The more the U.S. government worries about China’s ambitions in the chip industry, the more equipment for making chips that China seems to buy. When ASML, the Dutch company that makes the world’s most advanced lithography machines for manufacturing microchips, reports fourth-quarter results next week, one of the most eye-catching numbers will be the share […]

As much as luxury companies would love to stamp out the secondhand trade in their products, it’s an impossible task. All the better for fashionistas and investors, who can both benefit from this booming business. Shoppers have splashed out $1.3 trillion on new luxury handbags, clothes, watches and jewels over the past four years alone. […]

Stocks staged an afternoon rally to erase most of their earlier declines Thursday after new data suggested inflation might not be cooling quite as quickly as some investors hoped. The S&P 500 fell roughly 0.1%, after ending Wednesday just 0.3% below its record closing high set just over two years ago. The Dow Jones Industrial […]

Listen to article (1 minute) What do I need to know about withholding and estimated taxes? The U.S. income tax is a pay-as-you-go system. The law requires most employees and self-employed business owners to pay at least 90% of their taxes long before the April due date, which for 2023 individual tax returns is April […]

Listen to article (2 minutes) Many Americans reach retirement with almost no savings. No 401(k). Few investments. And almost no income aside from a monthly Social Security check. Roughly one in seven Social Security recipients ages 65 and older depend on their benefits for nearly all their income, according to an AARP analysis. Unable to […]

A surging stock market pushed many retirement account balances to new highs in the waning days of 2023. But for those already spending their retirement nest eggs, these higher balances are a mixed blessing. The reason has to do with rules that require older people to start taking money out of their traditional pretax 401(k) […]

Updated Dec. 30, 2023 12:10 am ET A resilient U.S. economy and cooling inflation fueled an intense year-end bond rally. Now, some suspect investors are too sanguine about the months ahead. The rally marked the latest in a series of swings that sent the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, which falls when bond prices […]

Updated Dec. 28, 2023 4:11 pm ET Talk of a soft landing for the U.S. economy has investors dreaming of a 1990s-style boom soon afterward. A lot would have to go right for that to happen, but it isn’t as outlandish as it sounds. Examples of the economy escaping a tightening cycle from the Federal […]

Updated Dec. 27, 2023 12:00 am ET According to the Misery Index, Americans shouldn’t be all that miserable. But they might only recently have started to catch on. Invented by the economist Arthur Okun, the Misery Index is the simple summing of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. It first rose to prominence in […]

U.S. consumers continue to burn through their pandemic savings and are taking on more debt as they face high prices on everything from food and housing to entertainment.  Marianne Lake, co-chief executive of JPMorgan Chase’s consumer bank, said at a December conference that before the pandemic, the bank’s lowest-income clients had on average 12 days’ […]