Author: admin

President Trump’s tariffs are taking a toll on Best Buy (BBY) just as the company is starting to turn sales around. Best Buy stock plunged 13% on Tuesday as a new round of tariffs was imposed on America’s top three trading partners, Canada, China, and Mexico. The president implemented 25% duties on Canadian and Mexican imports following a 30-day pause. An additional 10% duty on Chinese imports was added after instituting 10% in February. On a media call, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said around 55% of its products are sourced from China “in some way, shape, or form,” and…

The former head of the Social Security Administration is warning that the agency could be at risk of missing payments to seniors for the first time in its history thanks to the dramatic staffing cuts planned by the Trump administration as it seeks to slash the federal workforce. “I do think it’s going to happen,” Martin O’Malley, who served as Social Security commissioner under former President Joe Biden, told Yahoo Finance. “If I were a beneficiary, I’d be setting aside some money right now.” Social Security Administration officials announced late last week that they intended to lower the agency’s headcount…

BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink is notching some early wins in the new Trump era. The latest came Tuesday when the world’s largest money manager announced that a BlackRock-led investment coalition would take control of two key ports on either end of the Panama Canal for the price of $22.8 billion. The move essentially gives President Trump something he asked for — a larger American presence at this vital shipping lane where he had alleged Chinese interference. The ports being picked up by BlackRock are owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holding. The canal itself is still controlled by…

Worries of a full-blown trade war and more supply entering the market sent oil futures tumbling to a six-month low on Wednesday, dragging energy stocks with it. On Wednesday morning West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) dropped more than 3% to hover near $65 per barrel while Brent futures (BZ=F) broke below $70 per barrel. Oil has plunged roughly 5% over the past three sessions amid fears of a tariff war impacting economic growth, more crude supply about to enter the market as recently announced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and efforts to end the Ukraine-Russia war. Read…

Listen and subscribe to Decoding Retirement on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. If given the opportunity to do things over, many retirees say they would’ve made financial decisions differently. According to research by Olivia Mitchell, a Wharton professor and executive director of the Pension Research Council, a majority of the adults over the age of 50 that Mitchell surveyed expressed strong regret over insufficient savings. “A majority of the respondents said they wished they saved more,” Mitchell said on a recent episode of Decoding Retirement (see video above or listen below). “Only 2% said they…

The “Magnificent Seven” stocks were at the center of another sell-off hitting markets Monday. Shares of Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT) all fell, with Tesla’s more than 8% drop leading the way down. Five of the seven megacap names saw drops of over 4%. The selling pressure hitting the Magnificent Seven comes after US markets suffered their worst week of the year as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell into correction last Thursday — defined as a 10% decline from its most recent closing high — and the S&P…

Mortgage giant Rocket Companies (RKT) announced Monday it agreed to purchase digital real estate brokerage Redfin (RDFN) in an all-stock deal valued at $1.75 billion. Redfin stock rose as much as 76% on the news. Rocket stock fell as much as 10%. In 2024, Rocket’s revenues were $5.1 billion; Redfin reported revenue of $1.04 billion in 2024. “For far too long, the homeownership process has been outdated and disconnected. Home search, brokerage, mortgage, title, closing, and servicing all exist in separate ecosystems, forcing consumers to piece together a complex and frustrating journey,” Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna told analysts and…

Labor market data released Tuesday was largely in line with Wall Street’s expectations, reflecting a gradually cooling labor market. Investors have been watching closely for any further signs of cracks forming in the US economy. New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday showed 7.74 million jobs open at the end of January, an increase from the 7.51 million seen in December. Still, job openings in January remained near a level last seen in early 2021 and don’t include the latest shifts in the labor market, such as the start of significant employee layoffs. The December figure was…

February’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) will serve as the latest test of whether an inflation resurgence is a risk to the US economy as investors debate if and when the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in 2025. The report, set for release at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, is expected to show price increases moderated during the second month of the year. Headline annual inflation is forecast to come in at 2.9% in February, just below January’s 3% annual gain. On a month-over-month basis, prices are estimated to rise 0.3%, below the 0.5% increase seen in January. On a…

Egg sticker shock could soon be declining, but it may be a good time to get in on the shares of their producers. For the last three weeks, wholesale prices have been falling from above $8 for a dozen white, large eggs to roughly $4, per the latest USDA report on March 14. Over the past week, prices fell 39% from $6.85 to $4.15, though it’ll take time for retail prices to catch up. The drop reflects the “highly volatile” nature of eggs and that consumers are “responding to high prices by buying fewer eggs,” Texas A&M University professor David…