Shop owners of a 70-year-old "takoyaki", or octopus balls, restaurant chat while cooking along a street in the Taito Ward area of Tokyo on February 21, 2025.Japan's headline inflation rate fell to 1.5% in January, its lowest level since March 2022. The reading ended a run of 45 straight months in which inflation had remained above the Bank of Japan's 2% target.Core inflation rate, which excludes fresh food prices, eased to 2%, the lowest level since January 2024 and matching the 2% forecast by economists po ...

US stock futures slid on Friday as investors digested economic data that showed US economic growth cooling in the fourth quarter, while the Fed's favored inflation gauge heated up to end last year. Wall Street also kept an eye out for US-Iran tensions, private credit jitters, and a potential Supreme Court tariff decision. Contracts on the S&P 500 (ES=F) moved down roughly 0.3%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) fell 0.2%, coming off the end of a three-day winning streak on Thursday. Nasdaq ...

US stocks rose on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump's sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs are unlawful, saying he lacked the authority to impose them using emergency powers. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) both moved up 0.4%, coming off the end of a three-day winning streak on Thursday. The tech-exposed Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the way higher, rising 0.6%. Stocks reversed course on the heels of the decision, having slid at the open as investors d ...

US stocks slid on Friday as investors digested economic data that showed US economic growth cooling in the fourth quarter, while the Fed's favored inflation gauge heated up to end last year. Wall Street also kept an eye out for US-Iran tensions, private credit jitters, and a potential Supreme Court tariff decision. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) moved down roughly 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell by a steeper 0.4%, coming off the end of a three-day winning streak on Thursday. The Nasdaq Compo ...

Consumer inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, climbed 2.0% in January from a year earlier, compared with December's 2.4% rise. ...

Welcome back to Market on Close. I'm Marley Caden in Chicago alongside Sambatis at the New York Stock Exchange. Some final thoughts on today's session.For me, the US trade deficit came out totaling $91.5% billion for 2025. That was only slightly narrower than the 93.5% billion the year before. Despite our ongoing tariffs, exports rose 6.2% to 3.43% trillion, but imports climbed to 4.33% trillion, pushing the goods deficit.That's the piece that's most impacted by tariff policy to a record $1.24% trillion. De ...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was down 267.50 (-0.5386%) points today, closing at 49,395.16. Market sentiment turned cautious as Dow Futures (YM=F) also dropped 300.00 (-0.6034%) to 49,422.00. The primary narrative was a hawkish shift in monetary policy expectations following a higher-than-expected Producer Price Index (PPI) report. This economic data fueled concerns that the Federal Reserve may delay anticipated interest rate cuts, triggering a broad sell-off in rate-sensitive sectors as investor ...

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate slipped this week to its lowest level in more than three years, but remains around 6% in the same narrow range it has been in this year.The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell to 6.01% from 6.09% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.85%.The modest pullback brings the average rate to its lowest level since Sept. 8, 2022, when it was 5.89%. That was the last time the average rate was below 6%.Mortgage rates ...

The central bank's preferred inflation gauge is expected to show prices rose faster in December. ...

Market Overview: A Day of RetreatU.S. stock indexes finished lower on Thursday, February 19th, 2026, as investors grappled with a combination of hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The market's downward trajectory was further fueled by a "good news is bad news" reaction to robust economic data, which suggested that the central bank may keep interest rates elevated for longer than previously anticipated.By the closing bell at 4:00 PM ET, the S&P 5 ...