Finance
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AI is eating the market and Wall Street strategists have bubble brain as they debate: are we in 1997 or 1999?
The numbers are hard to ignore. The top 10 companies in the S&P 500 now account for 34% of all index profits—a share that’s doubled since 1996—and 41% of its market cap. AI companies represent nearly 87% of all venture capital funding and roughly half of all investment-grade bond issuance. By almost any measure, artificial…
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A strip club scandal at a major crypto industry event triggers sponsor backlash
Crypto firms are rushing to distance themselves from a controversial party that capped a major industry event in Miami. The shindig, which took place on May 6 and coincided with the end of the Consensus conference, took place at a well-heeled night club called E11EVEN and featured female dancers performing pole routines and lap dances.…
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China will remain an ‘incomplete superpower’ until it can catch up with U.S. financial might, market veteran says
President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping ended last week without a major breakthrough, but still achieved Beijing’s goal of putting itself on equal footing with the U.S. Meanwhile, China’s industrial might continues to drive export dominance, its AI is nearly on par with the top models, and its military is increasingly advanced.…
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New York governor pleads for remote work during massive rail strike: ‘regular commuters who can work from home … please do so’
A marathon day of negotiations that finished early Monday failed to end a strike that shut down the Long Island Rail Road, North America’s largest commuter rail system, setting the stage for a rough start to the work week for about 250,000 commuters. Unions representing rail workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which runs the…
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The oil crisis is so bad in Kenya that protesters have lit bonfires in the middle of Nairobi
Protests erupted in Kenya’s capital Nairobi Monday as a nationwide public transport strike kicked off in protest at rising fuel prices. Commuters were stranded in various suburbs and the city center remained deserted. Drivers with private vehicles opted to stay home as protesters burned tires on major roads. The Kenya Association of Private Schools had…
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Current price of oil as of May 18, 2026
As of 9:10 a.m. Eastern Time today, oil sold for $110.08 per barrel (using Brent as the benchmark, which we’ll get into momentarily). That’s $2.52 lower than yesterday morning and approximately a $44 rise over the past year. Oil price per barrel % Change Price of oil yesterday $112.60 -2.23% Price of oil 1 month…
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Markets are jittery as the global oil crisis bleeds into a global debt selloff, while Trump weighs new military options on Iran
Stock futures dipped Sunday as investors were forced to confront the inconvenient reality that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed with oil markets edging closer to a cliff’s edge. Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average fell 123 points, or 0.25%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.09%, and Nasdaq futures lost 0.04%. U.S. oil futures rose 1.75% to…
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Supply shocks weren’t random. They were strategic—and should be seen as ‘supply coercion’ instead, former Fed official says
As the Federal Reserve considers how to respond to the latest inflationary spike, a former central banker has warned that the traditional monetary policy playbook doesn’t apply. In a Substack post last week, former Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker argued that the term “supply shock” is a mischaracterization of what’s really been going on in…
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Gundlach says it’s ‘just not possible’ for the Fed to cut rates
Investors won’t see a rate cut out of the next Federal Reserve policy meeting, according to DoubleLine Capital LP chief executive officer Jeffrey Gundlach. “People were looking for two rate cuts this year, but the inflation market has simply not cooperated,” Gundlach said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “It’s just not possible, in my…
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U.S. says China to buy $17 billion of agricultural goods annually
China has agreed to purchase at least $17 billion of agriculture products from the US annually through 2028, the White House said in a fact sheet detailing President Donald Trump’s two-day summit in China. A day earlier, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce released its own readout of the meeting, which said the US and China…