Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP are all sliding as a collision of regulatory reversals and tightening financial conditions drains confidence from digital asset markets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has abruptly dropped its enforcement case against Coinbase while the fallout from the Ripple litigation remains unresolved, and rising real yields on U.S. Treasuries are pulling…
Blue Owl Capital, a private lender that has amassed nearly $300 billion in investor money, announced on February 18, 2026 that certain of its business development companies would sell $1.4 billion in assets to institutional investors. The deal arrived alongside reports that the firm was halting redemptions at one of its funds, triggering a selloff…
The U.S. goods trade deficit ballooned to $1,240.9 billion in 2025, an all-time record, even as President Trump’s tariff campaign was explicitly designed to shrink it. At the same time, academic modeling tied to the tariff escalation estimates that 83,000 American jobs disappeared as trade shocks rippled through supply chains. The data, released by the…
The Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady at 3.50%-3.75% after the January 27-28 meeting, but the minutes released today reveal a shift in tone that should concern anyone with money in the market. Some officials openly discussed the possibility of raising rates again, putting hikes “back on the table” just as investors had…
Top brokerages are projecting that the S&P 500 will climb higher in 2026, a forecast that carries significant weight as artificial intelligence reshapes how firms allocate capital and which companies earn their place in the benchmark index. The prediction, drawn from a poll of leading Wall Street firms, signals that the index’s composition and trajectory…
The United States ran a record goods trade deficit in 2025, blowing past prior highs even as President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs took effect across much of the year. Federal data released on February 19, 2026, shows the annual goods deficit hit $1,240.9 billion, while the broader goods-and-services deficit totaled $901.5 billion. While the overall deficit…
Walmart reported its fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on February 19, 2026, posting total revenue growth of 5.6% year over year and pointing to higher-income households as a key driver of its recent market share gains. The results cap a fiscal year in which the retailer hit record annual revenue, as the Financial Times reported. For…
SpaceX and Blue Origin are redirecting attention and engineering capacity toward the Pentagon’s fast-growing missile defense program now branded as Golden Dome, as congressional funding, new contract solicitations, and a $175 billion price tag from the White House accelerate the initiative from policy paper to procurement reality. The shift signals that the largest commercial space…
Investor and television personality Kevin O’Leary has publicly condemned California’s proposed one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires, calling the ballot initiative “insane” and urging the state’s residents to remove the political leaders backing it. The measure, filed as A.G. File No. 2025-024, would impose a 5% levy on the total net worth of Californians whose…
A JPMorgan Chase Institute study found that tariffs paid by midsize U.S. companies tripled last year, landing the heaviest blow on small importers least equipped to absorb the cost. The finding arrives as the layered U.S. tariff strategy against China, built on Section 301 duties first imposed in 2018 and expanded through emergency powers, continues…