Major Indexes Fall as Tech Shares Dive; Dow Hits All-Time High Before Pulling Back; Gold, Silver Rebound

‘Trump Homes’ Plans Boost Homebuilder Stocks

FROM 2 hr 15 min ago

Several homebuilder stocks got a boost Tuesday, following a report the Trump administration is considering a program to build more new homes.

Lennar (LEN) and Taylor Morrison Home Corp. (TMHC) have worked on a pitch to the Trump administration to build up to 1 million new homes that could become part of a rent-to-own program, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Shares of Lennar and Taylor Morrison each gained over 3% Tuesday. Other homebuilders not directly mentioned in the report such as KB Home (KBH), PulteGroup (PHM), and D.R. Horton (DHI) also rose.

A White House official told Investopedia the Trump administration “is constantly exploring new policy actions” related to affordability, but characterized reporting ahead of an official announcement as “speculation.” Lennar declined to remark on the report, and Taylor Morrison didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

One version of the proposal floated by homebuilders could see the companies build and sell entry-level “Trump homes” backed by private investors, per Bloomberg. Those homes would then offer a pathway to ownership for renters, in which the first three years of rent payments could be counted toward a down payment, the report said.

However, many details such as the potential involvement of federally-backed mortgages, have yet to be ironed out, Bloomberg reported.

–Aaron McDade

Bitcoin Hit Levels Last Seen in 2024 on Tuesday

FROM 2 hr 21 min ago

Crypto can’t catch a break.

Bitcoin hit new lows for the year on Tuesday, briefly breaking below $73,000 to levels not since November 2024, according to data firm Messari. Crypto-linked stocks including Coinbase (COIN), Strategy (MSTR), Circle (CRCL) and Gemini (GEMI) swooned alongside the cryptocurrency, each of them notching declines of at least 15% over the past five trading days.

When the crypto complex will get a reprieve is anybody’s guess. Some experts thought there might be a “value zone” in the mid-$70,000s; the coin recently changed hands above $75,000. Tuesday’s swoon coincided with a sell-off in risk assets, with big U.S. tech stocks diving, weighing on major broad market indexes. Meanwhile, gold and silver prices rebounded.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer made a direct plea to bitcoin whale Michael Saylor and Strategy, the company he founded, to step in and stop the bleed.

“Memo to Michael Saylor, we think that $73,802 is the line in the sand for bitcoin. Time to do another zero coupon convert and stop this decline,” he said on social media, referring to a type of financial transaction Strategy has used to fund the company’s bitcoin purchases. (Strategy has continued to buy bitcoin lately, the company said earlier this week.)

Guesses as to where bitcoin prices go next this month aren’t all that optimistic. Bettors on a related Polymarket events contract recently placed the highest probability, or 48%, on bitcoin prices hitting $70,000 or below.

A shorter-term events contract on Kalshi—”Bitcoin price on Friday at 5pm EST?”—doesn’t imply good news for crypto investors either: Bettors place the highest probability on bitcoin prices ending below where they are now by the end of February.

–Crystal Kim

Tech Leads Stock Market Sell-Off as Jitters Flare Up on Wall Street

FROM 4 hr 2 min ago

Markets were on edge as this year’s software stock slump picked up steam. 

The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.4% Tuesday, weighed down by sinking tech stocks. The benchmark S&P 500 pared losses to close down about 0.8%, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, which this morning hit a record high, slid 0.3%. 

The Cboe Volatility Index, often called the “Fear Index,” surged above 20, a reading that generally indicates mounting unease—though not panic—on Wall Street. Gold, the classic safe haven asset, was recently up more than 6%. 

The major indexes came into Tuesday’s session riding high. The S&P 500 closed a fraction of a percentage point off a record high on Monday, and opened in the green on Tuesday after strong quarterly results from AI darling Palantir (PLTR). But it didn’t take long for the morning’s optimism to fade: The S&P and Nasdaq were both down on the day within a half hour of the open. 

After last year’s barrage of unsettling headlines out of Washington, D.C., investors came into 2026 expecting volatility. They got plenty of it last month with President Donald Trump’s threats against Federal Reserve independence and some of America’s key alliances, which shook Wall Street—though investors took those surprises in stride, rewarding investors who bought the dip.

Unlike those earlier bouts of volatility, Tuesday’s sell-off lacked a clear a trigger. Disappointing earnings reports sent shares of select companies like Gartner (IT) and PayPal (PYPL) sharply lower, but there were no major updates coming from the usual suspects—such as Trump, the federal agencies that publish inflation and labor market data, the Fed or Big Tech firms.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

Here’s How Much Amazon Stock Is Expected to Move After Earnings Thursday

FROM 4 hr 18 min ago

Amazon is set to report its latest quarterly results after the closing bell Thursday, with traders anticipating a big move in the tech giant’s stock that could bring it to new highs following the results.

Options pricing suggests traders expect Amazon (AMZN) stock could move nearly 7% in either direction by the end of the week. A move that size from the stock’s recent level around $238 could push the shares above $255, past November’s highs—or pull them back below $222.

Last quarter, growth in the company’s Amazon Web Services segment helped drive earnings above expectations and Amazon lifted its capital expenditures forecast. Bank of America, Wedbush, and Citi analysts recently wrote that they expect Amazon could top estimates again with its results Thursday, with a boost to its retail operations from a strong holiday shopping season and solid AWS growth as Amazon expands its cloud computing capacity.

Amazon is seen reporting a nearly 13% year-over-year jump in revenue to a record $211.55 billion for the fourth quarter, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Earnings per share are projected to rise to $1.97 from $1.86 a year ago.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

SpaceX and xAI Have Merged. Now Investors Are Wondering What’s Next for Tesla

FROM 5 hr 10 min ago

Earth’s richest man wants to build a mega company. Its mission is as ambitious as its reported valuation.

Elon Musk yesterday confirmed earlier reports that his private space exploration company, SpaceX, had acquired xAI, his private artificial intelligence company—the latter which, by the way, owns X, his private social media company. The overarching goal, he said in a blog post, is to put satellites in space to “harness the sun’s full power” for AI-driven applications and “accelerate humanity’s future.”

If the premise of the company seems heady, it’s because it is—if the future of AI is constrained by a lack of resources on Earth, Musk proposes, why not build it somewhere else?

In more earthbound terms, meanwhile, the deal values the combined entities at $1.25 trillion, according to a Bloomberg report. The financial implications are big: Musk was already expected to make SpaceX the biggest initial public offering in history this year. The news has also revitalized discussions about space-based data centers—and kicked off fresh speculation that Musk might also bring Tesla (TSLA), the EV maker turned robotics company, into the fold.

Read the full article here.

–Crystal Kim

Palantir Earnings Are ‘A Warning to Peers’ as Software Stocks Slump

FROM 5 hr 59 min ago

Yet again, investors are showing that they have plenty of love left for companies that are seeing real results from the AI boom. 

Palantir (PLTR) stock was up more than 5% in recent trading, after the data analytics software company blew past earnings estimates, results that Citigroup analysts attributed to its “best-in-class” AI capabilities. Palantir was leading advancers in the Nasdaq 100, which is down sharply Tuesday amid a broad decline for technology stocks.

Palantir and its peers in the software industry have had a tough start to the year on Wall Street, with the rise of “vibe coding” stoking concerns about AI-driven disruption. Palantir stock fell nearly 17% between the start of the year and Monday’s close, while the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) fell more than 15%. 

Tuesday’s results helped reassure investors that AI is more of an opportunity than a threat to Palantir. The results were “a warning to peers” that “being an ‘AI company’ needs to come with real results,” wrote Bank of America analysts in a note on Tuesday.

While Palantir’s quarterly results boosted its shares on Tuesday, the optimism did not extend to the broader software space. Shares of software giants Intuit (INTU), ServiceNow (NOW), Adobe (ADBE), Workday (WDAY) and Atlassian (TEAM) were all down more than 7% in recent trading, dragging the IGV ETF down more than 5%.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

Will Paying Off Student Loans With an Inheritance Hurt Your Credit Score?

FROM 6 hr 19 min ago

If you’re like this letter writer, and you’ve come into a large sum of money, you might be thinking about paying off your debts, like your student loans. Even though you’d be freed from monthly payments and save potentially thousands of dollars in future interest, you might worry that it could backfire.

You may have heard a story about someone’s credit score dipping after they paid off their loan—and maybe it’s making you think twice about paying off your own loans early.

The truth is, there’s no need to worry. According to TransUnion, one of the three credit reporting bureaus, your credit score won’t change that much, and if it does change, the change will be temporary. Ultimately, the change will pale in comparison to the long-term financial benefits of carrying less debt.

So why would your credit score change, exactly? Well, when you pay off a student loan, the lender closes your account. This closure changes your credit mix and lowers the average age of your active accounts.

Credit scoring models tend to reward borrowers who successfully manage different types of debt over long periods. So if your student loan was your only installment debt or you’d been paying it off for many years, closing the account can cause your score to dip.

Read the full article here.

–Daniel Liberto

Child Care Is Eating 20% of Family Income—Forcing Parents to Drain Savings and Delay Big Purchases

FROM 6 hr 38 min ago

Some families are spending more on caring for children and other family members than they do on their mortgage, forcing them to cut back on things like entertainment and vacations and to dip into their savings.

Day care and preschool prices have increased by 4.8% over the past year, outpacing overall inflation, which rose 2.7% year-over-year in December. In a recent survey by Care.com, an online platform to find child, senior, pet, and home care, the average parent said they spent about 20% of their annual income on child care.

“Parents are being pushed well beyond their limits by the demands of caregiving,” said CEO of Care.com, Brad Wilson, in the press release. “If this continues, care pressures risk pushing more parents to cut back or step away from their careers. That will only deepen financial strain and emotional stress.”

For one infant, the average family spent about $1,328 a month on daycare in 2025. If the family had two children in daycare, they would spend about $2,340 a month. That is more than the $2,225 monthly payment for the average homeowner who moved in 2024, according to the most recent Census data.

Read the full article here.

–Elizabeth Guevara

Want to Buy a House? That’ll Be Double Your Income Up Front

FROM 6 hr 48 min ago

If you live in a large city, there’s a good chance you’d need to spend nearly twice your annual income in the first year alone to become a homeowner.

That’s according to an analysis by economists at Goldman Sachs, who found that if you’re a homebuyer in a large metro area—or if you’re in the lowest fifth of earners—a down payment on a home plus the first year of mortgage payments will cost between 160% and 200% of their income. A generation ago, in 2000, that was much easier to save for, at 90% to 120%.

And renters aren’t off the hook when it comes to housing costs: rent now eats up 32% of income on average, up from 27% a quarter-century ago. And for the bottom quintile of earners, rent costs 55% of their income.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Here’s How Much Traders Expect AMD Stock to Move After Earnings

FROM 6 hr 57 min ago

Advanced Micro Devices is scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell Tuesday. Traders are anticipating a big move in the chipmaker’s stock.

Options pricing suggests traders expect AMD (AMD) stock could move nearly 8% in either direction by the end of this week. A shift of that size from Monday’s closing price of around $246 could push the shares back to October’s record highs near $265—or drag them back down to about $228.

Analysts at Bank of America said last month that they expect AMD’s results to top Street estimates on strength from its data center segment, its largest source of revenue, as Big Tech giants continue to spend heavily on AI infrastructure.

Read the full article here.

–Kara Greenberg

Novo Nordisk Stock Dives as Wegovy Maker Sees 2026 US Sales Decline

FROM 7 hr 19 min ago

Novo Nordisk (NVO) sees declining 2026 profit and sales. Investors are punishing the Wegovy maker’s stock.

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk were down more than 13% in recent trading after the Danish pharmaceutical firm said it sees both 2026 adjusted profit and adjusted sales growth down by 5% to 13%.

Novo Nordisk said it sees global GLP-1 market expansion continuing this year, but added that “this is countered by lower realised prices, including the MFN (“Most Favoured Nations”) agreement in the US and the loss of exclusivity for the semaglutide molecule in certain markets in International Operations.”

In 2025, the company reported 10% net sales growth and 6% operating profit growth at constant exchange rates to more than 309 billion Danish kroner ($48.9 billion) and almost 128 billion Danish kroner ($20.2 billion), respectively.

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk have lost about 38% of their value over the past year.

PayPal Names New CEO as Outlook, Results Disappoint. The Stock Is Tumbling

FROM 8 hr 58 min ago

PayPal shares tumbled Tuesday after the payments provider’s fourth-quarter results and outlook came in short of Wall Street analysts’ estimates. The company also named a new CEO.

Shares were down over 18% recently, among the worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq as they sank to their lowest point since early 2017.

PayPal said Tuesday that it generated $8.68 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, along with adjusted earnings per share of $1.23. Both figures missed analysts’ projections compiled by Visible Alpha.

Interim CEO Jamie Miller said the company’s “execution has not been where it needs to be,” especially in its branded checkout operations, where PayPal is provided as an option for checking out on a retailer’s website. PayPal said its underperformance in branded checkout was “driven by weakness in US retail, international headwinds and tough compares in high-growth verticals.”

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Walmart Hits $1 Trillion Market Cap

FROM 9 hr 27 min ago

The trillion-dollar club has a new member.

Retail giant Walmart (WMT) surpassed $1 trillion in market capitalization Tuesday as its shares surged 2%.

Shares of Walmart have risen nearly 14% in 2026 and have added more than a quarter of their value of the past 12 months as the company has made inroads with higher earners.

John Furner took over as Walmart’s CEO this week from Doug McMillon, who announced his retirement in November.

Eli Lilly (LLY), which ranks just below Walmart with a market cap of $935 billion, reports quarterly results Wednesday.

–Peter Gratton contributed to this post.

Investors Love Palantir’s Earnings. The Stock Is Soaring

FROM 10 hr 37 min ago

Palantir looks primed to bounce.

Shares of the AI-powered software company were 6.5% higher in early trading, looking set to reverse a slide that has lasted about three months. Palantir’s (PLTR) stock—recently up to near $159—is eating into year-to-date losses; the shares finished 2025 at just under $178 apiece.

Last night’s release of an upbeat sales outlook and quarterly financial results—both which were better than Wall Street expected—as well as some braggadocio in a letter from CEO Alex Karp, is powering the shares higher this morning. Those numbers may also help reassure some investors that software stocks aren’t necessarily all doomed to be devoured by AI. (That’s not a unanimous determination, but it’s undoubtedly a concern.)

Read the full story here.

–David Marino-Nachison

Disney Taps D’Amaro to Be Iger’s Successor as CEO

FROM 11 hr 25 min ago

The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) has named its successor to longtime CEO Bob Iger, and it indeed will be Josh D’Amaro.

Before the bell Tuesday, the entertainment and media giant named Disney Experiences Chairman D’Amaro its new CEO, effective at its annual meeting on March 18.

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that D’Amaro was a likely choice to succeed Iger, while The Wall Street Journal said Iger had told people close to him that he planned to step down before his contract was up at the end of the year.

During Monday’s earnings call, Iger didn’t address who would be his successor but said that Disney—which previously said in November 2024 that it would announce his successor in early 2026—was “in much better shape today than it was three years ago, because we have done a lot of fixing, but we’ve also put in place a number of opportunities.”

Disney shares sank 7.4% Monday despite better-than-expected results, as investors assessed reports about the company’s CEO succession plans. They advanced 1% in premarket trading following the news.

–Aaron McDade contributed to this post.

What You Need to Know About Letting Your Money Sit Idle in a Savings Account

FROM 11 hr 46 min ago

Putting cash away in a savings account feels reassuring, but comfort alone can come at a cost. Between inflation and the rising cost of living, any account earning less than 2% or 3% is quietly losing value over time. With the national average savings rate sitting at just 0.39% APY in early 2026, you may be seeing your balance erode in purchasing power month after month.

Having a solid savings cushion is key to financial health—but how you save matters. Below, we’ll weigh the pros and cons of keeping your money in a savings account and explore smarter alternatives that could serve you better.

Traditional savings accounts excel at two things: instant access (i.e., “liquidity”) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) insurance, which guarantees up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank against loss. 

The trade-off is opportunity cost. Park $10,000 for a year in the bank at 0.50% and you earn just $50 in interest (before taxes); if inflation averages 2.5% over the same year, your real purchasing power drops by more than $1,200. Sure, you avoid market swings, but the slow leaking of value is all but guaranteed.

Read the full story here.

–Adam Hayes

The Fed Cut Rates 3 Times—So Why Are Some Savings Accounts Still Paying 5%?

FROM 12 hr 22 min ago

Even after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times last fall, the very top savings account rate hasn’t budged. The leading APY was already at 5.00% before the first cut in September—and it’s still there today, despite additional reductions in October and December pushing the federal funds rate down a total of 0.75 percentage points.

That doesn’t mean the broader savings market has been immune to the Fed’s moves. Looking across today’s best high-yield savings accounts, the collective ranking has gradually slipped. As of today, the 10th-best savings rate stands at 4.20%, while the 15th-best rate—the bottom of our top-15 list—was 4.02%.

Rewind a few months and the midrank accounts paid more. At the start of September, before the Fed’s first 2025 rate cut, the 10th-best savings account offered 4.40%, and the 15th-best paid 4.31%—about 20 to 30 basis points better than today. But while those rates have slipped, the top nationwide rate has held firm at 5.00%.

Read the full article here.

–Sabrina Karl

The Great Wealth Transfer: Why Inheriting a Home May Not Make You Rich

FROM 12 hr 55 min ago

After your parents or grandparents pass away, you may expect to receive some type of inheritance, whether it’s old jewelry, leftover retirement account assets, or even a home.

While inheriting a home can be a blessing, it can also come with hidden downsides. With the “Great Wealth Transfer” underway, this is an issue many Americans could face in the coming years.

During this period, a staggering $124 trillion worth of wealth is expected to transfer through 2048, with most of that wealth going to heirs, according to Cerulli Associates.

Many people could find themselves with their parents’ home on their hands in the coming years.

A Freddie Mac survey from late 2024 found that three-quarters of Baby Boomer homeowners planned upon death to leave their home or hand down the proceeds from the sale of their home to family members.

Read the full article here.

–Trina Paul

For the New Walmart and Target CEOs, It’s ‘Continuation’ vs. ‘Reinvention’

FROM 13 hr 17 min ago

Same title. Different task.

New CEOs started at two big retailers—Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT)—on Sunday. Their missions vary considerably.vAt Target, Michael Fiddelke wants to stem the flight of investors and revive sluggish sales. At Walmart, John Furner aims to continue reeling in new customers and keep investors happy.

“They’re at, really, very different junctures,” TD Cowen senior equity research analyst Oliver Chen said on CNBC. “Target needs a reinvention; Walmart, continuation.”

Fiddelke’s tenure starts as Target seeks to shake off a tough spell. Revenue has fallen year-over-year for the past four quarters. Consumers have pulled back on discretionary purchases, and some of Target’s merchandising picks fell flat. The retailer was also slower to build up the sort of delivery system that attracted shoppers to some of its competitors, Chen said. Investors took notice, with share prices falling by more than 20% over the past year.

Read the full article here.

–Sarina Trangle

Stock Futures Mostly Rise as Palantir Leads Tech Shares Higher

FROM 13 hr 44 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed down 0.1%.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.1%.

Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.4%.