Author: Money Mechanics

Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Focused Growth Fund” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund delivered strong results in the third quarter, appreciating 4.83% (Institutional Shares); however, the performance underperformed the Russell 2500 Growth Index’s (the Benchmark) 10.73% gain. The fund’s underperformance stemmed from concerns over a slowdown in economic growth affecting the fund’s more economically sensitive Consumer Discretionary stocks. Furthermore, the rise in competitive pressures has adversely affected the valuations of a few of its holdings. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know…

Please enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser or access the information through the links provided below. November 06, 2025 Federal Reserve Board issues enforcement actions with Belt Valley Bank and The Halstead Bank For release at 11:00 a.m. EST The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced the execution of the enforcement actions listed below: Belt Valley Bank, Belt, Montana Flood insurance violations, civil money penalty, dated September 12, 2025 The Halstead Bank, Halstead, Kansas Flood insurance violations, civil money penalty, dated September 12, 2025 Additional enforcement actions can be…

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Thursday expressed hesitation about lowering interest rates further because the government shutdown has resulted in a blackout on key inflation data.While Goolsbee has otherwise been an advocate for gradually lowering rates, the central bank official said during a CNBC interview that he has concerns over the lack of important price reports, particularly with general inflation recently trending higher.”If there are problems developing on the inflation side, it’s going to be a fair amount bit of time before we see that, where if it starts to deteriorate on the job market side, we’re going…

KEY TAKEAWAYS Many workers are struggling with the increasing costs of living, and an increasing number are unable to set aside sufficient funds for an emergency savings account.More companies are offering emergency savings benefits that help their workers grow their savings. Higher costs of living have made it harder for many employees to save, and some companies are offering benefits to help their workers create and maintain an emergency savings account. Workers are struggling to grow their savings, and about 45% of workers said in a recent Federal Reserve survey that they do not have sufficient emergency savings. However, more…

Key Takeaways A growing number of large clients, and demand from AI customers helped Datadog beat quarterly earnings and revenue forecasts, sending shares higher Thursday. The cloud-based monitoring and security platform also lifted its full-year outlook. Datadog (DDOG) shares soared Thursday after the cloud-based monitoring and security platform posted quarterly results that topped analysts’ estimates and raised its outlook. The stock was up over 20% in recent trading, making it the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 Thursday afternoon. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.55 for the third quarter, above analysts’ estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Revenue jumped…

(Oil Price)– Nigeria has lost $300 billion to oil theft, auditors appointed by the Nigerian parliament said this week. The oil was sold illegally both at home and abroad, the Senate committee tasked with investigating oil theft losses said, as cited by Nigerian media. “The ad hoc committee should be given the mandate to track, trace, and recover all proceeds of stolen crude oil both locally and internationally, as forensic review by the consultant shows over $22 billion, $81 billion, and $200 billion remains unaccounted,” the chairmen of the committee, Senator Ned Nwoko, reported, as quoted by Premium Times. The report presented…

Key Takeaways Shares of companies that have missed earnings expectations this quarter fell almost 5%, on average, a bigger negative reaction than in years past, according to FactSet.The pace of earnings beats, however—excluding the Covid period—has been “unprecedented,” Goldman Sachs’ David Kostin said. The stick is getting more use than the carrot this earnings season. That has been evident in the share-price declines in the stocks of companies like Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) and Netflix (NFLX) after reporting third-quarter earnings that missed expectations, as well as the meager gains awarded to EQT (EQT) after its beat. Most of the companies…

Subscribe Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / PlayerFM  Rampant speculation, a divided Federal Reserve, big companies making big bets, and geopolitical instability. Sound familiar? That’s exactly the environment that led to the biggest stock market crash in history nearly a century ago, and many of those ingredients are prevalent at the end of 2025. Andrew Ross Sorkin, the best-selling author, New York Times writer, and CNBC Anchor, joins The Express to talk about what really caused the Great Crash of 1929, the key players behind it, and the eerie similarities to what’s happening today in the stock market and the economy. Plus, blowout earnings from…

Key Takeaways Snap reported strong results and guidance as its user base and revenue grew.The social media company also signed a $400 million partnership with Perplexity to offer Snapchat users a conversational AI-powered search option. Snap shares soared some 12% on Thursday after the owner of the Snapchat social media platform posted better-than-expected results and guidance on user growth and spending. The company also approved a stock buyback and struck a deal to provide conversational artificial intelligence (AI) search to Snapchat. The latter bit of news is likely a big reason for the lift in the shares today. Snap (SNAP)…

Two years ago, we removed a thematic fund focused on alternative energy from the Kiplinger ETF 20, the list of our favorite exchange-traded funds, and replaced it with the SPDR S&P Kensho New Economies Composite ETF (KOMP), which spreads its bets across a variety of new-new things, including green energy, drones, smart homes and electric vehicles.Since then, the Kensho ETF has returned a cumulative 25.7%. That doesn’t beat the S&P 500, which has gained 45.0%, but it’s far better than the cumulative 39.6% decline in the Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW), the fund that the Kensho ETF replaced. In…