Financial related news.
A new survey commissioned by Columbus-based Nationwide has found that a majority of older workers are more pessimistic about Social Security benefits than they were nine years ago. Three quarters of respondents age 50 and older said they expect Social Security benefits to dry up in their lifetime, according to the results of the Harris [...]
Some people collect luxury goods as investment pieces. Think of a Birkin bag, art by the legendary Jean-Michel Basquiat or a Rolex. Anything considered timeless or high-quality and that appreciates in value can be called an investment piece. The luxury market tends to be more resilient than other sectors during economic instability because of high [...]
LOS ANGELES — A resilient stock market helped boost gains for savers with retirement accounts through the first half of this year. The average 401(k) plan balance stood at $112,400 at the end of the second quarter, an increase of 4 percent from the first quarter and up 8.3 percent from the second quarter of [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Federal Reserve officials last month still regarded high inflation as an ongoing threat that could require further interest rate increases, according to the minutes of their July 25-26 meeting released last week. At the same time, the officials saw "a number of tentative signs that inflation pressures could be abating." It [...]
The nation’s labor market appears healthy as jobless claims fell for the week in the face of high interest rates and inflation. Applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 11,000 to 239,000 for the week ending Aug. 12, down from 250,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average of claims, which softens [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even President Joe Biden has some regrets about the name of the Inflation Reduction Act: As the giant law turns a year old today, it's increasingly clear that immediately curbing prices wasn't the point. While price increases have cooled over the past year — the inflation rate has dropped from 9 percent [...]
NEW YORK — Big U.S. companies are telling investors they earned fatter profits during the spring than feared. All they're getting from Wall Street is a fat yawn. Profits are the lifeblood of the stock market, and prices tend to track their movements over the long term. So it's routine for stocks to get a [...]
Waves of severe thunderstorms across the country during the first half of this year led to $34 billion in insured losses, an unprecedented level of financial damage in such a short time, according to Swiss Re Group, as climate change contributes to the frequency and severity of violent meteorological events. Damages from convective storms in [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the past year, inflation has tumbled from 9 percent all the way to 3 percent, softening most of the price pressures that have gripped the nation for more than two years. Now comes the hard part. Squeezing out the last bit of excess inflation and reducing it to the Federal Reserve's [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — With the help of technology, scammers are tricking Americans out of more money than ever before. There are steps that can be taken, however, to keep money and information safe. In 2022, reported consumer losses to fraud totaled $8.8 billion — a 30 percent increase from 2021, according to the most [...]