needs to renew its focus on its fight against rising prices after September’s surprisingly hot jobs report served as a reminder that “inflation is not dead.”
Dollar Set for Best Week in Two Years as Big Fed Cut Bets Erased

The dollar is about to notch its best week in two years. Geopolitical unrest, the odds of lower borrowing costs overseas and a resilient US economy are all spurring the world’s reserve currency higher.
Strong Jobs Report Takes Pressure Off Fed for Next Meeting

Surprisingly strong hiring in September has taken pressure off the Federal Reserve by reducing worries over the US labor market, giving policymakers room to continue cutting interest rates at a more gradual pace in coming months.
Meta Unveils AI Video Generator, Taking On OpenAI and Google

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. debuted a new artificial intelligence tool that can generate or edit videos based on a simple text prompt, elevating competition with rivals like OpenAI and Google in the race to develop the world’s most advanced AI technology.
Druckenmiller Is Wary of Fed’s Next Move After Hot Jobs Data

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller is concerned that the Federal Reserve has boxed itself into a corner when it comes to future interest-rate cuts.
India Won’t Grow Without Taking on the World

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his “Make in India” policies shortly after being elected prime minister in 2014, New Delhi has chased the dream of a prosperous manufacturing sector. There have been some successes — when it comes to making mobile phones, for example.
Retailers Have No Room for Error This Holiday

With interest rates lower, inflation collapsing and wages rising faster than prices, there’s potential for a very happy holiday for US retailers.
One Underappreciated Way to Reduce Inequality: Work More

The various bestselling books on income inequality cite a variety of driving factors. Robert Kuttner blames global capitalism. Paul Krugman pins it on bad domestic economic policies. Thomas Piketty writes of capitalists as if they are rentiers, extracting royalties from the system.
The Fed Needs to Tread Carefully in Twitchy Money Markets

It might not be time to really get nervous about US money markets, but it’s definitely time to pay more attention. Signs of strain emerged as September turned into October this week — it wasn’t completely wild, but the tensions were the worst since early 2020.
Nvidia Insider Share Sales Top $1.8 Billion and More Are Coming

Nvidia Corp. insiders have cashed in on shares worth more than $1.8 billion so far this year — and more selling is on the horizon.
TSMC Gets Single-Stock ETF as Direxion Funds Allow Leverage Bets

Direxion Funds has launched two exchange-traded products that focus on a single emerging-market stock — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. — allowing investors to make outsized bullish bets on it or take positions against the direction of the market.
Boeing’s Frail Finances Give Strikers All the Power

While a strike by East Coast port workers is strangling the flow of goods from Maine to Texas and grabbing headlines, news of machinists at Boeing Co. about to enter their fourth week of picketing near Seattle has receded a bit into the background.
How My Hard Economic Landing Forecast Went Wrong

I’ve been too pessimistic about the risks of a so-called hard landing for the US economy over the past few years. Although most of my conclusions that led to that view were correct, such an outcome remains very much in doubt.
Tesla Really Needs Musk’s Robotaxis to Live Up to the Hype

Guys, you were so close. If it wasn’t for that last little bounce of Wall Street optimism on the last day of September, Tesla Inc.’s latest sales figure would have beaten estimates — just.
Nvidia Partners With Accenture to Boost Corporate AI Adoption

Nvidia Corp. has expanded a partnership with technology consultant Accenture as part of an effort to drive adoption of artificial intelligence within businesses and boost orders for the chipmaker’s products.
Fidelity Raises First Fund Dedicated to Venture Capital

Fidelity Investments has raised $250 million for its first fund dedicated to venture capital investments, pushing the firm further into private assets.
The Stock Market Is Becoming a Dumping Ground

A lot of people are worried about the shrinking number of public companies in the US, but quality is an even bigger problem than quantity.
Dalio, Abu Dhabi Royal’s G42 Said to Shelve Investment Venture

Ray Dalio’s family office and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s artificial intelligence firm G42 have abandoned plans to set up an asset management venture together in Abu Dhabi, according to people familiar with the matter.
The US Economy’s Landing Isn’t as Soft as We Think

For all the talk of a soft landing in the US, there’s one corner of the economy where the hazard lights are flashing: the $1.6 trillion motor-vehicle lending market, which accounts for around a quarter of non-mortgage consumer credit. For the past three years, bad debts have been rising.
Fink Sees Boom in Infrastructure Fueling Global Economic Growth

BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said infrastructure is a major component to help stimulate growth in every economy and there’s enough capital in the private sector to fund investment.
Global Debt Binge Brings Record $600 Billion of Bond Sales

Companies and governments around the globe spent the past month streaming into debt markets, seizing on declining interest rates ahead of an uncertain US presidential election that many fear will spur volatility in markets.
Suddenly Asia Is Place to Be as Stocks, Currencies Outperform

Asian assets swung violently over the past three months, rocked by a succession of epochal events that culminated in a giant stimulus boost for China and propelled the region’s equities to world beaters.
Biden Should Intervene in the East Coast Port Strike

The much-anticipated labor strike at ports along the East and Gulf coasts has begun, and the impact is a bit anticlimactic — for now.
In Markets, Crystal Balls Lose to the Many Quiet Voices

Victor Haghani, James White and Jerry Bell of Elm Partners Management conducted a fascinating experiment to investigate the value of getting tomorrow’s headlines today, and the trading acumen of finance students. The results may suggest to some that finance courses need an upgrade...
Market-Boosting Moves in US, China Yet to Convince Economists

A stronger-than-expected pivot to stimulus in the world’s two biggest economies has brightened the market outlook. For economists, the jury is still out.
JPMorgan Slips as Morgan Stanley Sees Fewer Benefits From Rate Cuts

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been the best performing big bank stock since the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates more than two years ago. But as the US central bank begins to unwind those moves, Morgan Stanley says it’s time for investors to wait before they buy more shares.
Your Next Financial Adviser Will Be on an App

Just as the industrial revolution changed the way goods are manufactured and consumed, so the technological revolution will do for services. Once something can be made at scale, the market for it can expand and be segmented. The same goes for financial planning.
Gold’s Record Run Can’t Continue Forever, Right?

Gold is what you buy when everything isn’t goldilocks. Inflation, deflation, war, pestilence — gold is a certain anxious state of mind made tangible in a seductive but mostly useless metal. In a weird spin, gold has been enjoying a goldilocks period itself, hitting a new record last week. More that that, it seems almost immune to things that would usually drag it down.
Murdoch’s Bid Still on the Wrong Side of Rightmove

Rupert Murdoch has so far made it easy for Rightmove Plc to resist his takeover bid.
Costco Profit Beats Estimates Amid Moderating Inflation

Costco Wholesale Corp. posted higher-than-expected profit as moderating prices fueled consumer spending and store traffic climbed.
Quarter-Trillion Dollars of Breakups Drive Dealmaking Recovery

Chief executive officers are no longer trying to be all things to all people.
Blame NFL’s Revenue-Sharing Model for David Tepper

If on-field success is a measuring stick, Appaloosa Management co-founder David Tepper’s 2018 purchase of the Carolina Panthers has been a disaster.
The Fed Should Stop Tying Its Hands on Interest Rates

So far, so good. The Federal Reserve’s efforts to engineer a soft landing for the economy are going well.
The Cheating Game Inside the OPEC+ Oil Cartel

Since the beginning of the year, the OPEC+ countries that are subject to output caps have pumped together more than 600,000 barrels a day above their self-imposed limits.
Who’s Really Keeping Ozempic and Wegovy Prices So High?

On Tuesday, congressional leaders spent two hours taking to task Novo Nordisk Chief Executive Officer Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen over the high price of the company’s diabetes and obesity drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Now the question is whether those prices will change.
Wall Street’s ETF Assets Hit $10 Trillion Milestone

Assets held by exchange-traded funds in the US hit $10 trillion for the first time as the investor-friendly products continue their relentless takeover of Wall Street.
‘Crystal Ball’ Breaks as Traders Fail to Get Rich in New Study

If investors had known in advance the size of the Federal Reserve’s latest interest-rate cut, would they have made big money on stocks and bonds trading on this market-moving intel?
The $6.3 Trillion Money-Market Industry Just Got Its First ETF

A new exchange-traded fund attempting to carve out a slice of the $6.3 trillion sitting in traditional money-market funds is launching Wednesday.
Bonus-Starved Bankers Are Jumping Ship for Private Credit Riches

At a finance conference in London this summer, four senior investment bankers set about persuading the room that the $1.7-trillion private credit market isn’t a threat to Wall Street. Barely three months later, two of them have jumped ship to seek their fortunes in the upstart asset class.
Blaming Greedflation for High Food Prices Is Misguided

Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent proposal to ban price gouging in the grocery industry has raised tricky questions about the recent history of grocery prices, inflation and market power. Markups in grocery stores appear to be persistently higher than before the pandemic. But don’t rush to the conclusion that market power is the only explanation here.
Private Equity Calls in Experts to Fix Firms They Can’t Sell

Buyout heavyweights are increasingly resorting to the old-fashioned way of making money — actually running the companies they’ve bought.
Wall Street Drives Office Revival on Manhattan’s Ritziest Street

Financial services companies are office hunting on one of New York City’s fanciest addresses, Park Avenue, and the biggest beneficiary may be a once-beleaguered real estate investment trust that happens to find itself in the right place at the right time.
Sam Altman Is Spreading Himself Too Thin

Sam Altman has his hands in countless projects while also building “mankind’s last invention”: artificial general intelligence, or AI systems that surpass our own cognitive abilities. These galactic aspirations were reinforced on Monday when Altman published a dramatic blog post reminding us that superintelligence will bring prosperity for everyone. It’s just a “few thousand days” away, he added.
We Asked a Nobel Prize-Winning Economist How to Fix Fintech

Financial services, like many institutions, are losing Americans’ trust. That’s a problem. Economies depend on a healthy financial system, as became painfully evident during the 2008 financial crisis, and that system operates largely on trust — confidence that people can access the money in their bank accounts, that their investment accounts are secure, and that their trades will be filled at quoted market prices, to name just a few everyday financial interactions.
Wall Street Has Proven That Trust Can Be Rebuilt

America’s financial industry has long had trust issues. Never mind the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-08; mistrust of the markets dates back to at least 1929, if not the Dutch East India collapse of 1769. But this history has an upside: Financial institutions have a lot of experience creating systems to build, maintain and restore trust — and have learned lessons that can be applied across the economy.
OpenAI Pitched White House on Unprecedented Data Center Buildout

OpenAI has pitched the Biden administration on the need for massive data centers that could each use as much power as entire cities, framing the unprecedented expansion as necessary to develop more advanced artificial intelligence models and compete with China.
AI Market Will Surge to Near $1 Trillion by 2027, Bain Says

The global market for AI-related products is ballooning and will hit as much as $990 billion in 2027, as the technology’s quick adoption disrupts companies and economies, Bain & Co. said.
Intel Doesn’t Need a Takeover. It Needs a Turnaround

They say if there’s ever a Silicon Valley Mount Rushmore, the first face to be chiseled into the stone would be that of Gordon Moore. The Intel Corp. co-founder’s famous prediction about the rate at which semiconductors would improve has provided the bedrock to American technology leadership.
Microsoft’s Three Mile Island Deal Is Great News

At risk of understatement, let’s call it a big deal. Microsoft Corp.’s agreement with Constellation Energy Corp. to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania could prove highly consequential — for the green-energy transition and much else besides.
Retail Investors Won on Fees But Are Losing on Risk

Retail investors have won the battle of fees. Brokerage accounts are free. Trading commissions are history. Anyone can own the entire stock market through a single exchange-traded fund for basically nothing. It’s a huge win for investors and terrible for the investment industry.
Rate Cut Kickoff Sparks Rush to Emerging Market Bond ETFs

Investors poured money into exchange-traded funds that buy emerging-market bonds last week as optimism around the Federal Reserve’s easing cycle fueled risk appetite.
Yardeni Says Fed Cut Raises Odds of ‘Outright Melt-Up’ in Stocks

US stocks can soar to fresh highs thanks to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive half-point interest rate cut last week, but it also could cause inflation to resurface if central bankers don’t tread carefully, according to Wall Street strategist Ed Yardeni.
Fed Officials Leave Door Open to Another Large Interest-Rate Cut

A handful of Federal Reserve officials on Monday left open the door to additional large interest-rate cuts, noting that current rates still weigh heavily on the US economy.
Traders, Don’t Fall in Love With Your Machines

Gary Gensler, chief US securities regulator, enlisted Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix’s movie “Her” last week to help explain his worries about the risks of artificial intelligence in finance. Money managers and banks are rushing to adopt a handful of generative AI tools and the failure of one of them could cause mayhem, just like the AI companion played by Johansson left Phoenix’s character and many others heartbroken.
Fischer Black Would See Bubbles as Traps for Traders

Cliff Asness, co-founder of AQR Capital Management, made the news recently with the provocative claim that financial markets are getting less efficient. I worked at AQR for 10 years, but long before that I spent nearly two decades as the only mentee the renowned economist Fischer Black ever had. Fischer had a very different view of market efficiency and would, I think, have reached a different conclusion from Cliff’s data.
Stocks’ Post-Fed Rally Risks Adding ‘Accelerant Fuel’ to Selloff

While the stock market rallied after the long-awaited Federal Reserve rate cut last week, there’s a sense of unease accompanying the gains.
Fed’s Bostic Says Large Cut Bolsters Labor Market, Pace Not Set

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said starting the central bank’s cutting cycle with a large move will help bring interest rates closer to neutral levels as the risks between inflation and employment become more balanced.
We Get Either 4% Mortgage Rates or a Stable Job Market

The Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut last week has led many to wonder what it means for mortgage rates. The housing website Redfin noted that some would-be homebuyers aren’t aware that we’ve already seen a steep decline, while others are waiting for mortgage rates to fall more.
America’s Fiscal Exceptionalism Is All Too Real

A popular rebuttal of the idea that the US ought to worry about its surging public debt is, “What about Japan?” America’s taxpayers are currently on the hook for 123% of gross domestic product, exceeding the previous record of 118% in the aftermath of the second world war, and the number is going up.
Good Luck to Qualcomm in Getting Intel Inside

There’s opportunism — and there’s Qualcomm Inc.’s approach to buy Intel Corp. The acquisitive semiconductor giant has an opening to attempt such a momentous deal thanks to the yawning gap between their market capitalizations. The snag is that many obstacles remain to a successful transaction.
Summers Sees Fed Rate Projections Upended, Higher Mortgage Rates

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said inflation will probably prevent the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates as much as expected in coming years.
Jay Powell Makes a Heckuva Car Salesman

Jay Powell: Federal Reserve Chair, soft-landing pilot … car dealer extraordinaire?
Risky Banks Are Regulators’ Fault

It’s understandable that bank regulators, facing zealous industry opposition, are retreating from their effort to require the biggest lenders to fund their assets with more equity. After all, there hasn’t been a major blowup in 18 months and the banks insist they have more than enough capital.
Where the US and China Can Find Common Ground on AI

Earlier this month, OpenAI released its most-advanced models yet, saying they had the ability to “reason” and solve complex math and coding problems. The industry-leading startup, valued at some $150 billion, also acknowledged that they raised the risk artificial intelligence could be misused to create biological weapons.
A US Soft Landing Will Rest on Increasingly Shaky Ground

Americans might be forgiven for basking in self-satisfaction when it comes to the economy. The country’s most prominent CEO, Jamie Dimon, has called the country’s boom “unbelievable,” and its most stimulating magazine, The Atlantic, has dubbed it a “superstar.”
Dow’s Lack of AI Stocks Puts Blue-Chip Index ‘Behind the Curve’

The rise of artificial intelligence has reordered the American stock market, pushing the likes of Nvidia Corp. and other chipmakers into the upper echelons. There’s one storied corner, though, where the changes wrought by AI haven’t shown up: the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Big Banks Are Split on How Fast Fed Will Cut Interest Rates

Wall Street’s biggest banks are divided over how fast and deep the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates over the next year, setting the stage for jittery financial markets until the outlook clears.
Americans Face Credit Hit as Student Debt Goes Delinquent Again

Millions of Americans are falling behind on student loan payments a year after the pandemic freeze ended – and soon that will start hurting their credit scores.
Microsoft’s AI Power Needs Prompt Revival of Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant

The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will invest $1.6 billion to revive it, agreeing to sell all the output to Microsoft Corp. as the tech titan seeks carbon-free electricity for data centers to power the artificial intelligence boom.
ETF-Volatility Race Heats Up on 200% Leveraged MicroStrategy Bet

An ETF that just last month was dubbed the most volatile to ever hit Wall Street has already been upstaged, after the debut of a competing product that adds even more leverage.
Exciting Economics Is Often Misguided Economics

In the long-running popular series about what’s wrong with economics, there is a new entry: Our profession is too insular. “Economists generally agree that competition is good, and that markets with only a few dominant players are inefficient,” writes the economist David Deming in the Atlantic. “We may need to take a hard look in the mirror.”
Salesforce Is a Dark Horse in the AI Race

In the frothy business of selling artificial intelligence service, Salesforce Inc. has been punching above its own weight. “Salesforce?” I hear you wonder. The folks in the dull business of selling customer relationship management software?
The Fed’s Uncertain Destination Troubles the Bond Market

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday began its policy easing with a bang. Much of the focus was on its decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point from a two-decade high. But the key question for the bond market is where rates will land once all is said and done. Nobody knows for sure, and Chair Jerome Powell injected enough uncertainty to ensure a choppy ride ahead.
Wall Street’s $5.1 Trillion Triple-Witching Is Next Market Test

Just as Wall Street traders come to grips with the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut, Friday’s US options expiration threatens to whipsaw the market some more.
Wall Street’s New Era Off to Rocky Start Despite Big Fed Cut

Jerome Powell delivered exactly what traders up and down Wall Street had long hoped for: A big interest-rate cut that would justify this year’s steep rally in stocks and bonds as the era of tight monetary policy finally began to reverse.
Dalio Downplays Next Fed Move as Investors Flag China Risks
The size of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut this week won’t be a game changer for global investors, though risks from China’s slowdown continue to weigh on their minds, according to participants at a regional forum.
Junk Bond Investors Are Getting Ahead of ‘Rate Cutting Party’

The Federal Reserve’s looming rate cuts are fueling a rally in the riskiest corner of the US corporate bond market, but some investors are concerned the party may not last.
SEC Poised to Vote on Overhaul of Stock Pricing, Exchange Fees

The price increments at which thousands of stocks and ETFs are quoted look set for an overhaul Wednesday, when the US Securities and Exchange Commission votes on final rules to reduce them to less than 1 cent.
The Fed Is a Poor Guide for Stock Investors

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to begin cutting interest rates this week as moderating inflation allows the central bank to roll back some of its previous rate increases. I expect that some investors will be tempted to chase stocks given the stubborn conventional wisdom that interest rates and stock prices move in opposite directions. They should reconsider.
New Chatbot ETF Promises to Mimic Warren Buffett, David Tepper

It might just be the most audacious bid on Wall Street to exploit newfangled AI tools to mimic the legends of finance.
Mortgage Market’s Historical Sway Dulled as Fed Gears Up to Ease

The $8 trillion mortgage market can trigger big swings across fixed income when the Federal Reserve shifts interest rates, but investors say this time is different.
Vanguard Buys Dollars Saying Fed Rate-Cut Bets Gone Too Far

Vanguard, one of the world’s biggest asset managers, is buying the dollar this week on the view that market bets on Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts are overdone.
Microsoft Plans New $60 Billion Buyback, Raises Dividend 10%

Microsoft Corp. raised its quarterly dividend 10% and unveiled a new $60 billion stock-buyback program, matching the size of a repurchase plan three years ago.
Risk Traders Buy Emerging-Market Bond ETFs Ahead of Fed’s Cut

Investors piled money into exchange-traded funds that buy emerging-market bonds on Friday amid optimism that developing-nation debt will get a boost from a highly anticipated Federal Reserve rate cut this week.
Mortgage Rates Puzzle Is a Worry for Housing and the Fed

There’s a puzzle developing in the housing market — mortgage rates have fallen rapidly to their lowest level since early 2023, but would-be homebuyers don’t seem to care. It’s possible this is just a timing issue with rates falling during the slow season for transactions and election jitters giving buyers additional reason to hold off.
Traders See Half-Point Fed Rate Cut Likelier Than Quarter-Point

Bond traders once again see Federal Reserve policymakers as more likely to cut interest rates by a half point than a quarter point at their meeting this week.
Pimco CEO Roman Says Investors Are Piling into Fixed Income

Investors are adding to their fixed income exposure as imminent interest rate cuts create opportunities, according to Emmanuel Roman, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.