Finance
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Current price of oil as of April 21, 2026
As of 8:45 a.m. Eastern Time today, oil is trading at $96.32 per barrel, based on the Brent benchmark we’ll explain in a bit. That’s 6 cents above yesterday morning’s level and about $29.70 higher than where it stood a year ago. Oil price per barrel % Change Price of oil yesterday $96.26 +0.06% Price
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America’s ‘silent army’ of skilled tradespeople are retiring with no one to replace them—and the price tag could hit $1 trillion a year
The workers who keep America’s buildings running are disappearing—and the U.S. isn’t replacing them fast enough to keep the lights on, the servers cool, or the labs sterile. By 2030, an estimated 2.1 million skilled trades jobs in the U.S. could go unfilled, with potential economic losses reaching $1 trillion annually, according to U.S. Department
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Stripe and Paradigm-backed blockchain Tempo launches advisory unit to promote stablecoin adoption
Tempo, the new blockchain backed by payments company Stripe and VC firm Paradigm, has launched a “stablecoin advisory” to help businesses and financial institutions adopt stablecoins. The advisory operation pledges Tempo support in identifying relevant use cases and offers “forward-deployed” engineers who can work within clients to successfully integrate stablecoins. Tempo has been closely watched
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Inside Kevin Warsh’s opening statement: Inflation is a choice, independence is essential, and a couple of notable name drops
In a matter of hours, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh will appear before the Senate Banking Committee in his first real test as a would-be central bank chairman. Warsh, with the backing of President Trump, seeks to return to the U.S. Federal Reserve where he formerly served as a governor—something like a chief of staff—to
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U.S. Energy Sec says gas prices have likely peaked, but won’t go below $3 until 2027. Trump says he’s ‘totally wrong’ about the timeline
After U.S. gas prices soared to over $4 a gallon this month, Americans are cautiously exhaling a long-held breath that they’ve been holding for weeks since the Iran war began. But Energy Secretary Chris Wright says it may be quite some time before Americans see any price reduction at the gas pump. “That could happen
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Struggling AI power startup Fermi loses its CEO and CFO for ‘2.0’ reset
The struggling AI power startup Fermi is losing both its CEO and chief financial officer as it launches a “2.0” reset to attract customers for the largest data center campus project in the world in the rural Texas Panhandle. Fermi, which is backed by former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, saw a massively successful IPO
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White House-backed USA Rare Earth makes $3 billion acquisition into South America to combat Chinese dominance
USA Rare Earth, a Trump administration-backed miner and manufacturer, is expanding into a larger global player through a nearly $3 billion acquisition of the Serra Verde Group, owner of Brazil’s Pela Ema rare earths mine and processing plant. The April 20 deal—for more than $2.5 billion in stock and $300 million in cash—helps turn USA
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This talent CEO says laid-off tech workers are ignoring a $300K ‘white-collar trade job’ with 81K openings a year
There’s angst in the air on college campuses and in offices across the country. Successive warnings on AI’s looming threat to automate swaths of entry-level white-collar work have put workers in a precarious position. And several large-scale layoffs this year have brought home the reality of those warnings. But not everyone is buying into the
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UAE officials reportedly warned they may be forced to use yuan or other currencies if they run low on dollars amid the Iran war
The United Arab Emirates apparently dropped a hint the dollar’s dominance isn’t assured in the global oil trade if fallout from the Iran war gets worse. According to The Wall Street Journal, the UAE’s central bank chief raised the idea of a currency-swap line with Treasury Department and Federal Reserve officials during meetings in Washington, D.C.,
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Spirit Airlines looked it was in the clear of reemerging from bankruptcy, but rising fuel costs threaten its exit
Spirit Airlines’ emergence out of its second bankruptcy in as many years is under pressure as jet fuel prices soar. On Feb. 24, just days before the war in Iran began, Spirit announced that it expected to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the late spring or early summer, after striking a deal with its lenders