Free Republic

Stocks fell early Tuesday morning as the markets struggled to sustain a comeback rally following weeks of losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 220 points, or 0.7%. The S&P 500 dipped 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.2%.

U.S. stocks fell on Friday, extending losses from earlier in the week and putting the S&P 500 on the cusp of a bear market. The relentless selling has the Dow Jones Jones Industrial Average on pace for its eighth negative week in a row. The S&P 500 traded about 0.8% lower, putting it more than 19% below its record reached in January. A 20% decline would mark the first bear market since the March 2020 pandemic decline. The Dow fell 225 points, or 0.7%, with the benchmark losing steam after a strong open. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.9%.

Stock were under pressure again on Thursday with the S&P 500 on the brink of a bear market. Investors continued to dump equities on fears Federal Reserve rate hikes to fight rapid inflation would tip the economy into a recession. S&P 500 dropped 0.8% a day after the benchmark closed at 3,923.68, or 18.6% below its intraday record reached in January. It also sits around 18% below its record closing level. A close of 20% or more below its all-time high would mark a bear market, its first since the March 2020 pandemic sell-off.

U.S. stocks were sharply higher on Tuesday as the market tried to bounce after a punishing bear market for the tech-heavy Nasdaq and a 19% pullback for the S&P 500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 300 points, or 1.2%. S&P 500 gained 1.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 2%. Tuesday’s bounce marks the market’s latest attempt at a recovery following weeks of steep losses. The S&P 500 is coming off a six-week losing streak — its longest since 2011.

A mass shooting is being reported out of Buffalo at the Tops [supermarket] at 1275 Jefferson Ave, Buffalo, NY. According to unverified reports, a shooter was taken out by gunfire. However, police say they have one person in custody. There are reports that “bodies [are] everywhere.” At least nine individuals have been reported shot, more than five of them in the head. At least one fatality has been reported.

Wall Street's prolonged plunge is beginning to raise Americans' concerns about their retirement savings, potentially pushing some to delay retirement as their account balances dwindle. So far this year, the benchmark S&P 500 has dropped 18 percent, wiping away $7 trillion in market value from the companies in the index. The Dow Jones Industrial average is down nearly 14 percent. Bonds, the traditional safe-haven of those approaching retirement age, have also fared poorly amid high inflation and rising interest rates, with Vanguard's Total Bond Market Index Fund losing more than 9 percent since the start of the year. Since retirement...

U.S. stocks plunged Thursday, giving back nearly all the gains from the biggest single-day rally for the S&P 500 in two years, as Treasury yields jumped and investors peeled away from a Fed-induced rally and looked to the impact of the near-term rate hikes on growth prospects for the world's biggest economy. The Federal Reserve, as expected, boosted its benchmark Fed Funds rate by 50 basis points, to a range of 0.75% to 1%, while detailing the first official plans to reduce its $8.9 trillion balance sheet. Chairman Jerome Powell, however, added a dovish caveat to the decision, suggesting that...

U.S. stocks fell Tuesday as technology shares struggled, continuing the April sell-off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed about 240 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 lost 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 2.2%.

For his entire life, Roy Walters managed bars and restaurants: upscale Italian eateries, dive bars and even strip clubs. Then, in March 2020, the pandemic shuttered his livelihood. A truck driver buddy suggested that the newly unemployed Walters join him in the industry. So Walters drove an 18-wheeler around the country, seeing places like Seattle and the Grand Canyon, before he decided to own his own fleet. Today, the Clearwater, Florida, resident operates seven trucks. Walters mostly stays at home, but sometimes he gets behind the wheel again. “For me, it’s almost like a vacation, except I get paid,” he...

New data revealed a major increase between Dec. 2021 and Jan. 2022 in loans sent to foreclosure. This shows they’re on the rise. A report from Black Knight shows that lenders took back over 2,634 homes in February 2022. That was a 70% more than 2021.

President Biden said he expected the Russian stock market to blow up the second it reopens in response to crippling sanctions that have been imposed on the country in response to its invasion of Ukraine. “You know what the value of a ruble versus a dollar? You need 200 rubles to equal $1 today. 200,” Biden boasted to a conference of House Democrats in Philadelphia on Friday. “The totality of our economic sanctions and controls are crushing, crushing the Russian economy,”

Just as oil prices soared above $115 per barrel and European gas prices moved up to $60 per mmBtu, coal markets have been suffering through some turmoil of their own. Global coal prices surged some 30% in one week, primarily triggered by fears of Russia’s coal supply not hitting the market as several rounds of US/EU/UK sanctions made it complicated to arrange financial lines with Russian sellers. The Asian Newcastle benchmark futures contract rose to $440 per metric tonne, with Europe’s API2 March ’22 contract trading at the same levels. Moreover, Europe’s futures prices point to a prolonged period of...

Soft Red Winter (SRW) futures hit an all-time high Friday before retreating back, as consecutive limit up trading days meant wheat prices topped a previous high set in 2008. Earlier this week, prices had shot to a 14-year high. "On the continuous futures, the Chicago March winter wheat futures contract set a then all-time high of $13.34 1/2 cents on Feb 27, 2008. Today, the March 2022 has traded to $13.40. So on some continuous charts, a new record today," says Bill Nelson of ProFarmer. "The wonky part of this is that today's record is for wheat futures in delivery....

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific declined in Monday morning trade as oil prices surged, with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war continuing to weigh on investor sentiment globally. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 led losses regionally as it tumbled 3.39%, with shares of robot maker Fanuc plunging 7.4%, while the Topix index shed 3.19%. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also saw heavy losses, dropping 3.29% in early trade as shares of HSBC plummeted 6.21%. Mainland China’s Shanghai composite shed 0.47% and the Shenzhen component slipped 1.108%.

Major U.S. stock indexes recovered considerable ground on Thursday to end higher, despite stumbling early in the session after Russia launched a military assault on Ukraine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, 0.28% flipped positive in the final 15 minutes of trade, adding about 90 points, or 0.3%, to end near 33,222. The S&P 500 SPX, 1.49% gained 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, 3.34% booked a 3.3% gain. The rally came as oil prices CL00, 1.38% climbed and bond yields tumbled, putting the 10-year Treasury rate below 2%. Investors attributed the turnaround for stocks partly to President Joe...

Investors rushed for safety, pushing down stocks and lifting the prices of oil, gold and government bonds, after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine and a Ukrainian official said, “The invasion has begun.” By early afternoon Thursday in Hong Kong, futures tied to the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones Industrial Average all stood more than 2% lower. Regional stock indexes also fell sharply, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping more than 3%. Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, topped $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014, with the front-month contract rising as much as 3.3%...

The White House is warning the chip industry to diversify its supply chain in case Russia retaliates against threatened U.S. export curbs by blocking access to key materials, people familiar with the matter said. The potential for retaliation has garnered more attention in recent days after Techcet, a market research group, published a report on Feb. 1 highlighting the reliance of many semiconductor manufacturers on Russian and Ukrainian-sourced materials like neon, palladium and others. According to Techcet estimates, over 90% of U.S. semiconductor-grade neon supplies come from Ukraine, while 35% of U.S. palladium is sourced from Russia.

Photo: Honda Both the new and used car market is a hot mess right now, and will be for sometime. Just how hot of a mess are we talking? Well, a writer for The Verge managed to sell his 2014 Honda Fit to Carvana sight-unseen for $20,905—$90.20 more than he paid for it brand new off a dealer lot. That’s a mighty caliente market. How could such an old car possibly be worth more today than when it had 23 miles and still smelled like plastic? How could a company that buys such cars at such high prices before even...

It’s probably not the endorsement Biden’s flailing administration wanted. In a time when social networks have been swamped with photos of empty shelves from across the nation, Goldman’s head commodity strategist and one of the closest-followed analysts on Wall Street, said he’s never seen commodity markets pricing in the shortages they are right now. “I’ve been doing this 30 years and I’ve never seen markets like this,” Currie told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Monday. “This is a molecule crisis. We’re out of everything, I don’t care if it’s oil, gas, coal, copper, aluminum, you name it we’re out...

The American policy makers are diverting attention from the real cause of inflation — excessive expansion of money supply Although inflation is a common phenomenon in most countries of the world including India, many past generations of Americans have never suffered the brunt of inflation. But in the last one year, the rate of inflation in America has reached around seven percent, and that has started affecting the lives of ordinary Americans. Ruling Democrats are fearing the consequences of the same in the 2022 mid-term elections. On the one hand, Covid-19, which has destroyed the jobs of 22 million Americans,...