Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. became two of the most valuable companies in the world by largely ignoring Wall Street and its concerns about their spending and big-money acquisitions. Now, in the thick of a slowdown in ad spending and with a potential recession looming, Wall Street is sending obvious signals that the parent … Read more
Football in Brazil, for all of their underachievement in recent years, is so deeply ingrained into the national culture, that most outsiders view the country solely through the prism of the game. Generally, the arrival of a FIFA World Cup should mean the country goes through a customary quadrennial celebration of their most adored sport. … Read more
About the only thing people remember about Jay Gould, the biggest robber of the Robber Barons, is Black Friday, the day in September 1869 when he blew up the stock market – and just about every other market, from metals to grains — in a failed bid to corner gold. It’s because of Black Friday … Read more
The British pound rose on the news that Liz Truss was standing down. (It’s now the best performing currency of the last month, if you can believe). The interest rate on British government bonds fell. The FTSE 250 MCX, -1.05% index of smaller and medium-size British companies, a good bellwether for the domestic economy, rose … Read more
When Snap Inc. went public in 2017, this column boiled down the entire investment opportunity to one, simple question: Do you trust Evan Spiegel? As Snap SNAP, -0.64% stock heads toward its lowest prices since March 2020, and potentially even lower, that question is even more important, and answering “yes” should be even harder. Three … Read more
Another Tesla Inc. earnings call, and another fanciful Elon Musk prediction that likely encouraged yet another open file at the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The chief executive of Tesla Inc. TSLA, +0.84% told investors Wednesday that he believes the valuation of the electric-car maker will exceed the combined market capitalization of the two … Read more
Editor’s Note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992 and served as a counselor to Clinton in the White House. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. View more opinion on CNN. CNN — Crime is an important issue. There, I … Read more
The official definition of a bear market is a 20% or greater decline from an index’s previous high. Accordingly, the three major U.S. stock-market benchmarks — the Nasdaq COMP, -0.24%, the S&P 500 SPX, -0.13% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.17% — are currently all in a bear market. Based on my work … Read more
The Nobel Memorial Prize awarded to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig is controversial, to say the least. Mainstream economists are generally delighted that the Nobel Committee has at last honored research into banks and their fragility. But heterodox economists who have spent years trying to change prevailing beliefs about banking and finance are … Read more
I-bonds’ sky-high interest rate is poised to fall to 6.48% when they reset next month, according to industry experts. Still, that would be the third-highest level since they were sold in 1998. Though the Treasury Department will make an announcement on Nov. 1, the rate can be surmised based on the latest consumer price index … Read more