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The latest data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York puts total U.S. household debt at $18.8 trillion as of Q1 2026, up just 0.1% from the prior quarter. Credit card balances declined by $25 billion to $1.25 trillion, a move consistent with the seasonal pullback that typically follows

Oil Is Piling Up With Nowhere to Go Five weeks after the ceasefire was announced, the Strait of Hormuz still has not fully reopened, and oil is piling up across the Persian Gulf. Saudi Aramco’s CEO said this week that around 600 ships sit trapped inside the Gulf with another

Mortgage applications are often overlooked in favor of more widely followed indicators, but they provide an important early signal about the direction of the US economy. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that total mortgage application volume has risen roughly 6% year over year in recent weeks, with purchase applications up

The latest existing home sales data paints a picture of a housing market that is steady but still working through several challenges. According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales in April 2026 rose just 0.2% from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02

The April 2026 jobs report offered a reassuring signal that the U.S. labor market continues to hold up better than many expected, even as economic uncertainty builds. Employers added 115,000 jobs during the month, well above expectations that hovered between 55,000 and 65,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate held steady at

The April ISM reports confirm that the U.S. economy remains in expansion, though increasingly on borrowed momentum. Both manufacturing and services continue to grow, yet the composition of that growth is shifting in ways that matter for investors: input costs are reaccelerating sharply, forward-looking demand indicators are softening, and two

The traditional stock market close still shapes investor psychology, but the architecture around it is starting to change. Major exchanges and market operators are now exploring tokenized securities, extended-hours access, and in some cases truly round-the-clock trading, raising a bigger question than whether the trading day gets longer: what happens

1.  Equities – Markets Staged a Powerful Recovery, with Broad Participation April delivered one of the strongest monthly rebounds in recent memory. The S&P 500 gained 10.49% on a total-return basis, fully recovering March’s pullback and pushing the index to fresh all-time highs by mid-month. The recovery was broad and

On April 30, 2026, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, delivered a meaningful upside surprise, reinforcing concerns that inflation remains stubbornly above target. Headline PCE rose to 3.5% year over year, up from 2.8% the prior month, while core PCE, which excludes food and