Author: Money Mechanics

Stocks shot out of the gate Friday and kept climbing into the close as market participants cheered a tame inflation reading that all but confirmed a rate cut at next week’s Fed meeting. A round of well-received earnings also lifted sentiment ahead of a busy week of corporate reports.At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.0% at 47,207, the S&P 500 was 0.8% higher at 6,791, and the Nasdaq Composite had gained 1.2% to 23,204 – new record highs for all three indexes.Ahead of the opening bell, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the Consumer…

Social Security Card: Senior woman holding card in hand on white backgroundgettyToday’s Social Security COLA (Cost-of-Living Adjustment) means that about 75 million Americans just learned this morning that they will be receiving a 2.8% Social Security COLA increase (an average of $52 per month) starting in January 2026. This total includes retired workers, spouses, survivors, and people with disabilities, as well as some children. According to Pew Research Center children make up roughly 2% of all Social Security beneficiaries, while retirees and their spouses account for the vast majority.Results from a Motley Fool survey published January 17, 2025 reveal that…

Key Takeaways A retiree can receive the maximum amount of Social Security benefits if they wait until the age of 70 to start collecting.However, only 10% of Americans said they expect to do that, according to a recent survey.Those surveyed gave several reasons as to why they would want to collect benefits as soon as they can, including expecting they will need the money and worries that Social Security could shrink or disappear. Americans approaching retirement are often advised to wait until the age of 70 to start collecting Social Security benefits in order to receive the highest payouts, but…

To help you understand the trends surrounding AI and other new technologies and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe.) You’ll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…If you’re not sold on using AI to magically put yourself into videos to share with friends, OpenAI has a simple pitch: It’s a “blast.””We first…

Key Takeaways Shares of Advanced Micro Devices and International Business Machines jumped Friday following news that readily available and reasonably priced AMD chips can run a key quantum computing algorithm.IBM plans to build a quantum computer named Starling by 2029, and the company’s head of research told Reuters the algorithm work was completed a year earlier than expected. AMD and IBM took quantum leaps on Friday. Shares in the two companies jumped to record highs after Reuters reported that International Business Machines (IBM) has found that it could run a key quantum computing error-correcting algorithm on an easy-to-get and reasonably…

Your insurance deductible is the portion of any covered repairs that you agree to pay. If your deductible is $500 and a hurricane rips a hole in your roof that costs $5,000 to repair, you’d pay $500 and insurance would pay $4,500. Most home insurance deductibles are somewhere between $500 and $2,500, but can often be set much higher.You may already know that raising your deductible is a quick way to lower your premium. Raising it from just $500 to $1,000 can drop your rate by as much as 25%. Raising it even more than that could, likewise, lower your…

Key Takeaways The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq climbed to record highs in intraday trading Friday after a flurry of strong corporate earnings and the release of a cooler-than-expected inflation report.Ford Motor shares surged after the automaker posted quarterly results that topped analysts’ estimates.Deckers Outdoor shares plunged after the Hoka maker gave a weaker-than-expected outlook and warned of a consumer pullback because of tariffs and higher prices. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq climbed to record highs in intraday trading Friday after a flurry of strong corporate earnings and the release of a cooler-than-expected inflation report.  Ford Motor (F) was…

Refresh 2025-10-24T17:27:15.784Z Fed meeting schedule for 2025 and 2026 The next Fed meeting, which runs from October 28 to October 29, marks the seventh gathering of 2025. That means there’s one more to go after that.”The committee meets eight times a year, or about once every six weeks,” writes Kiplinger contributor Dan Burrows in his feature, “When Is the Next Fed Meeting?”.The Federal Open Market Committee “is required to meet at least four times a year and may convene additional meetings if necessary,” Burrows adds, noting that “the convention of meeting eight times per year dates back to the market…

Top Wall Street tech brass addressed their firms’ AI strategies. Goldman and JPMorgan executives discussed the effects of AI on leadership and learning. Soon, “everybody will be a manager” of AI-powered digital agents, one exec predicted. Even Wall Street’s neophytes may soon get a taste of what it’s like to be the boss — albeit they may first be managing bots. “I think everybody will be a manager a lot sooner than traditional career trajectories that certainly I grew up with would dictate,” Teresa Heitsenrether, JPMorgan’s chief data and analytics officer, told business executives at the Evident AI Symposium in…

Bitcoin holds above $106,000 support, showing signs of recovery within its price channel. A close above $115,000 could confirm a bullish breakout toward $119,000–$125,000 levels. Global factors like US–China talks and Fed policy may drive short-term volatility. Looking for actionable trade ideas to navigate the current market volatility? Subscribe here to unlock access to InvestingPro’s AI-selected stock winners. Last week, ’s price bounced back strongly from the $106,500 level, stopping its recent decline. This level is an important support zone because it matches both the lower boundary of the bearish channel and the Fib 1.0 retracement level (106,159). Holding steady…