Author: Money Mechanics

By David Enna, Tipswatch.com There were no surprises in this morning’s announcement of the new fixed and composite rates for U.S. Series I Bonds purchased from November 2025 to April 2026. Treasury followed its past practices, setting the fixed rate at 0.9%, as I projected. This is a very good thing. It is important because the Trump administration’s Treasury department continued to follow our “perceived” formula for the fixed rate: Applying a ratio of 0.65 to the average real yield of the 5-year TIPS over the last six months. This formula has worked, without fail, for 12 fixed-rate resets since…

Zillow’s Follow Up Boss privacy policy changes spark industry debate Zillow‘s updated privacy policy for Follow Up Boss has sparked debate among real estate agents. The policy introduces “mutual customer data,” allowing Zillow to engage with clients who have a Zillow account. Critics argue this could affect agent-client relationships, prompting some to consider switching CRMs.  How real estate agents can embrace AI without losing humanity Real estate professionals are leveraging AI to enhance their marketing, streamline operations and improve client services. Industry leaders stress the importance of ethical AI use and proper vendor vetting, while highlighting the technology’s potential to…

Key Takeaways Open enrollment for 2026 health insurance coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15. If you want to ensure you’ll be covered on Jan. 1, you’ll need to meet a deadline of Dec. 15. With expanded ACA subsidies set to expire at the end of this year—the issue at the heart of the government shutdown—premiums could soar for many people, potentially more than doubling if Congress doesn’t act. One expert suggests that you compare plans carefully and, if possible, delay enrollment until December to see whether Congress extends the subsidies. Open enrollment season…

Key Takeaways The world’s largest online retailer got a boost from its booming cloud computing business on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, while a soft sales outlook weighed on a medical device firm.Amazon shares climbed to a record high as its Amazon Web Services business helped drive better-than-expected quarterly results.Shares of DexCom plunged after the maker of glucose monitoring devices provided a cautious revenue forecast. Shares of an e-commerce and cloud computing powerhouse delivered big gains on the final day of October, while a medical device maker came under pressure after an executive provided an underwhelming outlook for 2026 sales growth.…

(Oil Price) – Big Oil is reporting third-quarter results this week and next. No surprises are expected—Big Oil has been having an eventful year featuring tariffs, sanctions, and glut predictions—and these events will be reflected in financial reports. Yet analysts are already looking ahead to 2036 and what Big Oil plans to do next. So far, two big oil companies have reported third-quarter figures: Norway’s Equinor and Italy’s Eni. Both demonstrated the dominant trends in the industry, likely to be seen in the reports of BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon, and Chevron in the coming days. Equinor missed analyst expectations because of lower prices, despite…

Key Takeaways The U.S. economy has grown increasingly concentrated in AI, with the biggest tech companies now making up about a third of the value of the entire stock market.Companies are investing in AI at a titanic scale, building colossal data centers all over the country to the tune of $400 billion in 2025.As the U.S. economy becomes increasingly concentrated in AI, more economists have warned of catastrophic consequences if it doesn’t pan out at the market crashes. When Nvidia became the world’s first $5 trillion company this week, the milestone underscored how much AI has come to dominate the economy. The…

Key Takeaways Reddit shares soared Friday after the social media company posted earnings that topped analysts’ estimates.A jump in users helped power the better-than-expected results. Reddit (RDDT) shares surged Friday after the social media platform posted better-than-expected earnings and an upbeat outlook. The stock finished Friday’s session close to 8% higher, pushing its year-to-date gains to about 28%. Reddit reported third-quarter earnings per share of $0.80, well above the consensus of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Its revenue soared 68% year-over-year to $585 million, also exceeding expectations as a measure of its users jumped. Why This Is Significant Heading into the…

Key Takeaways Three Fed officials said Friday they disagreed with the Fed’s decision to cut the central bank’s key interest rate by a quarter-point this week.The Fed cut interest rates to preserve the job market, and the diverging views reflect the difficulty of its dilemma as it pursues a dual mandate to maintain high employment and low inflation. The Federal Reserve is letting up too soon on its war against inflation, according to an increasingly vocal contingent of Fed officials.Three Federal Reserve officials said Friday that they disagreed with the Federal Open Market Committee’s decision to cut its benchmark interest…

Stocks opened higher Friday as Amazon.com’s (AMZN) impressive results helped ease concerns that big spending on artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t bearing fruit. Today’s gains had all three main indexes closing out the historically volatile month of October with impressive returns.At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.09% at 47,562, the broader S&P 500 was 0.3% higher at 6,840, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had added 0.6% to 23,724. For the month, the benchmarks rose between 2.5% and 5%.Amazon helped boost all three indexes, climbing 9.6% after its third-quarter results. The e-commerce giant beat on both the…

Call it the “risk paradox.” You know when to play safe—you don’t invest money you’ll need soon in the stock market. So why doesn’t your 401(k) plan see it the same way? Most plan participants intuitively grasp the concept of risk capacity. They know when they need to take a risk and when to stick to something safe. Your retirement plan doesn’t seem to accommodate this nuance. Why?Those crafting plan investment menus certainly try to incorporate risk in their options. Indeed, often the tools offered by retirement plan service providers rely on risk assessments, commonly known as risk tolerance questionnaires.You’ve…