Author: Money Mechanics

Each week, in our Ask the Editor series, Joy Taylor, The Kiplinger Tax Letter editor, answers questions on topics submitted by readers. This week she’s looking at four questions on the IRS tax filing season and your 2025 tax return. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Tax Letter or subscribe.)1. When can I file my 2025 tax return?Question: When does IRS plan to open the 2026 tax filing season?Joy Taylor: The IRS just announced that it will open the 2026 filing season on January 26. That’s about a week later than some other years, likely because of the “One…

Key Takeaways Worker productivity rose at its fastest pace in two years in the third quarter, while workers actually lost buying power because pay raises didn’t keep up with inflation.Economists said productivity growth is the key to raising standards of living in the long run.Technology, including AI, promises to raise productivity, but it’s an open question how much workers will benefit. Labor productivity surged in the third quarter but paychecks didn’t surge along with it.That’s according to a report Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which found that labor productivity rose at a blistering annualized rate of 4.9%, the…

Stock futures edged higher Friday ahead of the December U.S. jobs report and a possible Supreme Court ruling on President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with major equities indexes poised to register solid weekly gains. Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures pointed up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, while those affiliated with the Dow Jones Industrial Average were near flat. Yesterday, major stock indexes finished mixed, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rising but the tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled lower by data-storage shares, while the benchmark S&P 500 ended essentially flat. Still, the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 entered Friday up a respective 1.8%, 1.1%, and 0.9% for the…

The share price of Kosmos Energy Ltd. (NYSE:KOS) surged by 9.89% between December 30, 2025, and January 6, 2026, putting it among the Energy Stocks that Gained the Most This Week. Kosmos Energy (KOS) Gains Following Significant Progress in West Africa Kosmos Energy Ltd. (NYSE:KOS) is a leading deepwater exploration and production company focused on meeting the world’s growing demand for energy. Kosmos Energy Ltd. (NYSE:KOS) shot up when the company provided an operational and financial update on its recent business activities on January 5, highlighting significant progress in its West African assets. The company revealed that it has successfully…

Asian buyers except China have ordered 9 million barrels more Saudi crude for loading next month amid the kingdom’s push to cut its prices, Bloomberg has reported, citing unnamed sources. The Saudis, earlier this month, lowered the official selling price of their flagship Arab Light by $0.30 per barrel above the average of the Oman and Dubai benchmarks, to a premium of $0.30 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai quotes. That’s down from a premium of $0.60 per barrel for the January loadings and the lowest premium in more than five years. The cut was generally in line with the expectations…

The ultimate impact of such a move would likely be limited because this would be a relatively small asset purchase program, by historical standards.  President Trump said he is directing the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds above what they would normally buy, which he said on social media would help bring down mortgage rates and combat the housing affordability crisis. The funds would come from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, mortgage companies that are under government conservatorship.  The news brought about an immediate rally in MBS markets, which translated to lower rates.  But the ultimate impact…

AI research lab Anthropic continues to land sizable enterprise deals. Its latest entails bringing its large language models to a legacy German insurance giant. Anthropic on Friday announced a deal with Munich, Germany-based global insurance conglomerate Allianz to bring “responsible AI” to the insurance industry. The parties declined to share financial terms of the deal. The partnership is made up of three specific initiatives. The first is making Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI-powered coding tool, available to all of Allianz’s employees. Anthropic and Allianz will also build custom AI agents for Allianz employees that can execute multi-step workflows with a human…

Key Takeaways Americans who are 55 to 64 years old have a median household income of $82,150, according to Fed data.Earnings vary widely across groups, with homeowners and college graduates far outpacing renters and those without a degree.Even when earnings are high, your ability to retire comfortably depends on additional factors such as total savings, assets, pensions, and debt. According to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) Survey of Consumer Finances, income typically rises through midlife before leveling off in your late 50s and early 60s. Seeing how your earnings and savings compare with others your age can help you gauge where…

(World Oil) – Vickery Energy Partners has closed the acquisition of natural gas assets in the Appalachian basin from Tribune Resources, adding approximately 38,000 net acres and more than 200 MMcfe/d of net production across Wetzel, Tyler, Harrison and Doddridge counties in West Virginia. The assets include development inventory in both the wet and dry windows of the Marcellus Shale, providing Vickery with an established production base and multi-year drilling runway. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Vickery is led by former Tug Hill executives, including President and CEO Sean Willis and CFO Daniel Rowe, and is backed by…

Despite headline-grabbing news in 2025 — from tariffs to wars — economies around the world saw slower, but steady growth. The outlook for 2026 is more of the same. Although the reasons why are evolving, with three tailwinds supporting a broadening recovery in corporate profitability:Lower interest rates: Helped by slowing inflation and more balanced job markets.Broadening spending growth: U.S. tax cuts support consumer spending and European governments are increasing fiscal support.Artificial Intelligence (AI): The AI buildout drove revenues and construction in 2025 and that’s expected to continue this year. At some point, AI should start to drive productivity improvements, which would grow GDP even as population growth globally stalls. 2025: A good year for global stocksLooking first at returns last year highlights that stocks and metals dominated in 2025. It seemed like 2025 was all about AI, which is mostly a U.S. market phenomenon. But many international stock markets outperformed U.S. stocks for…