Investing

As volatility rocks the market, one group of stocks is sizzling — fast food. Stocks like Starbucks, Jack in the Box, Chipotle and McDonald’s are outperforming in the past month. Of that selection, Chipotle shares look best positioned, according to Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Jaffray. The firm’s analyst covering Chipotle, Nicole Miller

Things look pretty good. The economy is strong, and unemployment is low. Yet in some locales, people are finding it tougher to afford the basics, according to GOBankingRates. The personal finance site surveyed 5,000 people online in August and found that the cost of living in the U.S. has shot up by 14 percent in

Oil prices have “dropped like a rock” over the past seven weeks but are finally approaching a bottom, Wells Fargo strategist Scott Wren told CNBC on Friday. “It’s caught the falling knife,” the senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute said in a “Squawk on the Street” interview. However, “from our perspective oil,

As “Small Business Saturday” becomes a worldwide phenomenon, lenders are becoming aware of the investment opportunities on Main Street, former Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills told CNBC on Friday. Online technology companies including Amazon, PayPal and Square are now issuing near-instant loans to small businesses so they can bulk up their inventory ahead of

Social Security is one of the most important factors in older people’s financial lives. Yet the available information on the system is often contradictory or incorrect. Even the Social Security Administration, the government agency that administers the benefit, can mislead people, experts say. “Half of the answers Social Security is giving people are wrong or

Big-box retailers such as Target and Walmart are capitalizing on the demise of Toys R Us this holiday season, and it’s paying off, according to industry leaders. The well-known toy retailer, which shuttered its U.S. stores in June, accounted for 15 to 20 percent of the country’s total toy sales in 2017, based on estimates

“It’s hard to find fault with the climate in the Algarve,” said Tricia Pimental, Portugal correspondent for International Living. “You can count on sun most of the time.” During the “rainy season” of October through April, it’s still sunny around two-thirds of the time. “December is the wettest month, during which you can expect about

Increased market volatility this year has mostly prompted financial experts to repeat one piece of advice: Stay the course. But as markets are poised for a continued bumpy ride, investors would be wise to keep another tip in mind: Diversify. “Diversification works when you need it the most,” said Chris Hyzy, chief investment officer for

Gold, the classic bear-market investment, has been ignored by investors this year, and for good reason: Gold prices have gone in the wrong direction, losing about $100 in the price per ounce since January, leading gold exchange-traded funds to year-to-date losses near-5 percent. But as more investors fear that the end of the bull market

Scandal-plagued Goldman Sachs has sunk deep into a bear market. Losses accelerated this month following allegations of financial misdeeds regarding the Malaysian government investment fund 1MDB. Regulatory uncertainty surrounding the scandal prompted Morgan Stanley to downgrade its rating to equal weight. Its stock has dropped 14 percent in November, putting it on track for its

If you were hoarding receipts in a shoebox with the hope of claiming a big break on your 2018 taxes, prepare to be disappointed. That’s because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act placed steep limits on itemized deductions, including lesser-known breaks for the fees you pay your tax preparer and unreimbursed employee business expenses. The

Retail stocks jumped on Wednesday after posting eight straight days of losses, the group’s longest losing streak on record. Now, one strategist is calling for bigger gains to come. The XRT, a popular exchange-traded fund that tracks retail stocks, has plunged 14 percent in the last three months, with some of its holdings, such as

The market sell-off has created a buying opportunity for investors who can afford to be a little patient, noted value investor David Katz told CNBC on Tuesday. Stocks continued to dropon Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average wiping out its gains for the year. Meanwhile, about 40 percent of companies on the S&P 500

Extreme volatility in the energy market could be one of the less obvious causes of the stock market’s broad-based sell-off, and there could be more pain to come, CNBC’s Jim Cramer warned Tuesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average erased its gains for the year. “You can’t understand this breakdown in the stock market unless

Two faulty narratives are behind the massive breakdowns in the technology sector, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday after reports surfaced that the FAANG stocks had lost more than $1 trillion in value. “The real culprits, the one-two punch that knocked tech down on the canvas,” were a narrative that the data center — the heart

Shares of Navient sank more than 9.5 percent Tuesday after a report said that an ongoing government audit points to deceptive practices at the company that may have resulted in tens of thousands of borrowers opting into higher-cost plans. The results of the audit, reported by The Associated Press, suggest that the nation’s third-largest student

Wall Street strategist Tom Lee told CNBC he remains bullish on bitcoin and bets on a recovery soon despite prices of the world’s largest cryptocurrency falling to their lowest levels in more than year on Tuesday. Last week, Lee cut his year-end bitcoin target to $15,000 from $25,000. In Tuesday’s CNBC interview, he stood by

If you’re thinking the long holiday weekend would be a great time to shop for a new car, here’s a tip: Do your homework before heading out. While Black Friday and holiday sales events come with special deals, they can vary greatly among automakers and individual dealerships. And with cash incentives slowing and zero-percent financing

Facebook and Google parent company Alphabet are both down for the year. While Facebook turned negative a few months ago, Alphabet became the second major tech company to go negative on Monday. Tech stocks overall were hit hard Tuesday as the Nasdaq Composite Index slid another 0.6 percent. Facebook and Alphabet are just two of

Let’s keep this correction and big down days in perspective. Sure, it is painful when big-cap stocks move down. They are more like planets, with much stronger gravitational pulls versus smaller-cap stocks. In that same analogy, the small-cap stocks are more like asteroids, and thus don’t pull markets down as much or as fast. Often,

Americans leave college today with more debt than ever before. Some schools are trying to reverse the trend by instituting a no-loans policy. Most recently, Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, announced he would give $1.8 billion to his alma mater, John Hopkins University, so that the college can substitute loans for

Gains in the U.S. stock market will be hard to find in 2019 as one-time boosts like tax cuts and government spending will fade and the U.S.-China trade conflict continues, according to Barclays. Maneesh Deshpande, head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays, said in a note Monday he expects the S&P 500 to end next

Morgan Stanley is ramping up its fight to distinguish its wealth management business in one key area: technology. The firm on Monday launched WealthDesk, a new platform for its army of 15,000-plus financial advisors. The idea of the platform is that it will provide financial advisors with one dashboard where they can go for all

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos may have given Disney CEO Bob Iger an early Christmas present this year. But if Iger accepts it, he could be paving the way for the demise of traditional cable TV networks, including Disney’s own ESPN. Amazon has placed a first-round bid for Disney’s 22 regional sports networks, sources familiar with