Category: United States

A sculptural but fully functioning solid-gold toilet by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, shown in 2016 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. william edwards/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Look, if I’m Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer and he comes to me in 2015 and says he’s going to run for president, the first thing I do is […]

Here are some of the biggest movers on Tuesday, as the Federal Reserve begins deliberations on a key interest rate decision with the banking system wobbling. Stock gainers: First Republic Bank‘s stock FRC, +34.85% rocketed 45% in afternoon trading after surrendering 47% on Monday. CNBC reported the bank has hired JPMorgan as an adviser, as […]

First Republic Bank’s stock was up 40% Tuesday amid reports that JPMorgan Chase & Co. was working to help bolster the bank’s capital, and as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged to help banks. Yellen delivered a speech to the American Bankers Association saying that the government has a “resolute commitment to take the necessary […]

The European Central Bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points on Thursday. Will the U.S. Federal Reserve follow suit? The answer is yes, albeit a smaller-sized move, economists said Thursday. The ECB rate hike is a “model” that the Fed can use, said Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Dreyfus and Mellon. “The […]

I am fortunate to have the opportunity to regularly speak to college students who seem eager to secure their financial futures. There’s an old saying that “teaching teaches the teacher,” and I always learn from this. One thing I’ve repeatedly learned is the value of reducing investment success to its fundamental elements. College students find […]

Dear Quentin, My uncle was married many years ago, but he divorced and has remained single ever since. His first wife took him to the cleaners financially. They had no children. He is currently in a romantic relationship and has enjoyed the company of the same lady friend for many years. They live separately. He […]

Spring is typically the busiest season for the real-estate market. But with limited inventory and high mortgage rates, purchasing a home remains an expensive and time-consuming process. MarketWatch spoke to three realtors about how home buyers can stand out from the competition. Mortgage rates are double where they were a year ago, above 6.6%, and […]

Cruise, the self-driving unit of General Motors Co. that operates a robotaxi service in San Francisco, has applied for permission to test its autonomous vehicles across all of California. Cruise launched a fully autonomous robotaxi service in San Francisco last June. Late last year, it expanded that service to Phoenix and Austin, Texas. “While this […]

The Federal Reserve will meet on Wednesday and, for once, the outcome is unclear. This is the most uncertain Fed meeting since 2008, said Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research. Fed officials, starting with former chair Ben Bernanke, have perfected the art of having the market price in what the central bank will do — […]

Rising interest rates and stock-market volatility over the past year have added extra allure to the high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit that banks offer. Then came the stunning failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the closure of Signature Bank and the array of regional banks under pressure — all in a matter of days. […]

The U.S. stock market, which has experienced elevated volatility due to recent bank fears, saw a reclassification of its sectors after Friday’s close. The revisions meant “big changes” for financials and technology as some S&P 500 stocks switched sectors, according to a BofA Global Research note from earlier this month. As a result of changes […]

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. tumbled Monday below the $ 1 level, a 30-year low, after the struggling home-goods retailer said it planned to hold a special meeting in which shareholders would vote on whether to allow the company to carry out a reverse stock split, should its board decide to do so. […]

It’s neither helpful nor accurate to characterize last week’s banking crisis as a “black swan” event. Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb introduced the term black swan in his 2007 book called “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.” Black swans in the stock market are sudden, awful, unpredictable and extremely rare—such as a market […]

U.S. stock-index futures opened with modest gains Sunday evening as investors assessed a historic deal to rescue troubled Swiss lender Credit Suisse, the latest maneuver by authorities attempting to prevent a deeper loss of confidence in the global banking system. Swiss bank UBS Group UBS, -5.50% agreed to buy rival Credit Suisse CS, -6.94% CSGN, […]

China’s benchmark lending rates were kept unchanged as expected following a hold of key policy rates last week, according to a statement released Monday by the country’s central bank. The one-year loan prime rate was steady at 3.65%, while the five-year LPR was unchanged at 4.3%, said the People’s Bank of China. The unchanged rates […]

Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bankcorp Inc., on Sunday agreed to assume most of Signature Bank’s deposits and some of its loans. New York-based Signature Bank was closed by regulators last week, following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank. In a statement Sunday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said […]

The U.S. Federal Reserve had been worried about Silicon Valley Bank’s risky practices for more than a year before its collapse this month, according to new reports, and had repeatedly warned the bank. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the New York Times reported Sunday that serious weaknesses were found in a 2021 Fed review […]

Struggling Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has agreed to be bought by its arch-rival UBS at a discount to Friday’s close price, after seeing a wave of customer deposits exit the bank. The deal was announced by Switzerland’s president, Alain Berset, flanked by executives from both banks and the chairman of the Swiss National Bank. […]

Markets may be in a vulnerable position ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, as traders bet the banking crisis could lead to meaningful interest-rate cuts over the next year. The Fed, which on March 12 announced the creation of its emergency Bank Term Funding Program to help banks meet the needs of their […]

Small-cap stocks are a great place to put your money right now because they’re cheap. How cheap? Bank of America analysts pointed out recently that this group trades 10% below their long-term average p/e ratio. For guidance on how to invest in the small-caps and names to consider, I recently talked with a mutual-fund manager with […]