The U.S. Federal Reserve may start cutting interest rates before year’s end. That could make future trips abroad more expensive for the nation’s travelers. That’s due to how interest-rate policy affects the strength of the U.S. dollar. Here’s the basic idea: An environment of rising U.S. interest rates relative to those in other nations is generally “dollar positive,” said Jonathan Petersen, senior markets economist ...

Longtime investor Bill Gross believes Elon Musk’s Tesla is behaving like a speculative play among retail investors. “Tesla acting like a meme stock — sagging fundamentals, straight up price action,” the former chief investment officer and co-founder of Pimco said in a post Tuesday afternoon on X. “But then there seems to be a new meme stock every other day now. Most are pump ...

Walmart said Wednesday that it will open five automated distribution centers for fresh food across the country, as the retailer chases efficiency and its online grocery business grows. The discounter’s new facilities are roughly 700,000 square feet on average. Chilled and frozen areas have automation that stores and retrieves perishable items, such as strawberries and frozen chicken nuggets that are later ...

Millions flock to Barcelona, Spain, every year to enjoy a sweet taste of idyllic European life. But over the weekend, thousands of people marched through the streets and sprayed visitors with water guns in outrage over mass tourism. Protesters clapped and chanted “tourists go home!” and carried signs with anti-tourist slogans, arguing that the flood of visitors has driven up living ...

Side hustlers are hustling a little less but making more when they do. About 36% of U.S. adults say they make extra money from a side job beyond their main source of income, according to a survey the consumer finance platform Bankrate released Wednesday. That’s down from 39% last year, when side-hustlers were earning a bit less. The average side ...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday expressed concern that holding interest rates too high for too long could jeopardize economic growth. Setting the stage for a two-day appearance on Capitol Hill this week, the central bank leader said the economy remains strong as does the labor market, despite some recent cooling. Powell cited some easing in inflation, which he said policymakers ...

Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge tied to fatal 737 Max crashes, the Justice Department said Sunday, months after U.S. prosecutors said the aerospace giant violated a 2021 settlement that shielded it from prosecution. Under the deal, Boeing agreed to pay a $243.6 million fine. An independent compliance monitor would also be installed to oversee compliance at Boeing for three ...

This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans. Unlike most people who switched jobs during the Great Resignation, Shannon Penney is working twice as much for roughly the same pay she made years ago. She wouldn’t change it. Penney, 37, became disenchanted nearly a decade ago with her work ...

Gasoline prices are still slightly cheaper than this time a year ago, but they’ve been inching up this week. At about $3.51 as of Friday, a gallon of regular costs just a penny less than it did at the same time in 2023, according to AAA. There’s still some uncertainty ahead, given the record 60 million travelers who were expected ...

Cathy Balestriere was expecting “especially low” bookings last month at Crane’s Beach House, the boutique hotel she manages in Delray Beach, Florida. Instead, they jumped 12% from the year before. “It feels like a miracle based on where we were sitting just a few weeks ago,” she said. It’s not a miracle. It’s the weather. The surge coincided with a ...