Sharp analysis of growth, inflation, employment, interest rates and trade, and what they mean for markets and households.
Nine consecutive weekly gains through May 29, 2026 pushed the S&P 500 above 7,500 for the first time and added roughly 11 trillion dollars in value, as Micron, Intel and AMD led an AI-driven rally.
Federal student loan collections shifted to the Treasury Department for 9.2 million defaulted borrowers on July 1, 2026, reopening wage garnishment and tax refund seizures just as the new Repayment Assistance Plan takes effect.
More than 20 states, cities and counties raised their wage floors on July 1, 2026, pushing Alaska to $14, Washington, D.C. toward $18.40, and California hospital workers to $25 an hour.
Freddie Mac pegged the 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.43 percent for the week ending July 2, 2026, a seven-week low nudging buyers and sellers toward the mid-6 percent range as the new market baseline.
13.12 percent of credit card balances were 90 days or more past due in Q1 2026, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports, marking the steepest delinquency rate in roughly 15 years as subprime borrowers strain under 21 percent interest.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh used his first global speech to declare prices too high, vowing to deliver 2% stability while declining to signal the July rate move, as markets price a 40% chance of a December hike.
Payrolls grew by just 57,000 in June, roughly half of Wall Street's forecast, and downward revisions erased 74,000 spring jobs, reviving Fed rate-cut bets even as unemployment slipped to 4.2 percent on a shrinking labor force.
Brussels signed the final Turnberry regulation on June 25, 2026, nine days before Trump's July 4 cutoff, locking a 15 percent US tariff ceiling and averting a threatened 25 percent jump on European cars.
Washington's refusal to renew the USMCA in its 16-year form on July 1, 2026 triggered annual reviews and separate bilateral talks with Mexico and Canada over trade deficits and tougher auto-content rules.
Reporting from adjacent desks, selected to broaden the view beyond the Economy section.
Fidelity Investments will require roughly 6,200 Boston employees and more than 15,000 staffers in three other states to work in office five days a week starting September 2026, ending its hybrid policy entirely.
Qualcomm will acquire AI software startup Modular in a nearly $4 billion all-stock deal, pairing a hardware-agnostic software layer with a new Dragonfly data center strategy aimed squarely at Nvidia's CUDA moat.
London hosts Samsung's redesigned two model Z Fold 8 lineup, the Z Flip 8, Galaxy Watch 9, and first Galaxy Glasses on July 22, roughly two months before Apple's expected foldable iPhone reveal.
