Business News

Despite constant chatter about rising oil prices on earnings calls, most S&P 500 companies say the impact on their bottom lines remains limited for now. The word “oil” came up on 149 earnings calls held by S&P 500 companies between March 15 and June 5, according to a FactSet analysis of call transcripts. That figure…

At 75, this couple carries $1.5 million invested in the stock market alongside $425,000 spread across CDs and a savings account. Both spouses collect Social Security, she receives a pension, and he continues to work while earning 80% of his salary upon retirement. The couple is entirely debt-free and she holds a long-term-care insurance policy,…

A new wave of experimental weight-loss drugs is drawing serious attention from researchers and patients frustrated with the limitations of current GLP-1 medications. Drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy have transformed obesity treatment, but persistent side effects such as severe nausea and vomiting remain a significant barrier for many patients. Scientists are now developing alternatives that…

Silicon Valley’s biggest names are pushing back against a proposed California wealth tax, even as their empires were built on a foundation of public funding and government support. The ballot initiative, set for the November 2026 election, would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on California billionaires, structured as annual installments of 1% paid over…

The S&P 500 posted nine consecutive weekly advances heading into the close of May, delivering a 5.3% total return for the month. Despite the headline gains, market leadership has grown increasingly narrow, with large numbers of individual stocks lagging behind their own moving averages. That divergence raises serious questions about the underlying health of the…

Companies across the technology sector are discovering that the financial case for replacing human workers with artificial intelligence is far shakier than executives once believed. The cost of running advanced AI systems has grown dramatically as firms shift toward agentic AI tasks, which are more complex and significantly more expensive to execute than earlier automation…

U.S. employers added 172,000 jobs in May, far exceeding the roughly 88,000 economists had anticipated, sending shockwaves through financial markets. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%, offering little comfort to investors who were already on edge about the trajectory of Federal Reserve policy. Markets responded swiftly and sharply, with growth and technology stocks bearing…

America’s crude oil inventories are falling at an alarming rate, driven by ongoing disruption to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz amid the war involving Iran. The Energy Information Administration reports that U.S. petroleum inventories have plunged to their lowest levels since 2004, raising urgent questions about supply security. Commercial crude inventories fell by…

SpaceX is preparing to go public at a valuation that would instantly rank it among the largest companies in the United States by market capitalization. The company plans to sell 555.6 million Class A shares at a fixed price of $135 each, placing its valuation at roughly $1.77 trillion upon arrival. That figure would make…

New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh heads into his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting on June 16–17 under growing pressure from within the central bank itself. Warsh took the helm widely expected to steer the Fed toward lower interest rates, but the policy landscape has shifted sharply in recent weeks. Multiple Fed officials have publicly…