Author: Money Mechanics

Are the summer doldrums here for or is it the calm before a big storm? In a nutshell, there’s a lot going on and that can cause significant investor confusion. Some key items of note: Donald Trump is a workaholic, and he has a rock star personality. He has his fingers in a lot of pies. Also, Jay Powell has a big Jackson Hole speech on Friday. To help clarify the situation for gold. The weekly chart. Suddenly, the clouds are gone, and the gold market sky is clear; a simple triangle formation is in play. The odds (basis Edwards/Magee)…

Chicago Transit’s fiscal issues didn’t emerge in a single year and should serve as a warning for many other transit systems throughout the United States. In 2026, Chicago’s transit network, the veins and arteries of the nation’s third-largest metropolitan economy, will face its most severe financial test in decades. The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), which oversees the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and Pace Suburban Bus, warns of a looming “fiscal cliff” that could open a $730 million hole in the system’s annual budget. Without decisive action, the region risks a wave of service cuts and fare increases that could…

If you squint, can you see an effect of the deportations of illegal aliens in today’s CPI report?I don’t want to encourage anyone to obsess over every jot and tittle of the report. That’s almost always a fraught exercise. But there were at least a couple of things in the data this month which could indicate both inflationary and disinflationary effects of the deportation campaign. A serious part of my brain is saying ‘come on, there just haven’t been many deportations in the context of the population of illegals, how can we see an effect?’ And that instinct is probably…

Key Takeaways The roughly $270 billion global stablecoins market stands to disrupt the traditional financial services industry, but to what degree remains an “open question,” according to a recent Goldman Sachs report.Goldman analysts say that concerns about the potential disintermediation of companies that provide payment and remittance services are overdone.The firm sees Circle’s USDC taking greater share of the stablecoin market at the expense of Tether’s offshore USDT. The first federal regulatory system signed into law brought about something of a summer awakening for stablecoins. Whether the roughly $270 billion global market in tokens pegged to real-world currencies will grow…

Molina Healthcare MOH has outperformed the market over the past 20 years by 3.46% on an annualized basis producing an average annual return of 12.15%. Currently, Molina Healthcare has a market capitalization of $9.42 billion. Buying $100 In MOH: If an investor had bought $100 of MOH stock 20 years ago, it would be worth $984.06 today based on a price of $173.75 for MOH at the time of writing.Molina Healthcare’s Performance Over Last 20 YearsFinally — what’s the point of all this? The key insight to take from this article is to note how much of a difference compounded…

In-brief analysis July 24, 2025 Data source: Bloomberg L.P.Note: Annualized percentage, a widely used trading measure of price volatility, is the standard deviation for the previous quarter of daily changes in the Henry Hub front-month futures price multiplied by the square root of 252 (number of trading days in a year) multiplied by 100. Percentages are averages for that period. 1Q25=first quarter of 2025 The average historical volatility of the daily Henry Hub front-month futures price, a key benchmark for U.S. natural gas, trended downward through the first half of the year,…

Wall Street veteran David Zervos added his name Thursday to the list of potential Federal Reserve chairs who think the central bank is past due in approving an interest rate reduction.The chief market strategist at Jefferies told CNBC that central bankers shouldn’t be daunted by the July producer price index showing pipeline inflation pressures hotter than expected.Instead, he advocated the Fed move aggressively now to ease as a way to forestall a labor market slowdown and in fact help create a million more jobs. For the past three Fed meetings, Zervos has advocated a half percentage point cut in the…

A Florida judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed against embattled HR and payroll provider Deel. And while Deel described this as a “Rippling-aligned” and “Rippling-supported” lawsuit, this is not the infamous lawsuit filed by its rival earlier this year that involved an alleged corporate spy. Rippling CEO Parker Conrad even went so far as to write “This litigation has nothing to do with Rippling, we are not a party to it, did not fund it,” in a tweet. (Rippling representatives declined further comment.) Still, this is some good news for Deel. In January, a lawsuit was filed in Florida…

Aging solo is a result of many factors. Some solo agers are widowed, or never married. Some have lost a long-time partner. Some have no kids, and some are estranged from their adult children. Some are not estranged from kids, but they have no reliable family at all, as their kids are incapable of helping. Whatever the cause of being alone as one ages, it’s important to look ahead and have a plan. Top Four Risks To Consider Finances Cash will be neededGetty Images Financial resources are at the top of the list when we look at what issues might…

Nvidia (NVDA) said it’s considering a “variety of products” for its roadmap as more details emerge about a new AI chip for the Chinese market. This follows recent signs of inroads in winning approvals from the Trump administration to expand sales to the country.  Nvidia could look to deliver samples of the new chip to Chinese clients for testing as early as next month, Reuters reported Tuesday.  The new chip, tentatively known as the B30A, is based on Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture and more advanced than the H20 chip the company recently won approval to resume selling in China after striking…