Author: Money Mechanics

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is soaring out of the gate Friday after regulatory filings revealed Warren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), initiated a stake in the beaten-down Dow Jones stock in the second quarter.According to WhaleWisdom, Warren Buffett’s holding company bought a little more than 5 million UNH shares between April 1 and June 30, accounting for 0.6% of the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio and making it the 18th-largest position.The stake was worth a market value of $1.6 billion at the end of Q2. Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. Save up to 74% Sign…

It’s been a good year for the financials sector. Between President Trump’s deregulatory platform and the anticipation of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates at its September meeting, financials have put together a strong performance. Its 8.55% year-to-date gain ranks fifth among all 11 sectors of the S&P 500. But that corner of the market is no longer reserved for banks, asset management companies, or payment processors.  The Trump administration has been equally bullish for crypto. Since Inauguration Day, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 20.10%, XRP (XRP) is up 44.05%, and Ethereum (ETH) is up 48.33%. And with the crypto industry…

Market Context: A Compression Before Time futures are trading at $3,381.7, holding steady within a razor-thin band ($3,375–$3,385) after declining from the August 7 high at $3,534.1. The market’s refusal to break below Daily Buy 1 ($3,376) and Weekly Buy 1 ($3,350) underscores the presence of firm demand. At the same time, rallies have stalled at the Daily Sell 1–2 levels ($3,393–$3,402), leaving the market trapped in a short-term stalemate. This compression is not random—it coincides with the closing arc of a 360-day Gann cycle anchored from September 28, 2024, placing just six weeks away from a major cyclical pivot…

New Purchase Rate Averages as of Aug. 14, 2025 Loan Type New Purchase Rates Daily Change 30-Year Fixed 6.69% -0.01 FHA 30-Year Fixed 6.65% +0.01 VA 30-Year Fixed 6.28% No Change 20-Year Fixed 6.34% No Change 15-Year Fixed 5.70% +0.04 FHA 15-Year Fixed 6.38% +0.06 10-Year Fixed 5.74% No Change 7/6 ARM 7.26% +0.02 5/6 ARM 7.26% +0.03 Jumbo 30-Year Fixed 6.68% -0.08 Jumbo 15-Year Fixed 6.34% -0.02 Jumbo 7/6 ARM 7.30% No Change Jumbo 5/6 ARM 7.08% -0.06 Provided via the Zillow Mortgage API 30-Year Mortgage Rates Drop to Lowest Since March Rates on new 30-year mortgages have dropped…

Personal income increased $71.4 billion (0.3 percent at a monthly rate) in June, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—increased $61.0 billion (0.3 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $69.9 billion (0.3 percent).Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—increased $69.5 billion in June. Personal saving was $1.01 trillion in June and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 4.5 percent.The increase in current-dollar personal income in June primarily reflected increases in government social benefits…

Waldencast plc WALD will release earnings results for the second quarter after the closing bell on Monday, Aug. 18.Analysts expect the White Plains, New York-based company to report a quarterly loss at 5 cents per share. Waldencast projects to report quarterly revenue of $71.94 million, compared to $63.31 million a year earlier, according to data from Benzinga Pro.On July 23, Waldencast announced that it has acquired Novaestiq Corp.Waldencast shares fell 6% to close at $1.73 on Friday.Benzinga readers can access the latest analyst ratings on the Analyst Stock Ratings page. Readers can sort by stock ticker, company name, analyst firm,…

Your browser does not support this video. Jul 31st 2025 | Al Aweer and Dubai In the small town of Al Aweer, about 20km east of Dubai’s city centre, lorries full of fruit and vegetables approach, circle and pass each other, in a skilful dance. Think of it as a kind of bulk-trade ballet, set to a score of horns, beeps and roaring engines. At the back of warehouses, staff in branded polo shirts handle crates of fresh produce. At the front, wholesale shops entice customers from elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and beyond. The one-square-km market, already…

Opendoor CEO Carrie Wheeler said Friday that she’s resigning from the online real estate company, which has seen a surge in recent interest from retail investors. The stock popped early in the day before closing up 4.3%.Pressure began building on Wheeler, who took over the top job in 2022, after the company’s quarterly earnings report earlier this month failed to reassure investors that a turnaround is underway. The stock is up more than sixfold since bottoming out at 51 cents in June, a price that put the company at risk of being delisted from the Nasdaq.”The last weeks of intense…

Key Takeaways The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, as a report on consumer sentiment revealed growing concerns about tariff impacts, inflation, and the jobs market.UnitedHealth stock surged as regulatory filings showed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has accumulated a large position in the health insurer.Applied Materials provided an underwhelming outlook for the current quarter, citing macro uncertainty, and shares of the chip equipment maker fell. U.S. stocks logged weekly gains, the major indexes finishing Friday with mixed results heading into the weekend, as the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index showed declining confidence in the state of the…

In a lawsuit filed this week, New York Attorney General Letitia James claimed that over $1 billion was stolen from Zelle users via fraud between 2017 and 2023.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a lawsuit in December 2024 alleging the same thing, but when that lawsuit was dropped in March 2025, New York’s attorney general decided to file a suit of her own against the digital payment service to seek compensation for New York consumers.The new lawsuit claims that Early Warning Services, LLC (EWS), the company that owns the Zelle app, knew fraud was a problem on the app…