Author: Money Mechanics

Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG) provides retail and commercial banking products and services. Valued at $25.2 billion by market cap, CFG offers consumer and commercial loans, mortgage finance, deposit products, retail and commercial banking, asset management, and trust services. The bank holding company is expected to announce its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings for 2025 in the near future. Ahead of the event, analysts expect CFG to report a profit of $1.12 per share on a diluted basis, up 31.8% from $0.85 per share in the year-ago quarter. The company has consistently surpassed Wall Street’s EPS estimates in its last four quarterly reports. For…

Gold futures are currently trading at a critical inflection point where price, time, and momentum converge, increasing the probability of a volatility expansion. The recent spike into the 4409–4411 zone precisely aligned with a Square of 9 resistance angle and coincided with a mature short-term time cycle, confirming the move as a measured exhaustion event rather than trend acceleration. From a time-cycle perspective, is completing a short-term rhythm that began at the 4286 cycle low, followed by a compressed advance into the mid-week high. This advance occurred within a 5-day micro cycle nested inside a larger weekly timing band, suggesting…

American Healthcare REIT is set to be a winner in 2026, according to Jefferies. The Wall Street firm named the senior housing stock its top real estate play on the aging population — a theme it expects to outperform next year. The real estate investment trust, which came public in early 2024 at $12 a share, also pays a solid dividend of 2.10%. “AHR stands out as our top pick for ’26 given peer-leading exposure to RIDEA [REIT Investment Diversification and Empowerment Act] senior housing, the 2nd lowest cost of equity, and a growing investment pipeline,” Jefferies analyst Jonathan Petersen…

Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire is once again drawing unwanted attention to the prominent venture firm after falsely accusing a Palestinian student of being behind the December 13 Brown University mass shooting and the subsequent murder of an MIT professor. In since-deleted posts on X, Maguire speculated that “it seems very likely” the student was the perpetrator, pointing to Brown “actively scrubbing his online presence.” In reality, authorities identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national who was later found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility. Brown officials said they removed the student’s digital footprint…

(BOE Report)– Venezuela’s debt crisis is one of the largest unresolved sovereign defaults in the world, the legacy of years of economic collapse and U.S. sanctions that severed the country from international capital markets. The country has been in default since late 2017, when it missed payments on international bonds issued by the government and state oil company PDVSA. Since then, unpaid principal, accumulated interest and legal claims tied to past expropriations have swollen Venezuela’s total external liabilities far beyond the face value of the original bonds. A PDVSA bond originally maturing in 2020 was secured by equity in U.S.-based…

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its belated November report on December 18th. December 2025 inflation data reveals moderating inflation. But the FED is easing, which could result in inflationary pressures later in 2026. Calculated to two digits, inflation was  2.74% in November, down from 3.01% in September.  There was no October number due to the government shutdown.  The December 2025 inflation report shows that U.S. consumer prices continued to moderate at the end of the year, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising modestly compared to the previous year. After months of mixed data and reporting gaps tied…

From NAR: “Existing-home sales increased for the third straight month due to lower mortgage rates this autumn,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “However, inventory growth is beginning to stall.”My central theme for existing home sales has always been that the bar is so low that we can trip over it. Meaning it doesn’t take much to grow sales here, but it typically happens when mortgage rates head lower, and especially when mortgage rates head toward 6%. 2025 sales data looks normal to me with that mindset. In fact, purchase application data has had its best 20 weeks of the year…

This WeekWe got some major data releases this week, but they all came with a big ol’ asterisk. (And AI spending remained a focus.)The economy lost 105,000 jobs* in October and gained 64,000 in November.*DOGE’s deferred resignations, which paid workers through September, drove a 162,000 decline in federal employment.The unemployment rate rose more than expected to 4.6%** in November from 4.4% in September.**Likely boosted by the government shutdown since 75% of the increase in unemployment was from “temporary layoffs” – the category for furloughed federal workers.Retail sales were flat*** in October.***Spending on autos fell 1.6% m/m after the September expiration…

Key Takeaways The median household income for ages 35–44 was $86,473, according to the latest Federal Reserve data. That’s just behind 45–54-year-olds.Income varies widely across groups, with homeowners and college graduates earning more than renters and those without a degree.Income is only part of the equation—tracking net worth provides a clearer view of your financial health and long-term stability. Household income—and wealth—shift significantly with age. Data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances show that families typically see earnings and assets rise through midlife. For households ages 35–44, this is a key stage for building financial strength. Understanding how…

Key Takeaways AI stocks surged Friday, in what could point to renewed confidence in the sector after a string of positive news.UBS analysts said that while the AI trade has pulled back in recent weeks, they remain bullish on the sector’s growth. Are investors ready to pile back into the AI trade? Tech stocks led the major indexes higher Friday, with many AI investor favorites among the top performers, in what could be a sign of renewed confidence in the sector. Shares of cloud computing giant Oracle (ORCL), which slumped recently amid worries about its dependence on a few big…