Financial Mindset

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he will look into requests from families of Sept. 11 victims to release records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks 25 years ago. Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the Saudi government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks. The  families have asked Trump to declassify  and release the relevant records. Asked about it Sunday during his trip to Ireland, the president said he would consider it. “I’m going to look at it when I get back,” Trump said just before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington after a weekend in Ireland. “I know they asked me Friday.” The relatives of 9/11 victims have been engaged in a lengthy legal battle against the Saudis. One of them, Terry Strada, called on Trump during the rememb...

Investors should enjoy the final months of 2026 while they can as the AI-led stock market boom is due to go bust soon, according to analysts. For now, there are still gains to be had. James Reilly, senior markets economist at Capital Economics, reiterated an earlier forecast for the S&P 500 to end this year at 8,250, up 7.7% from Friday’s close, then plunge 21% to 6,500 by the end of 2027. “On balance, we think the data look consistent with a late-stage bubble,” he wrote in a note on Thursday. “Most of the factors we consider are at, or close to, levels that have preceded past stock market peaks.” Reilly flagged several bubble indicators that he’s been tracking: Stock valuations are consistent with a late-stage bubble. For example, the market’s cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio is close to its dotcom peak, while the S&P 500’s valuation compared to Treasury bonds is also near dotcom extremes. Expected earni...

The housing market has been frozen since the COVID-era boom ended, with higher borrowing costs, limited supply, and elevated home prices mostly taking the blame. But stricter lending rules put in place after the housing crash that sparked the Great Financial Crisis are also weighing on prospective homeowners, according to a study last month from the Pew Charitable Trusts . “These changes helped to reduce delinquencies and defaults but also made it more difficult for many Americans to qualify for a mortgage,” wrote Adam Staveski, a principal associate with Pew’s housing policy initiative, in the study. To be sure, the tighter standards reined in excesses during the housing boom, such as abuse of “liar loans” that required little proof of income. And today, default rates are at historic lows, due also in part to loss-mitigation tools like forbearance, loan modifications, and payment deferrals. Just 4%-5% of delinquent borrowers now default, down from 5...

Donald Trump’s childhood home has sold for nearly $2 million after a renovation transformed the New York City residence from a mold-ridden cat den to a modern abode. The president lived at the Tudor-style Queens estate until age 4. His father, developer Fred Trump, built the home in the affluent Jamaica Estates neighborhood in 1940. The family hasn’t owned it in years. The sale price, $1.93 million, appeared Friday on real estate websites after a buyer, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, entered into a contract in July. The seller, Tommy Lin, had purchased the five-bedroom, three-bathroom home last year for $835,000 after it sat vacant and neglected for years. Lin, a developer, spent another $500,000 on an eight-month interior overhaul that added amenities including a chef’s kitchen, herringbone wood floors and spa-like bathrooms,  the New York Post reported . The home has changed hands several times in recent years, including for $2.14 million month...

The U.S. national debt is more than $40 trillion , and it’s only growing from here. Wage growth keeps stalling ; job growth is staying stagnant ; and grocery prices are trending up. With the 10-year Treasury yield nearing 5% as heavy government borrowing puts pressure on the bond market, some investors are looking for safer places to store their hard-earned cash. Investing in alternative assets isn’t new: In recent years, there have been many different (let’s say creative) investment opportunities, from NFTs to tokenized gold , and from crypto to traditional market trading. But for one person, the draw of a childhood game brings back more than just memories: collecting Pokémon cards has become a long-term investment vehicle with the upside of having beautiful art to relish in. “I love the way they look” Peter Levin is not what you would call a casual collector. The 55-year-old venture capitalist, co-founder and managing director at Griffin Gaming Partners has collect...

When Lululemon Athletica announced in April that former Nike senior executive Heidi O’Neill was becoming its new CEO this month, the athleisure pioneer was already struggling. Its core North American business was slipping, and there was a sense the yogawear maker had lost much of the magic that had inspired intense devotion among its customers for years. But in the five months between her appointment and when she assumed the job on Tuesday, Lululemon’s deterioration has only accelerated. The company, which had been run on an interim basis by two C-suite executives since late January, reported another terrible quarter last week, with a 12% drop in comparable sales in North America. It cut its full-year outlook for the second time in three months, intensifying worries that first-time CEO O’Neill might not be able to stop the decline. “Incoming CEO O’Neill has a mountain to climb,” Jefferies analyst Randal Konik wrote in a research note last week.  A steep hill from day...

Amazon’s newest feature for Prime Video is trying to make real life more like TV by letting you immediately buy what your favorite actors are wearing—or something similar. The company on Thursday announced a new feature called Shop the Scene that will let users shop for products featured in a show or movie. With minimal interruption to the viewing experience, users can pull up items on the Amazon Shopping app inspired by what’s being shown in the scene they’re watching at the moment. Amazon said Thursday that the Shop the Scene feature is now available on more than 600 Prime Video titles through the Amazon Shopping app for users in the U.S.  The broader Shop the Show experience, which Amazon introduced last year to let users browse products related to shows on Prime, like bobbleheads or LEGO sets, is also expanding to more than 8,000 titles, from 1,300 previously. “We are making it easier than ever for Prime Video customers to shop what they see on screen,”...