Author: Money Mechanics

In-brief analysis June 2, 2026 Data source: Natural Gas Intelligence Note: Prices are adjusted for inflation based on April 2026 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. The SoCal Border Average represents a daily natural gas price index tracking spot prices at key delivery points into the Southern California Gas system. Monthly average natural gas spot prices in California reached record lows in the first five months of 2026, dropping to values last recorded in the nationwide low-price market of 2024. Record lows were recorded in Northern California’s PG&E Citygate and Southern…

(Oil & Gas 360) By Greg Barnett, MBA – The Williston Basin has evolved from a breakout shale story into a disciplined, capital-driven system where value is defined less by discovery than by execution. Its future will not be determined by new acreage or step-change production growth, but by recovery efficiency, infrastructure alignment, and capital allocation within a competitive global portfolio. Since the application of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the mid-2000s, the Williston Basin has undergone one of the most significant production expansions in North America. Oil output in North Dakota rose from less than 100,000 barrels per…

On sale this week: Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities.It wasn’t so long ago that the real rate on these bonds was negative. People lent money to the federal government and were assured of getting back, with interest included, less than they started with.Now the yield on the TIPS due in 2056 is 2.7%, close to as high as it has ever been. That bond will beat the standard-issue unprotected Treasury of 2056, recently paying 5%, if inflation averages at least 2.3% over the next 30 years.Do you think inflation will average more than 2.3%? It’s a reasonable supposition. The last Consumer Price…

(Image credit: GETTY IMAGES)Like hemlines, investing styles go in and out of fashion. And for the better part of 15 years, value investing — the strategy of buying shares trading at a discount — has been out of vogue, significantly lagging an approach focused on fast-growing stocks trading at pricey valuations.Late last year, however, a shift began. Bargain-priced stocks in the Russell 3000 Index gained a bit more than 6% over the past six months through the end of March, for example, trouncing the nearly 9% loss in the bogey’s growth stocks over the same period. It’s early days, of…

In-brief analysis June 3, 2026 Underground working natural gas storage capacity in the Lower 48 states increased slightly in 2025, according to our latest data, with growth concentrated in the South Central and Mountain regions. Underground natural gas storage provides a source of energy when demand increases, balancing U.S. energy needs. We calculate natural gas storage capacity in two ways: demonstrated peak capacity and working gas design capacity. Both increased in 2025. Demonstrated peak capacity is the sum of the largest volume of working gas stored in each storage field during the previous…

Early summers are the weakest season of the year for gold and its miners’ stocks. Traders’ interest in markets wanes, with vacations and summer fun diverting their attention. That usually weighs on gold’s investment demand, often leaving its price drifting sideways to lower. Typically June is the heart of these summer doldrums, with buying tending to return by mid-July. So this time of year is good for building positions. This doldrums term is very apt for gold’s usual summer predicament. It describes a zone in the world’s oceans surrounding the equator. There hot air is constantly rising, spawning long-lived low-pressure…

Nina Raemont/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeawaysApple’s developer conference kicks off Monday. Apple is lagging behind in the AI race. Its partnership with Google could supercharge its health suite. I have been wearing Google’s screenless Fitbit Air for a few weeks now, and while comparisons to its luxury counterpart, the Whoop, abound, testing Google’s health tracker put my mind on its biggest rival, Apple, instead. While I’d be happy to see Apple ship a screenless health tracker of its own, what I’d much rather see is a substantial upgrade to its own health…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Question: Some of my friends have been laid off, prompting my husband and me to take saving money more seriously. How much should we save in the off chance one or both of us lose our jobs?Answer: Preparing for worst-case scenarios is a smart move as part of financial planning. The more you’re able to save, the less you’ll have to incur debt to pay for living expenses if you or your husband face a job loss or another financial hardship arises.So, saving any money is a good start. The key is to determine how much you…

(Image credit: Getty Images)If there’s one client worry I hear more than any other, it’s this: Will I run out of money before I run out of time?They’re not alone. According to Allianz Life’s 2024 Annual Retirement Study, 63% of Americans say they worry more about running out of money than dying — a number that’s climbed from 57% just two years earlier.That worry keeps people up at night, and understandably so. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues CLICK FOR…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Not long ago, I sat down with a client who was exhausted from revisiting the same financial decisions again and again.We had already mapped out their cash flow, identified how much they could save each year and built a plan that balanced retirement, college funding and a few shorter-term priorities.On paper, everything still held up, and nothing in their situation had meaningfully changed. Yet, as we talked, we found ourselves circling back to many of the same questions — whether more should go toward the mortgage, whether college savings should take priority and whether holding additional cash…