The NASDAQ and Standard & Poor’s 500 index both closed last week at new record levels after also setting new intraday highs, with share prices rising on strong earnings, especially by tech companies, that reassured investors that the businesses could manage their massive AI expenses.
The Israeli military has methodically laid waste to towns in southern Lebanon in what Tel Aviv has said has been an effort to snuff out Hezbollah strongholds in the region, identified as part of a bigger plan for permanent occupation.
Pete Hegseth, the secretary of War, told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that the U.S. is prepared to escalate the Iran War as both sides are deadlocked and the Strait of Hormuz is still essentially closed for business.
President Donald Trump said Monday that the ceasefire with Iran that began on 8 April was hanging in the balance after Iran’s response to a U.S. proposal to end the war, telling reporters that the deal is “on life support.”
The U.S. economy grew by 2 percent in this year’s first quarter, missing economists’ expectations of a 2.2-percent bump in a Wall Street Journal survey.
As we had forecast, one of our Top Trends for 2026 is Dot-Com Bust 2.0, and now that reality is finally hitting The Street. Indeed, as we go to press, this is a top headline article in CNBC: Bulls and bears both believe this could be 1999 all over again.
The U.S. average national interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage reached 6.37 percent during the week ending 8 May, rising from 6.30 percent the week before, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
In April, sales of existing U.S. homes essentially did not grow above March’s total, ticking up just 0.2 percent at the beginning of what is usually the real estate’s prime selling season, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported. April’s sales also were flat compared to sales in April 2025.
Car loans, credit card accounts, mortgages, student loans, and other debt held by U.S. individuals climbed to a record $18.8 trillion in last year’s final quarter of 2025, an increase of $4.6 trillion from 31 December 2019, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 115,000 workers in April, more than twice the 55,000-consensus forecast by economists in a Dow Jones survey.