Donate today and get a Marketplace mug -- perfect for all your liquid assets! Donate now
The billions of dollars spent on holiday shopping each year leaves out one big piece of the gift-giving puzzle.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The billions of dollars spent on holiday shopping each year leaves out one big piece of the gift-giving puzzle.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Market volatility? Let's not worry like it's 1987

Oct 25, 2018
Jason Zweig says recent drops in the Dow are not cause for concern.
A trader on the New York Stock Exchange on "Black Monday," Oct. 19, 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points, making a 22.6 percent drop in the index. An equivalent drop today is closer to a 2 percent loss.
MARIA BASTONE/AFP/Getty Images

Market volatility? Let's not worry like it's 1987

Oct 25, 2018
Jason Zweig says recent drops in the Dow are not cause for concern.
A trader on the New York Stock Exchange on "Black Monday," Oct. 19, 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points, making a 22.6 percent drop in the index. An equivalent drop today is closer to a 2 percent loss.
MARIA BASTONE/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s what bank earnings tell us about the economy

Apr 12, 2018
The fundamentals of this economy are strong right now but you wouldn’t always know it from the stock markets lately. Volatility has been the word of recent weeks. But on Friday big banks including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are expected to show strong profits. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Who is to blame for the recent market volatility?

Feb 7, 2018
Some analysts and investors are saying that a popular measure of the volatility expected in the stock market may have made things worse.
People walk by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) before the opening bell on Tuesday.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Investors ponder safe havens amid market volatility

Feb 7, 2018
The last few days have seen big swings in the global stock markets. During such volatile times, investors often shift their assets to what are called safe-haven currencies, traditionally the Japanese yen or Swiss franc. Why does that happen, and is now a good moment for safe havens? Click the audio player above to hear […]

For public good, not for profit.

Today’s trading was the very definition of volatility

Feb 6, 2018
But the bigger context is volatility in the markets has actually been falling over the last 30 years.
Scott Olson / Getty Images

Why the Dow breaking 26,000 points is making some analysts nervous

Jan 16, 2018
While the markets closed today with a slight loss, they opened at a high point. This morning, the Dow broke 26,000 points for the first time in its 120 year history — and that’s after a year with practically no dips to speak of. But that lack of volatility has some market watchers a little […]

On Wall Street, managing anxiety by hedging

Nov 2, 2016
If a lot of voters are increasingly anxious about Election Day, what about the people who make their living predicting outcomes — stock traders.
 Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on November 1, 2016 in New York City. As Wall Street continues to feel election uncertainty, the Dow Jones closes fell more than 100 points. 
Spencer Platt/Getty Images