Stock Indexes Surge to Begin February Trading; S&P 500 on Pace for Record Close; Dow Adds 500 Points; US, India Reach Trade Deal

Social Security Updates for February: Key News You Need To Know

FROM 9 minutes ago

From changes to the Social Security Administration workflow to what happens to benefits during a government shutdown, here is what you need to know about Social Security for February.

The Social Security Administration is changing the way its agents take on cases for beneficiaries starting on March 7.

In 2025, the SSA cut 7,151 employees, or about 12.5% of the total workforce. So far in 2026, the agency has cut an additional 450 workers, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

To help SSA employees manage their workload with a smaller workforce, the agency is implementing changes next month to how it distributes work and processes claims. In general, SSA agents will move away from handling only local cases and toward handling cases from across the country.

The changes will improve staff efficiency and increase the availability of staff members to help beneficiaries over the phone or in person, a spokesperson from SSA wrote in an email.

”Our community-based Field Offices will remain our front-line, serving over 330 million Americans,” the spokesperson said. “The changes we are implementing…will empower staff in our Field Offices to focus on in-person service, while specialized teams manage complex cases.”

Read the full article here.

–Elizabeth Guevara

Oracle Is Raising Billions to Fund Its AI Buildout. Today, Investors Are Cheering

FROM 22 minutes ago

Oracle plans to raise billions to fund its ambitious bets on AI and cloud computing. That has the stock rising today.

The company on Sunday night said it intends to raise between $45 billion and $50 billion this year through a combination of debt and equity financing. The proceeds are intended to expand Oracle’s cloud computing capacity “to meet the contracted demand” of its largest customers—companies including Nvidia, Meta, OpenAI, and TikTok.

Oracle (ORCL) shares, which fell premarket, jumped more than 3% when markets opened on Monday. The stock was recently up about 2%; tech stocks were mostly rising, led by the memory and semiconductor stocks that have defined the AI trade so far this year.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

Michael Saylor—and Strategy—Go Under the Microscope as Bitcoin’s Price Drops

FROM 1 hr 41 min ago

A fire sale in bitcoin is throwing some harsh light on one of its major buyers.

Bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (MSTR), is taking heat as crypto markets keep taking hits. Shares of Strategy, the biggest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, are down more than 2% Monday, trading at prices unseen since 2024. Crypto-linked stocks are sliding too: Coinbase (COIN), Circle (CRCL), Gemini (GEMI), and BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) are down 3% or more.

The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, which has declined to levels not seen since April—it was recently at around $78,000—is raising fresh concerns about how much Strategy has been spending to stockpile the coin. Bitcoin doesn’t have to fall much more from here to put the company’s purchases in the red, per Strategy’s math, and some analysts see more downside.

Read the full article here.

–Crystal Kim

Retiring With $1 Million Is Rare—Here’s How Many People Actually Do It

FROM 1 hr 56 min ago

Many Americans dream of retiring with a million-dollar nest egg —Americans in general think you need about $1.5 million to retire—but the reality is starkly different.1

Using figures from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (updated to 2022 but released in 2025), only about 2.5% of all Americans actually have $1 million or more saved in their retirement accounts—a figure that might shock anyone used to seeing financial media and their depictions of average Americans amassing enormous portfolio gains in recent years.

Among actual retirees, only 3.2% have reached the $1 million threshold.

Read the full article here.

–Peter Gratton

Here’s the NFL Team Your Stock Portfolio Hopes Will Win the Super Bowl

FROM 2 hr 18 min ago

If your portfolio could take a rooting interest in Sunday’s Super Bowl, it would pick the Seattle Seahawks.

That’s according to the Super Bowl Indicator, a bit of Wall Street folklore that suggests wins by National Football Conference teams predict a good year for the stock market while American Football Conference victories spell trouble. Seattle, representing the NFC, faces the New England Patriots on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, Calif.

If you buy the theory, a Seahawks win in Super Bowl LX—or 60, if you prefer—means a good year for stocks. A Patriots victory, the story goes, means stocks will fall.

Read the full article here.

–Peter Gratton

Disney Stock Slides Despite Strong Earnings as Investors Look Ahead to CEO Succession

FROM 3 hr 6 min ago

Disney shares fell sharply Monday morning, despite a better-than-expected quarterly earnings report, as investors assessed reports about the company’s CEO succession plans.

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) early today reported fiscal first-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines. The results came after reports over the weekend said that CEO Bob Iger will be stepping down earlier than expected, with a decision on his replacement coming soon.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Iger has told people close to him that he plans to step down before his contract is up at the end of 2026, with Bloomberg reporting Sunday that Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro is a likely choice to succeed Iger. Each report said a board meeting is expected sometime this week with a vote to decide on Iger’s successor likely. Disney previously said in November 2024 that it would announce Iger’s successor in early 2026.

Read the full article here.

-Aaron McDade

How to File Your Taxes for Free in 2026—What Cost-Conscious Filers Need to Know

FROM 3 hr 18 min ago

The IRS is now accepting 2025 tax returns, and those looking to file online for free may have a couple of options.

Of note, this tax filing season, IRS Direct File, the free tax-filing software that allowed taxpayers in 25 states to file directly online with the IRS regardless of income, was discontinued before the 2026 tax filing season. Yet, there are still many free tax-filing options through the IRS and other tax preparation organizations.

Here are all the ways you can file your taxes and get tax help for free this year.

Read the full article here.

–Elizabeth Guevara

Rare Earth Stocks Rise on Report Trump to Launch $12B Critical Mineral Stockpile

FROM 3 hr 42 min ago

Shares of USA Rare Earth (USAR) and Idaho Strategic Resources (IDR) jumped 8% and 5%, respectively, Monday morning on a report that President Trump was set to launch a stockpile of critical minerals with $12 billion in seed money.

Critical Minerals (CRML) stock advanced 3.5% as well after Bloomberg, citing senior administration officials, reported that Trump was set to announce the initiative, called “Project Vault,” in “a bid to insulate manufacturers from supply shocks as the US works to slash its reliance on Chinese rare earths and other metals.”

The stockpile would focus on minerals like gallium and cobalt, which are needed for batteries, jet engines, and iPhones, but are subject to volatile prices, the report said.

The initiative “would represent a first-of-its-kind stockpile for the US private sector,” Bloomberg said, adding “more than a dozen companies so far” had signed on, including Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google, Boeing (BA), and General Motors (GM).

How Your Retirement Contributions Stack Up Against Others Your Age—And Why It Matters

FROM 4 hr 51 min ago

Most workers have only a rough sense of whether they’re contributing “enough” to their workplace retirement plan. Contribution rates are often set early in a career, when your budget is tight, and may stay unchanged for years. Yet these seemingly modest choices—setting a rate of 5%, 6%, or 7%—hold far more influence over long-term retirement readiness than many people realize.

Defined contribution plans, including 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457 plans, and other employer retirement accounts, remain the primary way many Americans save for retirement. But most workers have little insight into how their own contribution rate stacks up.

Plan dashboards highlight balances, not behavior, and people rarely discuss their contribution choices with colleagues or friends. That lack of visibility makes it tough to assess whether you’re on track—and many workers don’t realize how much even a modest contribution change can add up to over time.

Read the full article here.

–Sabrina Karl

Why Just 14% of Workers Hit This 401(k) Milestone and How to Make It Your Target

FROM 5 hr 51 min ago

The reality of the U.S. retirement system is that most workers chronically under-save. Just over one-third of non-retirees said they thought their retirement savings plan was on track in 2023, according to a Federal Reserve survey.

Still, many workers are diligently saving and investing for retirement. Among participants with defined contribution (DC) plans with Vanguard as the recordkeeper, an estimated 14% contributed the annual maximum for employee elective deferrals in 2024. Defined contribution plans include 401(k)s and 403(b)s.

The annual maximum, which does not include contributions your employer makes, is $23,500 but if you’re older than 49, it’s $31,000, and it can be as much as $34,750 for older workers based on changes resulting from the SECURE 2.0 Act.

While saving less than the maximum doesn’t mean you’re necessarily falling short on retirement planning, meeting this goal could help you achieve a more secure retirement, especially if you have limited years to save within a DC plan.

Read the full article here.

–Jake Safane

This Year’s Super Bowl Party Will Cost $140. Here’s the Breakdown

FROM 6 hr 2 min ago

Wings and pizza might not break the bank if you’re hosting a Super Bowl party this year, according to a new report on football’s favorite snacks.

It will cost about $140 to serve food and drinks to 10 people at a Super Bowl party this year, according to Wells Fargo’s Agri-Food Institute, up $2 from last year. That’s a 1.6% rate of increase, slower than the inflation rate for groceries, which came in at 2.4%, according to the December Consumer Price Index.

Other food prices have climbed, but that will be somewhat offset by a boost to average hourly wages.

“Prices have crept up, but the good news is that average hourly wages have risen 3.8% to $31.99, giving party throwers more room to celebrate without breaking the bank,” the report said.

Read the full article here.

–Terry Lane

Why 2026 May Present Tough Times for Both Job Hunters and Employers

FROM 6 hr 35 min ago

Is the labor market getting worse for employers, or for job seekers? Yes. And forecasters expect that to continue into the new year.

Several trends have combined to create a labor market that isn’t working out well for anyone. Job seekers are seeing fewer openings and staying unemployed longer—the long-term unemployment rate hit its highest since November 2021 in September.

Yet, employers are having a hard time finding qualified candidates, with certain industries, such as homebuilding, suffering from labor shortages. The result has been a sharp slowdown in job creation. The job market actually lost jobs in two months in 2025, something that hadn’t happened since the pandemic.

Economists forecast the U.S. economy will add an average of just 57,000 jobs per month in the first quarter of 2026, according to a survey of professional forecasters by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

That’s a sharp slowdown from the pre-tariff era. In the 12 months through April, when President Donald Trump announced his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs, job creation averaged 147,000 jobs per month. Since then, it has slowed to just more than a quarter of that level, at 38,600 per month.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

What Warsh’s Crisis-Era Fed Days Say About His Approach

FROM 6 hr 53 min ago

Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Federal Reserve, left a long track record when he served as Fed governor from 2006 to 2011.

Not all of that history is instructive for gauging his views today. Warsh was a hawk after the 2008 financial crisis, supporting the Fed’s extraordinary moves to halt the panic but arguing for a quicker removal once fears eased.

In recent years, he’s adopted a more dovish tone—aligning with Trump’s view that interest rates should be lower. It’s a dichotomy that market analysts will watch closely over Warsh’s four-year term after he replaces Fed Chair Jerome Powell in mid-May.

“We do believe Warsh will likely be a proponent of rate cuts in 2026, but the main question is whether his former hawkish persona makes a comeback down the road,” wrote Oscar Munoz, chief U.S. macro strategist at TD Securities.

Read the full article here.

–Polo Rocha

Stock Futures Fall to Begin Month as AI Spending Concerns Resurface

FROM 7 hr 32 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were fractionally lower.

S&P 500 futures pointed down 0.4%.

Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.7%.