Stocks suffered their worst first half of the year since 1970. What's next?
CBSN
Americans with stock portfolios or retirement investment plans would likely prefer to forget the last six months.
The S&P 500, Wall Street's broad benchmark for many stock funds, lost 20% through the end of June after starting the year at an all-time high. It's the worst start to a year for stocks since 1970, according to calculations from Axios.
As the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates sharply, trying to tame the fiercest inflation in four decades, investors have grappled with uncertainty and fear. Higher rates can bring down inflation, but they also slow the economy, raising the risk of a recession. That's helped drag down the value of stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies and other investments.
President Joe Biden said France was America's "first friend" at its founding and is one of its closest allies more than two centuries later as he was honored with a state visit Saturday by French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at showing off their partnership on global security issues and easing past trade tensions.
The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau last week launched an inquiry into what the agency is calling "junk fees in mortgage closing costs." These additional fees, involving home appraisal, title insurance and other services, have spiked in recent years and can add thousands of dollars to the final cost of buying a home.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.