Gold, bitcoin and stocks hit record highs this week. Then came inflation data
CNN
Stocks started the week on a high note but ended with a whimper.
Stocks started the week on a high note but ended with a whimper. The S&P 500 index on Tuesday reached a record high close for the 17th time this year, as investors shrugged off a higher-than-expected 3.2% annual rise in consumer prices and cheered a cooldown in some categories like food prices. Stocks weren’t the only winners. Gold settled at a record high of $2,188.60 a troy ounce on Monday, as investors become more confident that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by June. Bitcoin also reached a record high earlier this week, topping $73,000 a coin. But stocks began shedding some of their gains mid-week on renewed concerns about inflation, and both the yellow metal and cryptocurrency have also retreated from their recent milestones. The Dow fell 191 points, or 0.5%, on Friday. The S&P 500 declined 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1%. All three major indexes ended the week lower. The latest Producer Price Index, released Thursday, revealed that US wholesale inflation rose 1.6% for the 12 months ended in February, its fastest clip in months, due to a spike in energy prices. That sent the Dow tumbling more than 300 points at its lowest point on Thursday, before paring losses.
The Iran war has driven oil prices to their highest levels in years. Now, a wave of attacks in the past 24 hours on energy production sites across the Middle East have turned the spotlight on another crucial fossil fuel: liquefied natural gas, or LNG.
Oil and natural gas prices spiked Thursday, as Iran ramped up strikes on energy infrastructure across the Middle East and attacked one of the world’s most important liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Qatar.
In normal times, the Federal Reserve would more or less ignore an oil price shock like the one we’re in now.
Property brokerage Compass on Wednesday dropped its lawsuit against Zillow, ending a legal clash over how home listings can be marketed online.
Fed officials didn’t make any rate moves at their March meeting and released an updated forecast for the path of the American economy as the war in Iran stretches on.
Fed officials are set to announce their latest rate decision Wednesday afternoon, along with a new forecast for the path of the American economy as the war in Iran stretches on.
“The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history,” one of the world’s top democracy researchers says in a new report.
Oil prices held steady Wednesday after Iraq clinched a deal to resume some crude exports via Turkey. It’s not a ton of oil, but it’s what amounts for good news these days as the Strait of Hormuz remains largely blocked.
The US-Israeli war with Iran, now stretching into its third week, is dashing hopes that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates at all this year.
A federal judge says the Trump administration must let more than 1,000 sidelined Voice of America employees return to work by next week.
Former judges side with Anthropic and raise concerns about Pentagon’s use of supply chain risk label
Nearly 150 retired federal and state judges have filed an amicus brief on Tuesday supporting AI company Anthropic in its lawsuit against the Trump administration for designating it a “supply chain risk,” CNN has learned.
Attacks on commercial ships in the Middle East this month have all but closed the vital Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. One of the few alternative routes for oil exports from the region goes through the Red Sea. But now even that lifeline is in danger.
When Mona Panjwani opened One40 Rooftop, a swanky restaurant in lower Manhattan last year, one of the biggest dilemmas besides the menu was choosing the reservation platform.