Stock Indexes Pull Back to Begin Holiday-Shortened Week; Gold, Silver Retreat From Record Highs

One Expert Explains How To Avoid Tax Surprises During This Filing Season

6 minutes ago

If you did not withhold enough federal income taxes from your paychecks throughout the year, come April 2026, you may have a significant tax bill.

Investopedia spoke with Rob Burnette, CEO and tax and financial planner at Outlook Financial Center, about estimating your 2025 tax bill and preparing for it.

INVESTOPEDIA: What is the best way to estimate how much you’ll pay on your 2025 taxes in April?

ROB BURNETTE: If you want to estimate what you have right now, there are some free tax software [programs] out there that allow you to do that. 

However, I would say, if they’re just now looking at that, they’re about eight months late. Tax planning should be something you’re doing all along. For our clients, one of the things we recommend is…to get their withholdings right.

The idea behind it is to have enough withheld from each pay period so that when you get to the end, you’re at a nominal—you don’t owe any taxes. You may owe a little more, a little less, whatever the case might be, but you’re not going to be staring in the face of a $7,000 or several thousand dollars of tax due.

Read the full article here.

–Elizabeth Guevara

Energy Stocks Outperforming Monday

44 minutes ago

On a down day for stocks, energy shares are outperforming.

The S&P 500 Energy Sector was the top performer of the 11 industries tracked by the benchmark index late Monday morning, with shares up 1%.

Texas Pacific Land (TPL), Devon Energy (DVN), and Diamondback Energy (FANG) led the sector higher, with shares up a respective 2.2%, 1.7%, and 1.7%.

The S&P 500 was down 0.4% overall, with the Materials Sector the worst performer, down 1.1%.

Could the Poverty Line Really Be $140,000 a Year? Here’s What the Data Shows

1 hr 19 min ago

One analysis contends that a family of four is below a meaningful “poverty line” if they earn less than $140,000 per year, far more than the official federal threshold of $32,150.

Michael Green, chief strategist and portfolio manager at Simplify Asset Management, wrote in late November about how household finances have changed since 1963, when the Census Bureau established the formula used to measure the poverty line—the amount of income below which a family cannot afford the necessities of life.

Then and now, the government considers a family below the poverty line if its income is less than three times the minimum amount of money needed to buy food. That figure is adjusted for inflation every year. The formula is based on surveys from the 1950s that showed approximately one-third of a family’s budget was devoted to food.

But other expenses, such as housing, health care and child care, now take up much larger portions of the family budget, crowding out food. Food spending made up 12.9% of a typical household’s expenditures in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Pending Home Sales Jump by Highest Rate in Nearly 3 Years

1 hr 51 min ago

Homebuyer momentum is surging heading into the end of the year.

Pending home sales in November rose 3.3% from October—its best monthly performance since February 2023—and 2.6% year-over-year, according to National Association of Realtors data.

The West region saw the biggest monthly jump, rising 9.2%, while the South region had the largest yearly gain with a 3.3% advance.

“Improving housing affordability–driven by lower mortgage rates and wage growth rising faster than home prices–is helping buyers test the market,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “More inventory choices compared to last year are also attracting more buyers to the market.”

Newmont Stock Drops Along With Gold Futures Monday

2 hr 19 min ago

Shares of Newmont (NEM) have soared this year along with the price of gold. It should come as no surprise that the stock is dropping Monday in tandem with the precious metal.

The gold miner’s stock sank nearly 6% to pace early S&P 500 decliners as gold futures pulled back 3.6% to $4,390 an ounce after setting their latest all-time high Friday.

Newmont shares have jumped more than 160% in 2025, a year that has seen gold add nearly two-thirds of its value.

Why the Dollar Isn’t as Strong as It Used to Be

2 hr 34 min ago

The U.S. dollar could see a bit more weakness in 2026, analysts say, continuing its decline after President Donald Trump’s tariff plans in April surprised markets.

The dollar weakened as much as 10% this year against a basket of foreign currencies, though it’s retraced some of those losses recently and is now down 7% year-to-date.

The drop was far from the doomsday “de-dollarization” scenarios that some floated after April—global trade and markets still rely on the U.S. dollar. It did, however, mark an end to the dollar’s steady gains over the last decade, when global investors swept into U.S. stocks and bonds and used dollars to buy them.

“We project further dollar weakness but at a slower pace than 2025, leaving the trade-weighted dollar 10% weaker by end-26,” George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank. “If these forecasts materialize, they will confirm that this decade’s unusually long dollar bull cycle is over.”

Read the full article here.

–Polo Rocha

DigitalBridge Group Stock Soars on Report SoftBank Near Deal to Buy Private-Equity Firm

3 hr 48 min ago

Shares of DigitalBridge Group (DBRG) finished trading Friday up 23% year-to-date. They are advancing by a greater percentage before the bell Monday.

DigitalBridge stock is up more than 30% in premarket trading following a Bloomberg report that Japanese conglomerate SoftBank was near a deal to acquire the data-center investment firm.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the outlet reported that a deal would be “part of SoftBank’s campaign to take advantage of an AI-driven boom in digital infrastructure,” and that financial terms were not known.

Last month, SoftBank raised more than $5.8 billion by selling its complete stake in chip giant Nvidia (NVDA). It put billions of dollars into OpenAI earlier this year, making the ChatGPT owner the world’s most-valuable startup.

Which States Are Seeing the Highest Foreclosure Activity Right Now

4 hr 44 min ago

In many states across the U.S., homeowners are struggling to keep up with their housing costs.

As of November, foreclosure activity had risen by 21% when compared with the same month last year. It was 3% lower than October’s levels. That said, “overall volumes remain well below historical highs,” according to a report by real estate data firm ATTOM.

Some states have been more impacted than others.

In Delaware, foreclosure activity—defined as default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions—rose nearly 159% in November year-over-year. In Nevada, foreclosure activity was up by almost 26%, while New Jersey saw an over 48% rise and Florida was higher by about 21%. 

“November marks the ninth straight month of year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, underscoring a trend that has steadily taken shape throughout 2025,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a statement. “The data suggests the market is still normalizing as some homeowners contend with higher housing costs and shifting economic pressures.”

Read the full article with foreclosure map here.

–Terry Lane

They Lost the Penny—But Coin Collectors Hope Its End Is the Start of Something New

5 hr 5 min ago

Ryan Quinlan belongs to five banks, but he can’t he get withdrawals in the denomination he wants? Why? Because, he says, he wants pennies by the thousands.

For years, Quinlan has picked up boxes—usually containing 50 rolls, or 2,500 pennies—for “coin roll hunting,” in which he roots for rare finds like coins with wheat embossings on the back or that look like they were stamped twice. Unfortunately, it’s been harder to source sealed cylinders packed with pennies since the government stopped minting them in November. 

“I had a good system down,” said Quinlan, a 28-year-old software engineer currently living in North Carolina. “Despite that, I’m just not able to get pennies. It is a little sad, but I guess it’s kind of an inevitability.”

Many have lost sight of the penny’s utility in recent years. Americans have generally decided it isn’t worth sorting, carrying or using them, and the government agreed, saying it’s inefficient to spend nearly $3.70 producing each coin with some 300 billion already in circulation. Still, the penny has cultural and historical pull. Hundreds attended a memorial for the coin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial earlier this month, according to The Washington Post.

But regard for the penny may be greatest among collectors. Coin roll aficionados are saddened that their penny-hunting days appear numbered, and the broader coin community is reflecting on the life cycle of a 232-year-old artifact. Both groups hope the recent public discourse on the coin will inspire a new crowd to start collecting. 

Read the full article here.

–Sarina Trangle

Stock Futures Point Lower to Begin Holiday-Shortened Week

5 hr 40 min ago

Futures contracts associated with the Dow Jones Industrial Average were fractionally lower.

S&P 500 futures pointed down 0.3%.

Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.5%.