The July consumer-price index to be released on Wednesday may determine whether the recent rally for stocks and crypto can be sustained, as traders look for any signs of slowing inflation.

The market is expecting at least some cooling in inflation. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal forecast that the headline consumer-price index in July to fall from a four-decade high of 9.1% to 8.7% year over year, while the core CPI number will increase from 5.9% to 6.1%. 

Should...

U.S. stocks finished lower Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite leading the way down, as investors await a fresh inflation report to help gauge if the Federal Reserve's aggressive pace of rate hikes in 2022 has begun to cool the cost of living, pegged at a 41-year high in June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,

Earnings season is almost over. The sector with the best news has been energy, as fossil-fuel companies benefit from sky-high oil and gas prices.

But what about technology, which had been in a rut until the sector rebounded in June? A list of standouts in the S&P 500, including chip and financial-technology companies, is below.

Earnings season is almost over. The sector with the best news has been energy, as fossil-fuel companies benefit from sky-high oil and gas prices.

But what about technology, which had been in a rut until the sector rebounded in June? A list of standouts in the S&P 500, including chip and financial-technology companies, is below.

Filling up at the gasoline pump may still be a painful pocketbook experience, but the hurt appears to be fading day by day, with the U.S. national average price sliding below $4 a gallon Tuesday for the first time since March, according to one tracking service.

The average price fell to $3.99 on Tuesday, according to GasBuddy. That marks a fall of more than $1 a gallon since a peak at an all-time high of $5.03 on June 14 — a drop that GasBuddy calculated would mean Americans would spend narly $400 million less on gasoline than they did in mid-June.

President Joe Biden was not aware that the FBI would search former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida late Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. "No one at the White House was given a heads-up," she told reporters during a press briefing.

The Nasdaq Composite flirted with leaving bear market territory earlier this week as the tech-heavy index continued a bounce off the June lows before suffering a setback — but even a renewed push back above the exit threshold wouldn’t convince some strategists the bear has been vanquished.

According to Dow Jones Market Data, a finish at or above 12,775.32 would mark a 20% rise from Nasdaq’s COMP June 16 closing low at 10,646.10, meeting the general condition for entering a bull market (see chart below).

The...

But while the S&P 500 index has held above the key 4,000 level thanks largely to a rebound in badly-hit megacap tech stocks like Meta Platforms META and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, a team of analysts at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, believes investors would be better served by a less-exciting, defensively positioned portfolio of “low volatility” stocks and bonds.

Just ahead of Wednesday’s widely anticipated U.S. consumer-price index report for July, a pair of Goldman Sachs analysts are warning the U.S.’s near-term inflation picture “is likely to remain uncomfortably high” and that financial markets are “more vulnerable” to upside surprises than before.The reason is that, for the past month or so, markets have been preoccupied with a scenario in which Federal Reserve policy makers can ultimately revert back to easier policy — or, give up on aggressive rate hikes — on the presumption that inflation has peaked. That sentiment is reflected in nominal and real yields that have fallen nearly 100 basis and 85 basis points, respectively, from June to the start of August, analysts Dominic Wilson and Vickie Chang wrote in a note Monday. And it’s also demonstrated in Goldman Sach’s own U.S. Financial Conditions Index, which has eased by 70 basis points from its peak, they said.Meanwhile, however, measures of inflation’s...

Oil futures ended slightly lower after flipping between gains and losses after Russia halted oil flows along the southern portion of the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. News reports said the move came after sanctions prevented the payment of a transfer fee. Crude was lifted after the pipeline halt was reported, but saw renewed pressure tied to uncertainty over the oulook for crude demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery fell 26 cents, or 0.3%, to end at $90.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

After long pushing Congress for such legislation, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law a bipartisan $280 billion bill focused on domestic semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research.

The House approved the Chips and Science Act in a 243-187 vote on July 28, a day after the Senate gave its OK in a 64-33 vote. Biden had been expected to sign the legislation quickly, but there were delays due to his lingering case of COVID-19.

Just ahead of Wednesday’s widely anticipated U.S. consumer-price index report for July, a pair of Goldman Sachs analysts are warning the U.S.’s near-term inflation picture “is likely to remain uncomfortably high” and that financial markets are “more vulnerable” to upside surprises than before.The reason is that, for the past month or so, markets have been preoccupied with a scenario in which Federal Reserve policy makers can ultimately revert back to easier policy — or, give up on aggressive rate hikes — on the presumption that inflation has peaked. That sentiment is reflected in nominal and real yields that have fallen nearly 100 basis and 85 basis points, respectively, from June to the start of August, analysts Dominic Wilson and Vickie Chang wrote in a note Monday. And it’s also demonstrated in Goldman Sach’s own U.S. Financial Conditions Index, which has eased by 70 basis points from its peak, they said.Meanwhile, however, measures of inflation’s...

Filling up at the gasoline pump may still be a painful pocketbook experience, but the hurt appears to be fading day by day, with the U.S. national average price sliding below $4 a gallon Tuesday for the first time since March, according to one tracking service.

The average price fell to $3.99 on Tuesday, according to GasBuddy. That marks a fall of more than $1 a gallon since a peak at an all-time high of $5.03 on June 14 — a drop that GasBuddy calculated would mean Americans would spend narly $400 million less on gasoline...

Curaleaf Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Matt Darin said inflation impacted some of the cannabis company’s customers, but it still managed to beat its revenue target despite a wider quarterly loss.

The reality of higher gas and grocery prices caused cannabis consumers to spend less per trip, but they often increased the number of dispensary visits per month during the second quarter, Darin said.

Following July’s spectacular rally, U.S. stocks SPX have been caught in a tight trading range over the past two weeks as investors struggle to make sense of some of the most confounding economic data in recent years.

But while the S&P 500 index has held above the key 4,000 level thanks largely to a rebound in badly-hit megacap tech stocks like Meta Platforms META and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, a team of analysts at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, believes investors would be better served by a less-exciting, defensively...

Curaleaf Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Matt Darin said inflation impacted some of the cannabis company’s customers, but it still managed to beat its revenue target despite a wider quarterly loss.

The reality of higher gas and grocery prices caused cannabis consumers to spend less per trip, but they often increased the number of dispensary visits per month during the second quarter, Darin said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has the edge again over Donald Trump to score the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, according to the latest odds in the betting market PredictIt.

The former president’s prospects have edged down as reports say the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. tumbled Tuesday, putting them in danger of their first decline in two weeks, after Baird analyst Justin Kleber suggested investors sell, saying the latest “meme stock frenzy” comes despite continued liquidity concerns.

Baird’s Kleber turned bearish on the home goods retailer after its stock BBBY,

Tennis star Serena Williams says she is retiring from tennis.

Williams announced the news in a Vogue articled published on Tuesday morning that she co-wrote with writer Rob Haskell.

Williams is one of the greatest athletes of all time. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles — the most of any man or woman in the Open Era, which began in 1968.

Tennis star Serena Williams says she is retiring from tennis.

Williams announced the news in a Vogue articled published on Tuesday morning that she co-wrote with writer Rob Haskell.

Williams is one of the greatest athletes of all time. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles — the most of any man or woman in the Open Era, which began in 1968.

We are a day away from data that could prove a turning point for markets.

If Wednesday’s CPI doesn’t reveal some slowing in prices, expectations will rise for a bigger Fed rate hike in September, possibly knocking stocks. But if it swings the other way, especially after surprisingly good jobs data, the view that things aren’t as bad as feared/Fed hikes may be done soon, could prevail.