Category: United States

Hello and welcome to Financial Face-off, a MarketWatch column where we help you weigh a financial decision. Our columnist will give her verdict. Tell us whether you think she’s right in the comments. And please share your suggestions for future Financial Face-off columns by emailing our columnist at lalbrecht@marketwatch.com.  The face-off Vacation season is here […]

Pick one:  A. Social Security and Medicare in good fiscal shape and able to give you the full benefits you’ve earned and deserve. B. A smaller, less robust IRS, with fewer employees and a lessened ability to fulfill its congressional mandate — to collect taxes. But you can’t have both. That’s the way it is, […]

A previous version of this report incorrectly described a planned oil production cut. The article has been corrected. Wall Street is nervous about the latest rush higher for stocks. Morgan Stanley leads the pack with a warning about an earnings wipe out. Getty Images Hunting for optimists the Monday after an explosive jobs and debt-ceiling […]

Here are some prospective movers to keep an eye on Monday, as the U.S. stock market, appeared poised for a muted start to the new week. Stock gainers: Shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc. PANW, +0.21% rose 5% in premarket on Monday after S&P Dow Jones promoted the $ 66 billion cybersecurity company to the […]

UBS Group said it expects to complete its acquisition of Swiss peer Credit Suisse Group as early as June 12. Upon completion, Credit Suisse’s shares CSGN, +1.03% and American depositary shares CS, +4.54% will be delisted from the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, UBS UBS, +2.31% UBSG, +0.25% said in a […]

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index SPX, +1.45% is by far the most important, most followed and most owned stock-market index in America — and the world. It supposedly tracks the 500 biggest companies on the U.S. stock market. It is the standard benchmark for equities. If you are invested in the stock market, especially […]

Oil futures opened sharply higher Sunday evening, after Saudi Arabia agreed to deliver an additional 1 million–barrel daily production cut next month as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies moved to extend existing production targets. Price action West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery CL00, +0.98% CL.1, +0.98% CLN23, +0.98% remained […]

If there were no tax cheats in America, there would be no Social Security crisis. Benefits could be paid, and payroll taxes kept the same, for the next 75 years. That’s not me talking. That’s math. It comes from the number crunchers at the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service. Opinion: The debt-ceiling deal […]

The debt-ceiling deal struck by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the weekend contains many compromises for both Republicans and Democrats. Those include changes to the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as the food-stamp program. “The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis, a default, for the first time in […]

The S&P 500 index almost exited its longest bear market in decades on Friday. Everything’s okay now. Right? Maybe not. Even if the Federal Reserve skips an interest rate hike at its June 13-14 meeting and opts to pause awhile to give 5% benchmark rates more time to slow the economy and reduce inflation, stocks […]

Retired New Jersey doctor William Merlino spent his golden years selling weight-loss drugs online. But the problem was that the pills he sold were made from DNP, or dinitrophenol, a chemical used as a herbicide or wood preservative that is toxic for human consumption, federal prosecutors said. He compounded and pressed the pills himself in […]

In what looks to be a win-win for New York seniors and businesses, New York City said it plans to train older adults for new career paths using a $ 4.5 million grant that provides new job skills and opportunities for retirees who want to return to work. The Silver Corps program was launched as […]

Dear MarketWatch: I’ll be retiring at 55 in three years with a $ 60,000 a year pension. Can you help me find an area that meets my requirements and secondary wish list? Retirement requirements: Driving distance to big airport Great weather for arthritis (I like Las Vegas) Low or no taxes on a pension I […]

From killer robots to spies to rom-coms, Amazon’s Prime Video has a little bit of everything in June 2023. “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” (June 30), returns for its fourth and final season, with John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan now the acting deputy director of the CIA who uncovers deep corruption and a deadly conspiracy within the […]

The Center for Retirement Research first released its National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) in 2006. The goal was to summarize in a single number the extent to which today’s workers would be prepared for retirement.  The Index uses the Federal Reserve’s triennial undefined to compare projected replacement rates — retirement income as a percentage of […]

OpenAI is stealing the spotlight as the definitive artificial-intelligence startup — for now. Backed by Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.85%, the progenitor of ChatGPT-4 has become the focus of the AI wave, but other AI startups are emerging in fields including healthcare, education and manufacturing. Based on recent interviews with venture capitalists and tech executives in […]

Dear Quentin, I’m 63 and desperately hate my work. I’ve had the same job for the last 19 years and every day I’m there, I just want to quit. I have $ 330,000 in cash and investments, $ 30,000 in my employer’s retirement fund and a remaining mortgage of $ 83,000. The payment (including property […]

Now that the U.S. debt-ceiling fight finally is resolved, the Treasury is expected to unleash a flood of bill issuance to help refill its coffers run low by the protracted standoff in Washington, D.C., over the government’s borrowing limit. The question is, who will buy them and at what price? Treasury bills are debt issued […]

As the cost of owning a home has skyrocketed over the last few years, some Americans are venting their frustrations by blaming the government for high housing prices. Nearly 90% of Americans said it’s too expensive to purchase a home right now, according to a survey of 1,386 people in the U.S., aged 46 and […]

Union dockworkers at West Coast ports on Friday were accused by their employers of engaging in “concerted and disruptive work actions,” moves that threatened operations at some of the nation’s largest import hubs. The dockworkers’ union, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, “is staging concerted and disruptive work actions that have effectively shut down operations […]