Author: Money Mechanics

Strong U.S. annuity sales have driven a surge in reinsurance sidecar formations, with total ceded reserves climbing to over $90 billion in 2025, a notable increase from $64 billion in 2024, and $55 billion in 2023, rating agency AM Best has reported.In its latest report, AM Best notes that individual annuities have experienced significant growth amid rising interest rates over the last few years, even though growth rates cooled slightly in 2025. Last year, AM Best reported that total ceded reserves to sidecars had increased to nearly $55 billion in 2023, which marked a major increase from around $17 billion…

Economic growth was weaker than expected in the second quarter though underlying drivers were mostly solid. At the same time, inflation in June held well above the Federal Reserve’s goal and complicated the central bank’s policy path, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services, increased just 1.5% for the April-through June period, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers adjusted for seasonality and inflation.Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a growth rate of 1.8%, following the 2.1% increase in the first quarter.A separate report showed that the personal consumption expenditures…

NurPhoto / Contributor via Getty ImagesFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways AI found a decade-old Chrome flaw humans repeatedly missed.Google said its AI workflow saves weeks of developer time.Chrome may need twice-weekly patches to keep billions safe.Chrome and its open-source project, Chromium, are, by scale, among the most complex open-source projects on the planet. With some 73% of the global browser market share, there are about 3.5 billion active Chrome users. To put that in perspective, 3.5 billion is more than 10 times the entire population (adults and children) of the United States.…

The past few years gave many investors exactly what they hoped for — and also set them up for some major risks.If you bought the right stocks and held them through the volatility of the past few years, your positions have grown substantially. The problem is that “substantial” and “safe” are not the same thing.We talk to a lot of clients who have watched a single holding climb to 20, 30 or even 40% of their net worth. Sometimes it’s a tech stock they’ve owned for a decade, or a company stock that has accumulated through a career of compensation…

Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management, likes to lock in gains when her tech darlings rally.  That’s exactly what she’s doing with Snowflake, trimming her position after the cloud software stock surged nearly 10% over the past five trading days ahead of earnings. In 2025, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the same period. But so far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is down 8.51% as of July 31, while the S&P 500 surged 9.41%, Yahoo Finance data shows. Wood gained a reputation after the Ark…

Kyle Miklasz had one main goal for his Airbnb property: It had to go viral. Although, following close behind that objective was his desire to have a home his family could use as a vacation spot to create memories—and his most vivid memories were of summers at his grandparents’ barn in Wisconsin. Miklasz, 34, loved that barn so much that he knew that’s what he wanted. He spent early 2023 working on plans to build one when he realized it might be easier to simply renovate an existing barn.That led him down the research rabbit hole, hunting the keywords “renovated barn” and…

The global memory chip shortage is affecting the availability of Apple’s most popular Mac, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Gurman said the shortage — caused by the demands of chip-hungry AI companies — had already affected Apple’s more niche computers, the Mac mini and Mac Studio. But it seems the company is now struggling to keep the MacBook Air in stock, with retailers saying that supply seems to be more constrained than ever before. Indeed, anyone trying to buy a MacBook Air from the Apple website will have to wait until the back half of August — or for certain…

This week’s Baker Hughes Rig Count shows that the U.S. increased by 1 last week, resulting in a total count of 588 rigs. Canada increased by 15 over last week, resulting in a total Canadian count of 219 rigs. Breakdown by region Of the regions tracked by Baker Hughes, the Eagle Ford, Marcellus, and the Permian experienced an increase this week. Meanwhile, 2 regions experienced a decrease this week: The Granite Wash is down 1,  at 20. The Utica is down 1, at 11.   Major Basin Variances This Week +/- Ardmore Woodford 2 0 Arkoma Woodford 1 0 Barnett…

In the early 20th century, the 10,000-plus page Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog served as the original all-in-one marketplace—featuring clothes, toys, and even complete mail-order house kits. These mail-order homes were shipped directly by train, and considered “modern” at the time. They included everything a homeowner would need to build their own sanctuary: precut wood, nails, paint, and more. And for an extra fee, the Sears catalog homes even included a highly sought-after convenience of the time, an indoor bathroom.The idea was to offer families an accessible, affordable way to modern living. Though, today, only a small number of these…

The number of Canada-based Redfin.com users searching for U.S. homes fell 15.3% year over year in June. Over the last two years, Canadian searches for U.S. homes have dropped roughly 37%. Canada-based home searches declined in 45 of the 50 most populous U.S. metros, with the biggest drops in San Antonio (-51.8%), Austin (-48.6%), Nassau County, NY (-33.4%) and Houston (-32.5%). Canada-based home searches increased in five U.S. metros, with the biggest gains in Kansas City (17.6%), New Brunswick, NJ (11.6%) and Nashville (9.4%). They also increased in Sacramento and St. Louis, both up 9.3%. The number of Canada-based Redfin.com…