Major Indexes Tumble as Oil Hits $80 a Barrel; Dow Closes Down Almost 800 Points

Something on Wall Street ‘Smells Like’ 2008, Says Former Goldman Sachs Chief. Here’s What It Is

FROM 32 minutes ago

The man who led Goldman Sachs through the 2008 financial crisis is sounding the alarm on private credit, joining a chorus of Wall Street veterans expressing concern at a pivotal time for the industry. 

“It sort of smells like that kind of a moment again,” said Lloyd Blankfein, referring to the Global Financial Crisis, during an interview with Pablo Salame, co-chief investment officer at Citadel. “I don’t feel the storm, but the horses are starting to whinny in the corral,” added Blankfein, who led Goldman from 2006 to 2018.

Some on Wall Street are growing concerned about risky lending and hidden leverage within private credit. Late last year, the sudden bankruptcies of two companies tied to private credit forced several banks to disclose massive write-offs, amplifying fears the industry’s problems could ripple through financial markets.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley 

Gold Prices Aren’t Doing What You’d Expect. Here’s Why Experts Say That’s Happening

FROM 1 hr 15 min ago

Gold is usually seen as an insurance policy against geopolitical uncertainty. Not so much lately.

Amid continued tensions in the Middle East, spot gold’s price slipped about 1.6% Thursday to around $5,060 per troy ounce. Funds that track the precious metal and mining stocks—like the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX)—are poised to finish the week in the red. Silver prices are lower too.

There are many reasons the traditional haven asset isn’t performing as investors might have expected, according to market experts.

Among them: Investors have been bidding up the precious metal for the past 12 months, treating it more like a momentum trade; ongoing strikes on Iran have pushed up oil prices, raising the likelihood of higher inflation that may make the Federal Reserve less likely to cut rates in the near-term; and the value of the U.S. dollar has risen, which tends to push gold in the opposite direction.

Read the full article here.

–Crystal Kim

Energy Is Lone S&P 500 Sector in Green Today

FROM 1 hr 47 min ago

On a rough day for equities investors, energy shares are outperforming the broader market.

The S&P 500 Energy Sector was the only one of the 11 industries tracked by the benchmark index to trade in the green.

Energy shares were up 0.4%, led by APA (APA), EOG Resources (EOG), and Devon Energy (DVN), which were up a respective 4.1%, 2.8%, and 2.6% with just over an hour to go in the trading day.

Energy stocks were boosted by the price of WTI oil futures, which were up more than 8% on the day and hovering near $81 a barrel.

Tariff Refunds Will Make the Federal Spending Deficit Even Bigger

FROM 2 hr 27 min ago

A federal court ruling in favor of tariff refunds reduces one of the economic upsides of import taxes—their benefit to the federal budget.

On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the government must refund the money collected under an emergency tariff provision the Supreme Court ruled illegal last month.

The order by Richard K. Eaton in the U.S. Court of International Trade could affect $133.5 billion worth of refunds paid before the tariff was struck down, Moody’s Analytics estimated. Around 2,000 companies have filed lawsuits seeking the return of the tariffs, Reuters reported.

The refund undermines what many analysts say is a benefit of import taxes: that they were on track to reduce federal spending deficits in the coming years. Although Trump has replaced part of the lost revenue by ordering a 15% global tariff, that is temporary and is likely to face legal challenges.

The refunds “could have a material impact on the fiscal picture,” Jim Reid, global head of macro and thematic research at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a commentary.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Berkshire’s New CEO Is Restarting Stock Buybacks and Snapping Up Shares Himself—Why That Matters

FROM 3 hr 17 min ago

Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO has the company buying back its own stock for the first time in two years. He’s also buying up the shares, in a show of confidence in their future gains.

Greg Abel, who took the helm of Berkshire (BRK.A, BRK.B) at the start of the year, told CNBC in a televised interview Thursday the buybacks follow the company’s longstanding playbook when shares fall below their perceived intrinsic value.1

The conglomerate’s class B shares were up about 2% in recent trading following the news, recovering some of their recent losses after a disappointing fourth-quarter report released over the weekend.

Berkshire’s “value proposition is very strong, and we’re doing it on behalf of, obviously, others and owners. We have to view this as value that we’re creating value for our shareholders long term,” Abel said.

Read the full article here.

–Kara Greenberg

Nvidia, AMD Shares Fall on Report US Drafts Rules to Restrict Chip Shipments Without American Approval

FROM 3 hr 30 min ago

Shares of semiconductor giants Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) sank Thursday afternoon following a report that the U.S. government has drafted rules restricting AI chip shipments without its approval.

According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, “the proposed regulations would require companies to seek US permission for virtually all exports of AI accelerators.”

The report added that “the specific approval process would depend on how much computing power a company wants,” the people said.

AMD and Nvidia shares were down 3% and 2.5%, respectively. Both had been little changed on the today until the report published around 12:30 p.m. ET.

Investors Are Piling Into the ‘HALO’ Trade. Here’s What That Means and What They’re Buying

FROM 4 hr 53 min ago

There’s a new way to describe the “anything but AI” trade that’s been getting traction on Wall Street lately.

The “HALO” trade, attributed to Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown, stands for “heavy assets, low obsolescence,” or assets widely deemed as AI-proof that have gotten a boost lately, while AI fears weigh on some previously high-flying corners of the AI trade.

In a blog post last month, Brown said these are the stocks associated with physical, heavy assets that “you can buy and not worry about” because they’re “undistruptable” by AI. Some of the examples Brown gave included major oil companies like ExxonMobil (XOM), fast-food giant McDonald’s (MCD), and America’s biggest brick-and-mortar retailer, Walmart (WMT), all of which have surged this year.

Read the full article here.

–Kara Greenberg

Unemployment Rises 0.1 Percentage Points? Yawn. Wake Me Up When It Changes By 0.3

FROM 6 hr 5 min ago

Forget about small monthly changes in the unemployment rate: the number is only meaningful if it’s a sustained change by at least 0.3 percentage points over three months.

That’s according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, who highlighted the sometimes-overlooked statistical reality behind one of the most closely-watched figures in economics.

In a blog post Monday, researchers Alexander Bick and Kevin Bloodworth II noted the unemployment rate is based on a survey of 60,000 people by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that, despite being the gold standard of economic statistics, is subject to a certain amount of error and noise.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Trump Accounts Are Coming. Are They Right for You?

FROM 6 hr 49 min ago

Trump Accounts, the new tax-advantaged accounts for children, are set to launch July 5. Yet for parents who want to get a head start on saving for their kid’s future, there are plenty of other ways to save in the meantime.

Determining what type of account is best for your child will depend on your goals and preferences. Do you want to invest in their college education or open an account that offers more flexibility, allowing them to use their cash for whatever they want after they turn 18?

Here’s a guide to figuring out where to stash your money before the Trump Accounts open later this year.

Read the full article here.

–Trina Paul

BJ’s Stock Drops as Fiscal 2026 Profit Outlook Disappoints

FROM 7 hr 40 min ago

BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings may have had a better-than-expected fiscal 2025 fourth quarter, but its fiscal 2026 profit outlook is sending shares sharply lower before the bell.

BJ’s (BJ) shares fell more than 4% in premarket trading Thursday after the warehouse club said it expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to range from $4.40 to $4.60. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha expected $4.67.

For Q4, the Marlborough, Mass.-based company reported adjusted EPS of $0.96 on revenue that rose 5.6% year-over-year to $5.58 billion. Analysts had called for $0.92 and $5.55 billion, respectively.

Shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings entered Thursday essentially flat over the past 12 months, but up 11% in 2026.

Berkshire Hathaway Resumes Buybacks; New CEO Abel Buys $15M of Stock

FROM 8 hr 31 min ago

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A; BRK.B) has started buying back its shares. Its new chief executive is getting in on the act.

The conglomerate announced in a regulatory filing Thursday that it started repurchasing its shares yesterday. It last did so in the second quarter of 2024.

“Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s long-standing common stock repurchase policy permits us to repurchase shares of our Class A and Class B Common Stock at any time we believe the repurchase price is below our intrinsic value, conservatively determined,” it wrote in the filing. “In the interest of transparency with our leadership transition, we are disclosing that we commenced repurchasing shares of our common stock under this policy on Wednesday, March 4, 2026.”

Greg Abel, who took over as Berkshire CEO from Warren Buffett at the start of the year, told CNBC that he purchased $15 million worth of Class A shares, the full amount of his after-tax annual salary, and that he plans to use his full salary to buy company shares each year.

The company on Saturday reported a nearly 30% year-over-year drop in fourth-quarter operating earnings to $10.2 billion in Buffett’s final quarter as CEO, as the company took write-downs of its stakes in Kraft Heinz (KHC) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY).

Berkshire’s Class B shares, which entered Thursday down 2% over the past 12 months, rose 1.3% before the bell.

401(k) Balances Hit a Record High in 2025—So Did Hardship Withdrawals

FROM 9 hr 9 min ago

For the sixth straight year, more Americans raided their retirement accounts during a crisis. They also finished the year with more money in their 401(k)s than ever before.

About 6% of workers in Vanguard’s 401(k) plans tapped emergency funds last year, while average account balances also hit an all-time high of $167,970, a 13% annual increase.

The markets rewarded those who stayed invested: the S&P 500 gained 16%, bonds rose 7%. The job market told a different story. Excluding health care, nonfarm payroll employment fell throughout most of 2025, layoffs surged to their highest level since the pandemic, and credit card delinquencies hit a 13-year high.

Read the full article here.

–Peter Gratton

Stock Futures Little Changed After Indexes Rebound

FROM 9 hr 57 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed 0.1% lower.

S&P 500 futures were near flat.

Nasdaq 100 futures also were near the flat line.