Author: Money Mechanics

Key Takeaways Apartment vacancies increased to 7.6% in 2025, shifting the market in favor of renters.A report from Realtor.com showed that landlords had the advantage in only six of the top 50 housing rental markets.Rental vacancies have climbed primarily due to a wave of new apartment construction, as developers responded to mounting affordability pressures with a surge in supply. For renters, 2025 was a good year—rents fell and new apartment buildings went up. Rental vacancies rose to 7.6% nationwide in 2025, according to data from Realtor.com, up from 7.2% the prior year, tipping the balance of power toward renters over…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Stocks opened up and stayed up, even under late selling pressure, amid more strong earnings and incoming economic data that continues to support Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s wait-and-see approach to interest rates. Risk-on sectors led the way higher, as the Nasdaq Composite posted the biggest gain among the three main indexes.Minutes from the January Fed meeting show policymakers were divided when they voted to leave the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged last month. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members are also split on the trajectory of inflation, with Kevin Warsh set to replace…

Key Takeaways Federal Reserve officials signaled that additional rate cuts are still possible this year, but January’s meeting minutes revealed growing concern about easing policy while inflation remains above 2%.With inflation near 2.5% and job growth mixed, the Fed appears firmly on hold for now as it weighs persistent price pressures against moderating employment risks. The Federal Reserve is still leaning toward cutting interest rates again this year, but the readout of its latest meeting shows all the reasons why it may not. The minutes of January’s meeting, released on Wednesday, displayed the clear division at the Fed over where…

Slide Insurance Company has increased its target for the new Purple Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond transaction, with the indicative size raised by roughly 28% to seek $320 million in multi-year collateralized named storm reinsurance, Artemis can report.Slide returned to the catastrophe bond market at the beginning of February, with what is set to become the company’s fifth cat bond issuance in the Purple Re series of deals. You can read about all of Slide’s Purple Re catastrophe bonds in our extensive Deal Directory. Initially Slide was seeking $250 million in reinsurance through its latest cat bond, but we’re…

Please enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser or access the information through the links provided below. February 18, 2026 Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, January 27–28, 2026 For release at 2:00 p.m. EST The Federal Reserve on Wednesday released the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that was held on January 27–28, 2026. The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee are generally published three weeks after the day of the policy decision. The descriptions of economic and financial conditions contained in these…

White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Wednesday that the authors of a recent New York Federal Reserve paper that found U.S. companies and consumers are shouldering most of the tariff burden should be “disciplined.”In a CNBC interview, the National Economic Council director ripped the report, saying that central bank researchers ignored key aspects of how the duties worked and instead simply focused on prices. Hassett said the research also should have included the upward impact on wages and benefits that U.S. companies see by bringing more production onshore.”I mean, the paper is an embarrassment,” Hassett said during the “Squawk…

KEY TAKEAWAYS The “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is expected to lower the amount owed and increase refunds for 2025 taxes, which are filed in 2026.Preliminary data on the 2026 filing season show tax refunds are higher than at the same time last year.The IRS is falling behind on processing tax returns compared to the 2025 filing season. Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise. Tax refunds so far this filing season are higher than last year. The “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” passed in July, made more than 100 changes that impact 2025 taxes, which are filed…

Key Takeaways Nationally, about 22% of homeowners ages 35–44 spend 30% or more of their income on their housing, which makes them “cost-burdened.”Homeowners in this age group who live in Hawaii, California, and Florida ranked as the most cost-burdened, while those in Kentucky, Nebraska, and Missouri ranked among the least. Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise. More than one in five homeowners ages 35–44 with a mortgage are cost-burdened—that is, they spend at least 30% of their household income on housing costs. That’s according to a new Investopedia analysis of the most recent Census data.…

(Oil & Gas 360)- Energy policy is entering another period of strain, and the tension now runs through institutions as much as markets. The United States is openly questioning whether the International Energy Agency has moved too far from its original energy security mandate toward climate advocacy. At the same time, Europe is confronting the rising cost of meeting its climate targets while protecting its economy from physical climate risk. A decade after the Paris Agreement, the once-assumed policy alignment around the energy transition appears increasingly fragmented. The debate over the IEA reflects a broader divide. The agency was created…

Key Takeaways A new closed-end fund from Robinhood aims to “open the doors to private investing,” chief Vlad Tenev said Tuesday.Some institutional investors have started to lean away from private equity as the industry underperforms. Wall Street is removing the velvet rope from a once-exclusive club. But is the party inside worth attending? News this week has investors asking that question—in this case, about putting money in companies that haven’t gone public yet. Robinhood (HOOD) wants to open up access to private equity for retail investors through a closed-end fund, which raises capital through an IPO and trades on an…