Stock Market

The post $4 Trillion in Deals Is Coming. Wall Street Hasn’t Seen an M&A Wave This Big in a Decade appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Jay Woods of Freedom Capital Markets expects Q3 to stumble before the year finishes strong as the deal wave and equity supply flood the market simultaneously. Stephanie Guild at Robinhood Markets notes markets typicall

The post Eurozone’s Biggest Payers Face Geopolitical Pressure On Dividend Safety This Year appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. SPDR Euro STOXX 50 ETF (FEZ) — Offers diversified Eurozone equity exposure with 0.29% expense ratio and semi-annual dividends. Top five holdings represent 28% of net assets, with ASML and TotalEnergies driving dividend sustainabil

The post AVDE’s 23.6% Annual Gain Shows International Dividends are Outpacing U.S. Markets appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Avantis International Equity ETF (AVDE) — Safe, diversified income stream from 30+ countries backed by real operating cash flow. AVDE delivered 7.1% year-to-date and 23% annual total returns, with low-3% distribution yield stronge

The post VGT’s 0.09% Fee Hides a Bigger Problem: Overlap Costs That Could Add Up to Tens of Thousands appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Vanguard’s tech ETF sells itself on cost. At 0.09%, Vanguard Information Technology Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA:VGT) sits near the floor of sector ETF pricing. That headline number is real. It is also the least interesting cost in the fund. What You Are Actually Paying The sticker fee reflects the fund’s 0.09% net expense ratio disclosed in the Jun

The post XLP’s 2.6% Yield Holds Firm as Retail Sales Hit 12-Month High appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. XLP's top five holdings—Walmart, Costco, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Philip Morris—drive 40% of assets and underpin dividend safety. Retail sales hit $757.1 billion in April 2026, up 0.5% monthly, supporting the fund's largest holdings despite d

The post The 529-to-Roth Rollover: Turn Up To $35,000 of Leftover College Money Into Tax-Free Retirement appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. If you have a 529 college savings plan with leftover money, the IRS now lets you move up to $35,000 of it into a Roth IRA without taxes or the usual 10% penalty on non-qualified withdrawals. That is the 529-to-Roth rollover, and it turned on for the first time in January 2024 thanks to SECURE 2.0. If your kid got a scholarship, skipped college, or simply did n

The post The Fed Chair Just Said AI Has ‘Huge Implications’ for Rates. Investors Should Listen appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Fed Chair Warsh ties rate policy to whether AI capex delivers real productivity gains, reshaping monetary policy's response to the AI boom. US companies invest $2.97T in capex; info sector profits jump from $265.0B to $3

The post XSD’s 0.35% Fee Hides a Four-Figure Return Gap Against Cheaper Rivals appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. If you own SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA:XSD) because you wanted “semiconductor exposure,” the fund’s 0.35% expense ratio is the least interesting number attached to your account. The real cost hides inside the word “equal-weight,” and over the past decade it has quietly drained hundreds of percentage points of return versus two funds with

The post The Hedge Fund That Was ‘Too Good’ Handed Back $2.7 Billion, Then Blew Up the Economy appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. LTCM returned $2.7B to investors in late 1997 due to excess capital, then increased leverage to maintain position sizes rather than shrink bets. Russia's August 1998 default widened spreads LTCM bet would narrow. The fun

The post ‘How’s Your 401(k)?’: Trump Shrugs Off His Billion-Dollar Crypto Haul as Just a Rising Market appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Trump's crypto gains outpaced broader markets: S&P 500 (SPY) up 20.87% while Bitcoin down 44.73% over past year. Trump's largest income source is now an asset class his administration actively regulates

The post 7.6 Million Job Openings Just Landed. Here’s What It Means for Thursday’s Payrolls Bomb appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. May's 7.6 million job openings exceeded the 7.3 million forecast, signaling labor market stabilization rather than acceleration after 2025's worst job creation year in two decades. Unemployment has held steady at 4.3%

The post A Financial Advisor Says You’re Probably Wrong About How Much You Need to Retire appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Assuming zero post-retirement income inflates your required nest egg unnecessarily; a 60-year-old needing $70,000 yearly cuts portfolio requirement from $1.75M to $625K when. This approach works for people with reliable consulting

The post Owner-Operators vs. Company Drivers: The Truck Driver’s Guide to Retiring Early appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Truck drivers occupy two very different tax universes. Company drivers get a W-2, a payroll-split FICA tax, and access to whatever retirement plan the fleet offers. Owner-operators run a small business, owe the full 15.3% self-employment tax, and choose their own retirement vehicle. Early retirement is possible from either seat, but the levers you pull are almost nothin

The post Trump Just Called Micron the ‘Hottest’ Company in the World. The Market Yawned and Dumped It 10% appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Trump praised Micron Technology (MU) as 'one of the HOTTEST anywhere in the World,' but stock fell 9.6%, showing trillion-dollar valuations need capital flows, not applause. Micron traded on perfection with 83

The post Miss Your First RMD and the Penalty Is 25%. Here’s the April 1 “First Year” Trap that Catches People Every Year appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. If you own a traditional IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or any other pre-tax retirement account, the IRS has been patient with you for decades. That patience ends the year you turn 73. That’s when required minimum distributions, or RMDs, kick in, and the rulebook contains a quirk almost nobody explains until it’s too late: y

The post Have a Large 401(k) Balance and Approaching 62? Make Sure You Start Roth Conversions Before RMDs Force Your Hand appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. $1.8M at 6% growth hits $4.3M by age 73, triggering $162K annual RMD taxed as ordinary income. Execute largest Roth conversions before age 63 to avoid Medicare IRMAA surcharges on converted income.

The post You Earn $400K and Hand the IRS 35%. These 3 ETFs Help You Keep More appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Congratulations, you cleared $400,000 this year. Now meet your silent partner: the IRS, who is taking 35% of every dollar you earn above the top-bracket threshold, plus a slice of your interest income, your short-term gains, and your non-qualified dividends. At your income level, where you park your money matters almost as much as what you earn on it. Three exchange-traded funds stand o

The post The Neocloud Trade Could Turn Shareholders Into Bagholders. Nebius Just Cratered 17% appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Shares of Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) closed down 17% Wednesday. The move cracks a narrative that just weeks ago had retail investors trading millionaire screenshots on Reddit. The neocloud trade, the idea that AI-first cloud upstarts can borrow their way to hyperscaler status, is running into the arithmetic of how much debt these companies actually owe. Nebius alone now

The post Why Buy Stocks When T-Bills Pay 5%? Jim Cramer’s Blunt Answer appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. 6% dividend yield with 4% annual growth on $10,000 generates $600 first-year income vs. $199 from 4% Treasury, with better compound growth potential. This trade works only for investors with five+ year time horizons who can tolerate a 52-week range o

The post VOO’s 0.03% Fee Hides the Real Cost: Why Cheaper Competitors Charge Half as Much appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:VOO) sells itself as the cheapest ticket to owning America. The sticker says 0.03%, roughly $3 a year per $10,000 invested. That’s the number every marketing page leads with. It’s also the number that obscures every other cost the fund quietly passes to shareholders. VOO is cheap, but holders pay more than the sticker