The utilities sector is on a roll in 2026, and Wall Street is feeling upbeat about a couple of dividend payers with solid prospects. The S & P 500’s utilities sector was the big winner in Friday’s trading, up more than 2% on the day. It’s on track for its seventh positive session – its…
D-keine | E+ | Getty Images The average tax refund is 10.9% higher so far this season, compared to about the same point in 2025, according to early filing data from the IRS. The 2026 tax season opened Jan. 26, and the average refund amount was $2,290 as of Feb. 6, up from $2,065 about…
Carl Smith | Fstop | Getty Images Social Security benefits are typically adjusted every year to keep up with rising prices. Social Security beneficiaries saw record-high COLAs in 2022 and 2023, when the annual increases climbed to 5.9% and 8.7%, respectively. Yet as the pace of inflation subsided, the size of the annual COLA increase…
The Seahawks may have won the Super Bowl, but Anthropic also walked away with bragging rights, according to data analyzed by BNP Paribas. The maker of the Claude chatbot saw visits to its site jump 6.5% following its Super Bowl advertisement that took a swing at rival OpenAI’s decision to bring ads to ChatGPT. The…
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Samuel Corum | Sipa | Bloomberg | Getty Images President Donald Trump on Friday said he will “shortly” issue an executive order laying out…
US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he walks to board Marine One prior to departure from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 13, 2026. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images President Donald Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party might be starting to loosen, just…
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Stocks were rebounding to wrap up another volatile week that saw the S & P 500 still headed for losses over the past five trading days….
Cavan Images | Cavan | Getty Images At the start of 2025, during President Joe Biden’s final weeks in office, lawmakers pushed forward with last-minute major legislation that provides Social Security benefit increases to certain public pensioners. The Social Security Fairness Act was passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate,…
Here are some of the biggest movers in midday trading. Moderna – Shares of the biotech giant climbed 5% after the company gave upbeat guidance for full-year revenue. Moderna expects revenue growth of up to 10% from 2025’s levels, beating the FactSet consensus call for a 5.9% increase. Fourth-quarter losses came in at $2.11 per…
Mesh Cube | Istock | Getty Images The stock market has been quick to punish software firms and other perceived losers from the artificial intelligence boom in recent weeks, but credit markets are likely to be the next place where AI disruption risk shows up, according to UBS analyst Matthew Mish. Tens of billions of…
