U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee at the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, Dec. 10, 2025. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters The Federal Reserve heads into 2026 facing a slew of political and policy challenges, headlined by a new chair and an … Read more
Labor market weakness, uncertainty about inflation and political pressure will push the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates aggressively in the early part of 2026, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. Though markets and Fed officials themselves see only modest easing in the year ahead, Zandi expects the central bank to enact … Read more
The stars look like they’re finally aligning in 2026 for Home Depot — one of seven out-of-favor portfolio stocks that Jim Cramer has called a buy. Although shares are down nearly 11% year-to-date, three recent developments point toward a recovery for the home improvement retailer. 1. November’s cooler-than-expected consumer price index (CPI) is helping the … Read more
Gold and silver prices soared to new highs on Monday. Gold was last seen at a record $4,445.8 per ounce while spot gold was last trading at $4,414.99. Prices are up nearly 70% since the start of the year. The metal has soared this year, smashing consecutive price records as risk assets lost ground. Gold is typically viewed … Read more
In the Federal Reserve’s battle between fighting inflation and limiting unemployment, the latter side carried the day Wednesday and could also have an edge heading into 2026 if labor market weakness becomes more evident through an apparent overcounting of jobs numbers. In the immediate term, worries over the employment situation meant a vote, albeit divided … Read more
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on June 18, 2025. Brendan McDermid | Reuters The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached new heights on Thursday as a Federal Reserve interest rate cut followed by disappointing Oracle results prompted investors to move out of high-flying tech stocks and into names that can … Read more
U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable discussion with business leaders at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Dec. 10, 2025. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the Federal Reserve’s latest decision to cut benchmark interest rates by a quarter percentage point could have been “at least doubled.” Trump, … Read more
This is a comparison of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement with the one issued after the Fed’s previous policymaking meeting in October. Text removed from the October statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle. Text appearing for the first time in the new statement is in red and underlined. Black text appears in both statements. … Read more
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Dec. 8, 2025. Brendan McDermid | Reuters The S&P 500 was relatively unchanged on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision. The broad market index traded around the flatline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 115 … Read more
President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed to have “just heard” that all four of former President Joe Biden’s appointments to the Federal Reserve were approved by “autopen,” suggesting they are not authorized to serve in those roles. Trump provided no evidence for the claim, which piggybacks on his repeated assertion that all of his predecessor’s … Read more