The Bank of England held its benchmark interest rate steady at 3.75% on Thursday, continuing to balance above-target inflation against weak economic output. Seven of nine Monetary Policy Committee members backed the hold at the BOE’s May meeting, in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters. The two dissenting votes came from BOE chief…

At least three Iranian tankers carrying nearly five million barrels of crude oil have exited the U.S. Navy blockade in the Strait of Hormuz for the first time in two months. The breakthrough comes as shipowners cautiously reposition their fleets ahead of a formal U.S.-Iran deal signing scheduled for Friday in Geneva. Two supertankers named…

At his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh kept interest rates steady while delivering several surprises that rattled financial markets. The committee voted unanimously to hold the benchmark federal funds rate in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, with no apparent dissents recorded during the session. Despite the hold, the…

Britain’s annual inflation rate held steady at 2.8% in May, coming in below expectations and surprising economists who had forecast a climb higher. Economists polled by Reuters had anticipated the annual inflation rate would rise to 3% in May, making the flat reading a modest but notable relief. The steady print follows a dip to…

Semiconductor stocks roared back to life on June 11, 2026, after President Donald Trump announced a significant diplomatic breakthrough with Iran, sending chip shares sharply higher. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Micron Technology (MU), Arm Holdings (ARM), and Marvell Technology (MRVL) each climbed 6% or more as investors rushed back into growth-oriented technology names. Intel (INTC)…

Investors and economists are heading into the first Federal Reserve meeting chaired by Kevin Warsh with an unusual degree of uncertainty about his monetary policy intentions. Warsh has remained largely silent on key economic questions since assuming office, including where he stands on the recent surge in job growth and the persistent acceleration in inflation….

Bond giant Pimco is sounding the alarm on credit markets, warning that a sustained default cycle has officially taken hold after years of unusually low losses. The firm, which manages $2.27 trillion in assets, declared in its 2026 outlook that “the credit loss cycle is upon us,” signaling a significant shift in the credit landscape….

The United States federal government’s total fiscal burden has reached a staggering milestone, with the true national debt now hitting $1 million per American household. This figure goes well beyond the commonly cited gross federal debt, incorporating unfunded liabilities tied to major entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Unfunded liabilities represent promises the federal…

Alicia H. Munnell, senior advisor at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, argues that Social Security benefits are far from the runaway entitlement that many fiscal hawks describe. Munnell, who also writes a column for MarketWatch, set out to assess whether current Social Security benefits are reasonable, concluding that a reality check supports…