Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

President Donald J. Trump’s administration is issuing health insurance rebate checks.
Credit: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• The Trump administration is mailing $500 refunds to 950,000 Americans who purchased marketplace health plans without tax credits.
• The rebates are bound for people in 30 states that rely on federally-operated health exchanges.
• The White House said these exchanges collected more in user fees than was needed for operations.

The Trump administration will begin sending $500 checks to nearly 1 million Americans who bought health insurance on a federally run exchange without subsidies.

The White House told Investopedia the U.S. Treasury would begin mailing refunds Wednesday to people in 30 states that rely on exchanges run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS charges insurers a user fee, a percentage of premiums that insurers build into their prices, to run the exchanges. The exchanges collected more than they needed to operate, the White House said.

The surplus will go to more than 950,000 people who didn’t receive tax credits or other help with premiums. President Donald Trump has said they were overcharged the most.

Why This News Matters to You

Healthcare costs are rising for those on marketplace plans and for those receiving insurance through an employer. Higher premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are adding to consumer concerns about the cost of living.

Some families with more than one affected member will get multiple payments, by check or direct deposit, a White House official said. Texas will have the most recipients, followed by Florida (127,900) and Ohio (65,700). People in the 20 states that run their own exchanges, and in Washington, D.C., won’t get checks.

Trump said the exchanges had a roughly $500 million surplus in a Sept. 10 video on X. “Our administration is doing the right thing and giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off,” Trump said in the video.

A White House official told Investopedia the prior administration initially wanted to use the money to finance contraception, though the White House’s Sept. 10 fact sheet didn’t mention the issue.

Most checks are going to people with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty level: $62,600 for a single person or $128,600 for a family of four. Some people with lower incomes who didn’t receive subsidies will also get checks, the official said.

The White House didn’t immediately respond when asked whether the checks are going to people who went without tax credits in 2025 or in 2026. About 1.5 million people in the 30 states bought 2026 plans without assistance, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP), a left-leaning think tank, which means roughly a third of them may not get a check.

The lower someone’s income, the more help they qualify for when buying insurance on an exchange. Enhanced tax credits, which had extended help to people earning more than 400% of the poverty level, expired at the end of 2025, and lower-income households now get less assistance, according to the Commonwealth Fund, which focuses on the healthcare system.

The CMS user fee has fallen for most of the past decade, hitting a low of 1.5% of premiums in 2025. The Trump administration has set it at 1.9% for 2027.

What marketplace enrollees pay in premiums after tax credits rose 58% on average from 2025 to 2026, to $178 a month, according to KFF, a health policy research group. Enrollment fell 13% in the year through February, federal data show.

“These checks pale in comparison with the enhanced tax credits these people would have received if President Donald Trump and Congress had not failed to extend them,” CAP analysts wrote. “Millions of lower- and middle-income [Affordable Care Act] enrollees whose costs also increased will get nothing.”

While not all the details are clear, the plan to refund those who lost tax credits makes sense, Chris Jacobs, a former policy adviser to the House Republican Conference, wrote in The Federalist, a conservative publication. The White House has lowered the fees in question, and may want to keep cutting, Jacobs wrote.

“As a practical matter, it might prove more effective and efficient to further reduce user fees going forward than to go through the process of issuing separate rebates,” Jacobs said. “But the president seems enamored with issuing checks of various sorts.”

Delta CEO Ed Bastian and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk got into a public spat over the airline’s decision to pass on Starlink.
Credit: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg, Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Delta CEO Ed Bastian reportedly said Delta tested wi-fi from Starlink, but did not want to do business with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
• Bastian “will lose his job over this,” Musk later posted on social media.

Elon Musk and Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian may not be sending each other holiday cards this year. 

Aviation watchdog JonNYC on X yesterday posted quotes attributed to Bastian, and denigrating Musk, that he said were passed along by someone in attendance at a pair of Delta events. Delta (DAL) did not respond to Investopedia’s question about the comments, which have since been widely reported, in time for publication, but Musk responded anyway. 

What reportedly happened: While discussing Starlink—the low-Earth-orbit satellite service provided by Musk-led SpaceX (SPCX), which has contracts to provide wi-fi to most major U.S. airlines, but not Delta—at one event, Bastian allegedly said, “We do not want to be with Elon Musk. Trust me.” 

At an earlier event, Bastian reportedly said that Delta tested with Starlink but did not want to do business with Musk. “If you know his reputation, it’s all true what they say about him,” he reportedly said. (JonNYC on X said he could not verify the alleged comments and did not hear a recording.)

Word reached Musk, who responded on X last night that Bastian “will lose his job over this.” In a later post, the world’s richest person wrote that the “best way to sandbox an AI is to put it on a Delta flight – it will have no chance of accessing the Internet!”

Like JetBlue (JBLU), Delta inked a contract with Amazon (AMZN) for its forthcoming Leo satellite internet service. However, most of the Atlanta-based carrier’s biggest domestic airline rivals—United (UAL), American (AAL), Southwest (LUV), and Alaska (ALK)—are in various stages of rolling out Starlink.

Boeing shares are down more than 10% for the year.
Credit: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Boeing won a Department of Defense contract worth more than $20 billion.
• Morgan Stanley analysts said they view the stock’s recent pullback as a “tactical buying opportunity.”

Boeing’s defense segment secured a key win for the aircraft maker.

Boeing (BA) said after yesterday’s closing bell that it won a “multi-billion-dollar contract” to produce the F/A-XX aircraft, a new generation of fighter plane for the U.S. Navy. The plane is intended to replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet planes currently used by the Navy. 

The Department of Defense said in a statement that the deal is worth north of $20 billion, with the planes expected to replace older models starting in the 2030s. Boeing shares were up less than 1% recently following the news, recovering some of their recent losses.

Boeing shares sank sharply earlier this week following a report that the company had discovered a software bug in the software of 737 MAX planes. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a Monday press conference that the agency will delay its certification of the 737 MAX 10 until it can investigate to determine whether the software glitch could cause a safety problem.

Even with Wednesday’s gains, Boeing shares are down about 13% for the year after slumping over the last two months.

Morgan Stanley analysts told clients in a note Wednesday that they see the stock’s recent pullback as a “tactical buying opportunity,” ahead of a key union vote that could send shares higher if Boeing avoids a strike, and “absent further negative developments.”

U.S. consumers say they are stressed about the economy in general and their personal finances.
Credit: Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, Personal Consumption Expenditures, rose 3.4% over the year in August, less than the 3.7% forecasters had expected.
• The data may have been skewed by data revisions and methodology changes, and did not incorporate a surge in fuel prices in September due to the Iran war, which has raised inflation risks.
• Despite all the caveats, the data takes some pressure off the Fed to raise interest rates to counter inflation, financial markets lowered the chances the central bank would raise its key interest rate at its next meeting in October.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation was lower than expected in August according to a data release that sent mixed messages about the health of the economy.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index rose 3.4% over the year in August, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Wednesday. That was lower than the 3.7% increase forecasters had expected, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, and matched downwardly revised July numbers.

Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, rose 3% over the year. That was also lower than forecasters expected but still well above the Fed’s target for a 2% annual increase.

The measure, however, may be slightly out of date as fuel prices have risen in recent weeks and could push up costs on goods across the economy. Wednesday’s report was affected not only by changes in actual prices but also by the bureau’s index calculation. Ahead of the report, economists had anticipated methodology changes to show lower prices for portfolio management fees, computer software and accessories, and legal services.

What This Means For The Economy

Prices aren’t increasing as quickly as forecasters had feared, although inflation is still higher than the Fed’s target. The data may be enough to delay Fed rate hikes but not take them off the table.

The data was further complicated by the bureau’s revision of data dating back to 2021, which affected year-over-year comparisons. On a monthly basis, core inflation rose 0.2%, from July, less than the 0.3% forecasters had expected, while overall inflation rose 0.3%, in line with expectations.

The increase in prices was accompanied by a surge in consumer spending. Spending rose 0.9% in August from July, the largest increase since March. Income rose only 0.2% over the same period, prompting consumers to dip into their savings. The saving rate, or how much after-tax income is left over after spending, fell to 4.1%, the lowest since November 2022.

“Households pinched by higher prices have been either reducing their monthly savings rate or relying more on credit,” Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, wrote in a commentary.

The data had implications for officials at the Fed, who use core PCE prices as the benchmark for gauging whether inflation is running at its 2% target.

Fed officials raised the fed funds rate 0.25% at their most recent meeting in September in an effort to dampen inflation that’s run above target for more than five years. Hiking the fed funds rate pushes up borrowing costs on all kinds of loans. It is intended to discourage borrowing and spending and allow supply and demand to rebalance for consumer prices.

Cooler-than-expected inflation could give the Fed more breathing room to hold off on more rate hikes, at least for the next month. The odds of an October rate hike fell to 37% Wednesday morning, down from a coin flip the day before, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data.

“Given the mixed nature of the data, it shows that the Fed was probably correct in raising rates this month, but if the inflation data improves, they might be able to skip a meeting or at least raise rates less than the three times in a row that many were worried about,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, wrote in a commentary.

However, given that inflation is still well above the 2% target, the market is still pricing in a more than 80% chance of a rate hike at some point over the final two Fed meetings of the year.

Update, Sept. 30, 2026—This article has been updated to add additional information and to change the headline, and will be updated further. It was originally published Sept. 30, 2026.

News of the day for Sept. 30, 2026

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on pace to snap a five-month winning streak.
Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Stock futures are hovering near unchanged after two straight days of losses for major indexes; the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation is due this morning; Micron is scheduled to release results after the closing bell; Boeing shares are rising after it was selected to build a new Navy fighter; and shares of Cal-Maine Foods are sinking as falling egg prices weighed on the company’s latest results. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stock Futures Steady After Two Days of Losses

Stock futures are little-changed ahead of the final trading session of September. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down fractionally recently, while Nasdaq futures were off 0.1%. The major indexes each pulled back yesterday for the second straight day as Treasury yields continued their rise amid fears of persistent inflation. For the month of September, typically the worst of the year for markets, the Dow is down 3.5% and poised to snap a five-month winning streak, while the S&P 500 has lost 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq has added 1.6%. WTI crude oil futures were up 1.6% recently to $90.80 per barrel, after closing below the $90 mark yesterday for the first time in a month. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 5.24%, down from yesterday’s close of 5.25% and intraday high of 5.29%, its highest level since 2007. Gold futures were up nearly 1% to $4,215 an ounce, while bitcoin was little-changed at around $83,800.

PCE Report Expected to Show Persistent Inflation

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation is set to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Personal Consumption Expenditures report is expected to show that prices rose 3.7% in the 12 months through August, unchanged from the previous month. “Core” inflation, excluding more volatile prices such as food and fuel, is expected to be 3.3%, also the same as July and still well above the Fed’s 2% target. A report in line with expectations would provide another data point that shows how much work the Fed still has to do to lower inflation. The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate this month for the first time in three years in an effort to tame inflation, and officials have indicated that more rate hikes could be on the way. Inflationary pressures have increased this month as fuel prices have surged owing to the Iran war.

Micron Earnings Due After Closing Bell

Investors will get their latest update on the AI trade this afternoon, with earnings due from Micron Technology (MU). The memory chip giant is expected to report another quarter of massive growth, with analysts estimating that revenue jumped 350% to $50.95 billion and adjusted earnings rose more than tenfold to $31.63 per share. A shortage of the memory components made by Micron and its rivals, which are in high demand to be used in the hardware necessary to train and run AI models, has led the companies to raise prices to record highs, providing a substantial boost to their sales and stock prices. Coming into Wednesday’s session, Micron shares have gained roughly 270% since the start of the year, the fourth-largest gain in the S&P 500. The stock was little changed in premarket trading.

Boeing Stock Gains on New Navy Contract

Boeing (BA) shares are on the rise this morning after the aircraft maker announced that it has been selected to build a new generation of fighter planes for the U.S. Navy. After yesterday’s closing bell, Boeing said it has won a “multi-billion-dollar contract” to produce the F/A-XX aircraft, which is intended to replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet planes currently used by the Navy. The Department of Defense said in its own statement that the deal is worth north of $20 billion, with the planes expected to be delivered starting in the 2030s. Boeing shares, which come into today down 14% in 2026, were up more than 2% ahead of the opening bell.

Cal-Maine Stock Drops on Weak Earnings

Shares of Cal-Maine Foods (CALM) are sinking after the country’s largest egg producer missed estimates in its latest earnings report. The company said this morning that it generated $539.6 million in revenue in its fiscal first quarter, about $20 million below what analysts had been expecting. Cal-Maine’s net loss of $1.26 per share also came in wider than analysts polled by Visible Alpha had projected. The company attributed the results to “an abundantly supplied egg market” compared to last year, as the average selling price of conventional eggs fell nearly 60% year-over-year while sales volume was roughly flat. Cal-Maine shares were down 8% in recent premarket trading, on track to hit their lowest level since mid-2024.

Nike shares are down more than 40% since the start of the year
Credit: Qin Zihang / VCG / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Nike is scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell Thursday.
• Recent options pricing suggests traders see the stock swinging up to 8% by the end of the week.
• Analysts expect Nike to report a slide in sales and profits from the year-ago period.

Nike is set to post earnings after the closing bell today, with traders expecting the stock could slide to its lowest point in 13 years.

Based on current options pricing, Nike (NKE) shares are seen swinging up to 8% in either direction by the end of the week. A move of that magnitude from the stock’s recent level around $36 could drag the shares below $33, their lowest point since September 2013. The high end of that range would be close to $39, recovering some of the stock’s recent losses.

Nike shares have lost more than 40% of their value since the start of the year, amid growing worries that the company’s turnaround could take far longer than expected, with some product launches missing expectations and worsening macroeconomic pressures.

Why This Matters to Investors

Nike’s results Thursday could stand to boost the stock, or set it back further, after a yearslong slide.

Bank of America recently downgraded Nike stock, and Morgan Stanley analysts relaunched coverage with a bearish rating as confidence in Nike’s progress weakens. The analysts at Morgan Stanley said Thursday’s earnings call or the company’s annual investor day in November could be a good time for Nike to “reset expectations” about the pace of its turnaround. The apparel maker is approaching two years since CEO Elliott Hill took over in late 2024, and got a new CFO this August.

Nike is expected to report fiscal first quarter revenue of $11.33 billion, a decline of about 3% year-over-year, per Visible Alpha estimates. The company is seen reporting earnings of 44 cents per share, down 5 cents from the year-ago quarter.

Analysts are divided on Nike’s stock, with the 14 analysts tracked by Visible Alpha split between three “buy,” two “sell,” and nine neutral ratings. Their average price target of $44 would suggest more than 20% upside from Wednesday’s close.

This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect more recent prices.

A Tesla roadster at an event in 2022.
Credit: SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Tesla postponed this week’s Roadster event to Oct. 15 because of severe weather in Texas.
• Much of south-central Texas, where the event is set to take place, will be under a flood watch from Wednesday night through Friday evening.

Tesla fans will have to wait a little longer for the EV maker’s revamped Roadster sports car.

The electric vehicle maker said yesterday that it is postponing this week’s highly anticipated Roadster event because of severe weather expected to hit Texas. Instead of taking place Thursday night, the event will be pushed to Oct. 15.

“We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule,” Tesla (TSLA) said on social media Monday.

Much of south-central Texas, where the event is set to take place, will be under a flood watch from Wednesday night through Friday evening. The Roadster is reportedly expected to float during the event using thrusters developed by SpaceX (SPCX), which could explain why it needs to be held outside. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.  

The delay marks the latest setback for the next-generation Roadster, which has seen its launch timeline pushed back several times in recent years. The Roadster page on Tesla’s website still allows prospective customers to reserve one of the cars in exchange for a $50,000 deposit. With Tesla’s increasing focus on fully autonomous vehicles like robotaxis, Musk has previously said the Roadster could eventually be the only Tesla vehicle people can actually drive.

Tesla shares were down about 1% Tuesday afternoon, extending their recent decline. They’ve lost more than 20% since the start of the year. 

A customer shops in a supermarket in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Manhattan.
Credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• A key measure of consumer confidence unexpectedly plunged in September to its lowest since 2014.
• The outlook darkened across the board, with people giving bleaker assessments of the job market, business conditions, and their own finances.
• High fuel prices due to the Iran war have squeezed budgets and led people to anticipate higher inflation in the future.

The last time Americans felt this bad about the economy and their own finances, Donald Trump was best known as the host of The Apprentice.

The index of Consumer Confidence fell for a third month to its lowest since 2014 in September, the Conference Board, an economics think tank, said Tuesday.

Back in 2014, the index, which is based on a survey of U.S. adults about financial topics, was on an upward trajectory as the economy healed from the Great Recession.

These days, it’s moving in the opposite direction amid high fuel prices due to the Iran war and overall pessimism about the job market. And for the first time since 2022, more people in the survey said their own family’s financial situation was “bad” than “good.” The confidence index reading of 81.9 was lower than its August level of 88.6 and below the 89 that forecasters had expected, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

What This Means For The Economy

Falling confidence suggests Americans are feeling increasingly squeezed and could pull back on major purchases and everyday spending. That could have broader consequences for consumer-driven economic growth.

The survey mirrored other opinion polls about the economy, and reflected the intensifying bad vibes of the ongoing Iran war and the oncoming AI age.

Household budgets have been battered by rising borrowing costs across all kinds of loans and inflation that has run above the Fed’s 2% target since 2021. Meanwhile, the job market remains in low-hiring, low-firing limbo. Pessimism has continued to build despite many important measures of economic health, such as the stock market and the unemployment rate, remaining in the green.

The survey shows “consumers are more disgruntled and squeezed in this economy than they felt during the 2020 pandemic,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a commentary. “The Main Street economy is under strain. High gas prices, spiking borrowing costs, and low hiring are hitting middle-class households hard.”

The outlook worsened in nearly every category in the survey. Assessments for the present situation, future expectations, the business climate, and the labor market all deteriorated while inflation expectations rose. Amid the rising financial pressure, people said they were less likely to buy houses and cars and planned to cut back spending on goods and services.

Economists track measures of consumer confidence because they historically have indicated how willing people are to spend money, although that relationship has broken down in the post-COVID era. Still, the decline in consumer confidence could be a red flag for the economy’s health.

“Consumer confidence had held up remarkably well despite trade policy uncertainty, the yet-to-be resolved conflict in the Middle East and affordability challenges amid surging long-term interest rates and elevated energy prices,” Jay Hawkins, senior economist at PNC, wrote in a commentary. “However, that narrative changed this month and confidence is not likely to improve meaningfully until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved and gas prices decline from current lofty levels.”

Meta shares have rallied nearly 20% since Muse launched earlier this month.
Credit: Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Meta said in a blog post Tuesday that it’s rolling out Muse AI agent tools for small businesses.
• Yesterday, the company also announced an enterprise platform including Muse.

Meta Platforms is working to expand its popular Muse AI agent’s reach with new features aimed at helping small business owners.

Meta (META) said in a blog post Tuesday that it is rolling out Muse tools for small businesses, including the ability to connect Muse to third-party software providers such as Canva, Dropbox (DBX), and Salesforce’s (CRM) Slack. Meta suggested businesses could use the AI agent to analyze monthly costs, draft ad campaigns, or organize communications with customers, among other things.

Shares of Meta, which were up about 1% in recent trading, have rallied in recent weeks amid growing optimism around Muse and its potential to boost Meta’s revenues. The app has seen a surge in popularity among consumers since it launched earlier this month.

Yesterday, the company also announced an enterprise platform including Muse, with the company hiring Chirantan “CJ” Desai away from his role as CEO of MongoDB (MDB) to run the unit.

Meta shares have added nearly 20% of their value since Muse launched, leaving the shares up about 10% since the year began. 

Details of Anthropic’s expected IPO were published by news services recently.
Credit: Thomas Fuller / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Anthropic reportedly generated $4.6 billion in revenue last year, up from $400 million.
• Operating losses exceeded $8 billion last year, as costs topped $12 billion.
• Anthropic targets a November IPO that could value it above $2 trillion.

Anthropic hasn’t filed detailed public documents ahead of its hotly anticipated IPO yet. The public is poring over the details anyway. 

Reuters and other news agencies have reported some of the details of those documents, offering an inside look at the AI company—one that shows enormous revenue growth and ballooning operating expenses—that confirmed what some professional investors have guessed at.

The company is generally expected to go public in November. Anthropic did not respond to Investopedia’s questions about its IPO or related paperwork in time for publication. The company is targeting a record IPO that could drive its valuation above $2 trillion, higher than the $965 billion Anthropic estimated following its last funding round in May.

Anthropic, maker of the Claude family of large language models, last year generated about $4.6 billion in revenue, up from $400 million from the year prior, according to the Reuters report published yesterday. It booked more than $8 billion in operating losses over the same period, up from almost $3 billion the year prior, per the report. 

An official S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission would give the investing public a better sense of whether the company’s 2026 revenue figures show growth keeping pace with expected expenses. 

The company spent more than $7 billion on compute and infrastructure last year, representing about half of its over $12 billion in total operating expenses, according to Reuters. Its cloud, computing and infrastructure spending commitments in the coming years is forecast to hit $518 billion in the coming years, Reuters said.

Net losses totaled almost $42 billion in 2025, though roughly 80% of that represented an accounting charge estimating a rise in financing value, per Reuters’ report.