Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

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Key Takeaways

• Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has named the members of five task forces that are setting out to reshape key areas of the central bank’s operations.
• The list of leaders includes policymakers, business leaders, and four Harvard professors.
• Warsh has said he wants to make several changes at the Fed, including rethinking how it measures inflation.

The future of the Fed is in the hands of a group of bankers, business leaders, academics, and even a video game executive.

On Thursday, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh released the names of the members of five task forces he established to rethink key aspects of how the central bank does business. Reforming the Fed’s operations is a top priority for the new Fed chair, who announced the existence of the task forces at his first press conference last month.

The groups will recommend changes to the Fed’s communications with the public; its approach to controlling inflation; its use of economic data; its balance sheet of financial assets; and its view of the changes AI technology could bring to the economy. Here’s who Warsh tapped to lead those task forces. Four of the 15 are professors at Harvard, where Warsh studied law.

Communications

The communications task force will “Review how the Federal Reserve conveys policy deliberations and decisions amid uncertainty.” Warsh has said he wants to overhaul the Fed’s communications, and has already changed it by eliminating “forward guidance” from the Federal Open Market Committee’s official statement.

This task force includes two former central bankers from other countries: Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England and Arminio Fraga, former president of the Central Bank of Brazil. Rounding out the group is Peter R. Fisher, who served as under secretary of the Treasury in the George W. Bush administration, and was an executive at investment company Black Rock and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Balance Sheet Policy

This group will “Examine the costs, benefits, and institutional implications of the Federal Reserve’s current balance sheet regime,” which includes $6.7 trillion worth of treasuries and mortgage-backed securities purchased during the Great Financial Crisis and the pandemic to stabilize financial markets. Warsh has said he wants to reduce its size.

The task force comprises three academics: Jeremy Stein, a professor of economics at Harvard and former Fed governor; Karen Dynan, a Harvard professor who was formerly under secretary of the Treasury under Barack Obama; and Raghuram Rajan, a professor of finance at the Chicago Booth School of Business who was an official at India’s central bank.

What This Means For The Economy

Warsh’s task force includes prominent academics and leaders whose recommendations could reshape the Fed’s policies for many years to come, influencing the central bank’s important role in the U.S. economy.

Data

The data task force looks to “improve the quality and timeliness of real economic signals that inform the Federal Reserve’s policy judgments.” Warsh has said he wants to rethink how the Fed measures key aspects of the economy including inflation.

Leading that effort will be Raj Chetty, a professor of economics at Harvard; former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon; and Kevin Murphy, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago.

Productivity and Jobs

The group will “Assess the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve’s policy judgments.” Warsh has said he believes AI technology will make the economy more productive in the long run, and serve to push down inflation, although he has said the timing of when the economy could see those benefits is uncertain.

Warsh’s AI task force includes tech financier Marc Andreessen; Charles I. Jones, professor of economics at Stanford University, who is currently working at AI company Anthropic to assess AI’s risks to the economy; and Asha Sharma, CEO of the XBOX video game division at Microsoft.

Inflation Frameworks

This group will “Revisit how the Federal Reserve understands and responds to the drivers of inflation.” It includes the fourth Harvard professor, economist Greg Mankiw, an economic advisor to George W. Bush; Thomas J. Sargent, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of economics at New York University; and William White, a Canadian economist sometimes credited with having predicted the 2008 financial crash, a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe think tank in Toronto.

Costco shares have fallen nearly 20% since hitting a record high in May.
Credit: M. Suhail / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Costco shares fell on Thursday after the retailer’s June sales fell short of Wall Street’s high expectations.
• Shares have slid nearly 20% since setting an all-time high in May but still trade at a premium to Costco’s closest competitor, Walmart, and most other retailers.

Costco fell victim to its own excellence.

The warehouse club on Wednesday evening said net sales grew 10.6% in June, its slowest pace since February. That was its first month-over-month deceleration in 2026: Sales growth accelerated every other month this year, rising from about 9% in January to more than 14% in May. Comparable sales grew 8.8%, fast for a national retailer with $250 billion in annual sales, but a slowdown from 12.5% in May. 

Costco (COST) stock was down about 5% in recent trading, deepening a two-month slump that has shares trading about 17% below the record high they set in mid-May.

Why This Is Important

Costco’s sales and stock rose earlier this year as soaring fuel prices encouraged consumers to prioritize value when shopping. Shares—and now sales—have lost that momentum as oil prices have fallen in the past two months.

Even so, shares are up about 6% since the start of the year, thanks in part to a strong start. The S&P Consumer Staples Sector Index fell nearly 10% during the first weeks of the war in Iran as investors debated the impact soaring oil and gas prices would have on consumer spending. But Costco stock, trading near an all-time high when the war began, declined less than 5%, buoyed by the retailer’s membership model, low prices, and the boost to its gas station sales from soaring fuel prices. 

Investors began to sour on the shares in mid-May when the U.S. and Iran made progress toward a peace deal, undercutting some of the concerns that had supported shares, and traders piled into high-flying chip stocks. Later that month, shares slumped 4% even after Costco reported better-than-expected profit and record sales volume in the previous quarter.

Investors are looking at Costco’s stock price and demanding a lot. Costco’s “strength in this shaky market is evident, but there is some risk of deceleration and there’s little room for error with this multiple,” wrote Wells Fargo analyst Edward Kelly on Wednesday in a note outlining the retailer’s “solid” June sales.

Costco’s price-to-earnings ratio of 46 is one of the highest among retailers in the S&P 500. Its main competitors Walmart (WMT) and BJ’s Wholesale (BJ) trade with P/E ratios of 39 and 20, respectively. 

Kevin Warsh, chairman of the Federal Reserve, attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 7, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Credit: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Inflation risks remain elevated, fueled by energy prices and AI-related investments, despite some signs of easing.
• The Fed may hold rates steady or even cut them if inflation cools and the labor market weakens.

The Federal Reserve agrees on the game plan for interest rates. The only problem is the central bank has little clue what the second half of the year will bring.

That’s a key takeaway for analysts as they get a closer view of the Federal Open Market Committee under its new chair, Kevin Warsh.

In his first meeting, almost all of the FOMC’s 19 members agreed they should raise interest rates if prices keep rising. But they also agreed they could keep rates flat or even cut them again eventually if inflation cools, according to minutes of their mid-June meeting released on Wednesday.

Why This Matters

The Fed’s next interest rate decision will influence borrowing costs, savings returns, mortgages, and investment markets. With policymakers divided on the economic outlook, upcoming inflation and jobs data could shape financial decisions for consumers and investors.

The sharply different scenarios are a sign of the “considerable uncertainty” on the path ahead, as Fed officials put it.

“The FOMC remains genuinely conflicted and uncertain about the best next step for policy,” wrote Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

For now, many investors are betting on rate hikes this year, though some still see a chance of the Fed keeping rates flat. 

Inflation Risks

Markets dialed up their rate hike expectations after Warsh emphasized the Fed’s “unanimous and unambiguous” commitment to return inflation to 2%. The minutes of the meeting underlined that it isn’t just Warsh that’s worried about inflation, analysts say.

“Inflation has become the dominant concern at the central bank,” wrote Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

Consumer prices are rising at an annual pace of around 4%, double the Fed’s target, largely because the war in Iran has driven up energy prices. Though oil prices have calmed, Fed officials agreed inflation risks “were still tilted to the upside,” the minutes show.

Many Fed officials thought supply disruptions “could persist longer than currently anticipated,” the minutes show. They also worried over the inflationary impacts of the boom in data center construction and other artificial intelligence investments.

AI may ultimately drive down prices in the future, some Fed officials said, since it could drive down production costs. But building out AI infrastructure may “contribute to more persistent inflationary pressures” in the meantime, the minutes said.

The Fed’s growing inflation concern is one reason why the risks are “skewed toward rate hikes,” wrote Marc Giannoni, chief U.S. economist at Barclays. But he still sees the Fed keeping rates flat all year.

Little Urgency

The Fed, after all, kept interest rates unchanged in June despite its worries over inflation. Giannoni and other analysts think that may remain the case for the rest of 2026.

“The minutes indicate support for a hold if inflation declines soon and rate hikes if inflation remains elevated, but suggest little urgency to act,” Giannoni wrote.

Traders see a roughly 1-in-4 chance of the Fed hiking rates at its upcoming July 28-29 meeting, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which uses futures market pricing to gauge Fed policy probabilities.

Next week will bring updated inflation data, giving markets more clarity on whether a July hike is on the table, according to Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets. But outside of the initial spike in energy costs, overall inflation has been “relatively well contained,’ he wrote, making a near-term hike less likely.

“Nothing within the realized data implies the Committee has a strong sense of urgency to hike rates in July,” Lyngen wrote.

The Fed may instead opt to wait until its mid-September or late October meetings if it hikes rates at all. But to do so, the Fed will likely want to ensure the labor market is stable and can withstand higher interest rates, Lyngen wrote. And June’s jobs report “wasn’t stellar,” with U.S. employers adding some 57,000 jobs, down from 148,000 in May.

“There is a lot of data between now and the Sept. 16 FOMC meeting that could easily alter the prevailing perception of the resilience of the US economy,” Lyngen wrote.

No Hikes?

Fed officials also seem quite open to the possibility of inflation receding, which could dampen any need for hikes.

The central bank discussed scenarios where, rather than staying high, inflation “would dissipate” and return to its 2% target. Inflation will likely stay elevated for now and is at risk of going higher, the Fed minutes said, but it could “begin to decline as the effects of tariffs and energy price increases wane.”

And if that’s the case, almost all Fed officials said it could be appropriate “to maintain or eventually lower” interest rates, the minutes show.

Though the risks of hiking are clear, the Fed is more likely to be on a “prolonged hold,” wrote Derek Tang, CEO of Monetary Policy Analytics. Fed officials are divided on the economic outlook, with their quarterly forecasts showing half see hikes ahead and the other half don’t.

But how they’d react to incoming inflation data seems to be “quite similar,” Tang wrote.

“The fight is over the forecast, not the strategies, which means time will tell,” he wrote.

A benchmark index for semiconductors is down more than 8% in the first few days of the second half.
Credit: Photographer: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• A tech-heavy basket of S&P 500 stocks more than doubled in the first half is down an average of 16% in July, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
• The PHLX Semiconductor Index closed 3% higher on Thursday, erasing some the index’s losses over the past five days.

AI stocks have been giving investors whiplash.

The PHLX Semiconductor Index of chip stocks, or SOX, almost doubled in the first half of the year, then flinched. It closed more than 3% higher today, erasing some of its double-digit July losses. The 22 stocks in the S&P 500 that gained 100%-plus over the first six months of 2026—most are in the tech sector—were recently down an average of 16% in July, per Bespoke Investment Group. (Think Sandisk (SNDK), Micron (MU), Intel (INTC), and Western Digital (WDC).)

Between the continued excitement around chipmakers—as seen in the enthusiasm regarding SK Hynix’s imminent U.S. listing—and the sudden reversal in the tech sector’s fortunes earlier this week, the AI trade is flashing mixed signals.

WHY THIS MATTERS TO YOU

Effectively buying the PHLX, a benchmark index of chipmakers, through the first half would’ve been a solid move amid the everything-chip rally. Now market experts suggest being more selective.

Some investment experts see this as a new phase that might signal an end to the everything-chip rally—but not a death knell for the theme.

G Squared Private Wealth’s CIO Victoria Greene said it shouldn’t surprise anyone that memory stocks required a breather following their torrid rally over the past six months. “But I don’t think there’s anything broken there,” she told CNBC on Wednesday. SanDisk, for example, has fallen nearly 20% this month, but that has hardly dented its roughly 680% gain year-to-date.

Greene says she’s now favoring “capex light” companies—companies that don’t need to make huge real-world investments in infrastructure or equipment to grow— such as Nvidia and Apple (AAPL), or what she calls “old school” tech. The former looks “cheap,” in valuation terms, compared to the overall S&P 500, she said.

Nvidia’s forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio is around 19, compared to the S&P 500’s 20, according to FactSet’s John Butters. At the end of December, it was 25 and 22, respectively, he said.

The AI trade, some experts say, has moved from being an indexer’s dream to one for stockpickers.

“The market is moving from pricing in promise to pricing in execution,” LPL chief equity strategist Jeff Buchbinder wrote in a midyear outlook yesterday.

This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect the close of trading.

Delta announced the latest changes to its ticket offerings Wednesday.
Credit: Patrick van Katwijk / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Delta Air Lines announced more changes to its ticket offerings this week, adding a new “basic” option to its premium ticket offerings.
• The airline introduced similar tiers for its main cabin tickets last year, offering tiers without perks like seat selection or with lower mile rewards.

Getting better seats on the plane is getting cheaper—and more complicated.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) introduced new “basic” tiers for its premium tickets Wednesday, following last year’s revamp of its main cabin. Delta First and Delta Premium Select will each get a “basic” tier, while the lowest level of the Delta One tier will become “Basic Business.” It’s the latest sign of airlines and hotels monetizing previously free upgrades or perks, and charging separately for what they once bundled together.

Delta said the basic tier costs less but drops some features: no seat selection before check-in, a smaller checked-bag allowance, and fewer mile rewards. The Delta First options went on sale Wednesday. Premium Select Basic and Basic Business can be booked for domestic and some international flights taking off from September on.

Why This News Matters

Delta and other airlines say splitting their ticket tiers into more subcategories gives consumers more choices to pick the features they want, while some industry experts say the added tiers are meant to nudge buyers toward pricier tickets.

The new ticket options come as Delta and other airlines have increasingly pushed to upgrade their “premium” offerings in recent years, as Americans have proved willing to spend big on travel and experiences even as prices rise elsewhere in the economy.

United Airlines (UAL) made a similar move back in April, adding “base” tier tickets alongside standard and flexible options for premium seats on certain longer flights.

Investors and customers should hear more about the new ticket changes when Delta reports its latest quarterly earnings ahead of the opening bell Friday.

SKY Hynix stock has more than tripled in value this year despite recently sliding from record highs.
Credit: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix is set to list U.S. shares on the Nasdaq on Friday in an offering that could raise more than $26 billion, making it the largest-ever foreign stock listing on a U.S. exchange.
• Shares of SK Hynix and its peers have been volatile in recent months, skyrocketing through April and May on optimism about the AI buildout before sliding lately.

South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix is set to make its U.S. debut today. It will be one of the largest share sales ever—and the market’s response could be telling.

SK Hynix priced its American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, which each represent one-tenth of a common share, at $149. The price sets the company up to raise more than $26 billion, making it the most lucrative U.S. listing by a foreign company ever, when the ADSs begin trading on the Nasdaq today.

SK Hynix is the world’s leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory, accounting for more than 50% of the global market, and the second-largest supplier of NAND devices, according to regulatory filings. Demand for its technology skyrocketed in recent years as tech giants raced to equip data centers for training and running artificial intelligence. Supply couldn’t keep up with demand, causing prices for memory and data storage devices to skyrocket over the past year.

Why This Is Important

SK Hynix’s U.S. listing will be a test of investor appetite for memory stocks, which have hit turbulence in recent weeks after a torrid rally made them the buzziest names on Wall Street.

SK Hynix and its peers have effectively been printing money of late. SK Hynix’s revenue tripled to about $34.5 billion, and its profit quintupled to $26.5 billion, in the first quarter. South Korean competitor Samsung on Tuesday reported its operating profit increased 19-fold last quarter. Tech giants’ desperation to secure memory pushed Micron’s profit margins to nearly 85% in the most recent quarter from 38% last year.

The memory crunch has made SK Hynix among the world’s best-performing stocks this year. Its shares are up well above 200% in 2026, as have Micron’s (MU), while Samsung has more than doubled. (Samsung’s shares are also listed in South Korea.)

But after a blistering rally in April and May, the stocks have cooled off as investors debate valuations and the sustainability of the memory boom. Samsung shares are down nearly 13% since its preliminary earnings report Tuesday, while SK Hynix has fallen 7%. Both have lost about a quarter of their value since closing at record highs in mid-June. 

Those jitters don’t appear to be hurting interest in SK Hynix’s U.S. listing. The share sale was reportedly seven times oversubscribed by institutional investors. Interest in a stock doesn’t guarantee lasting gains: SpaceX’s (SPCX) record-breaking IPO was about four times oversubscribed, helping its shares to charge out of the gate in their first days of trading last month. Nearly a month later, the stock has given up all of its early gains and trades around $150, the price at which it opened on day one. 

The pandemonium surrounding memory chips has made SK Hynix stock exceptionally volatile. In the 127 trading days since the start of the year, its shares have risen or fallen by more than 1% on 103 occasions. In fact, it’s been twice as common for shares to swing more than 5% in a day (53 occurrences) than to move 1% or less (24 occurrences). Over the same period last year, the stock moved more than 5% in a day on just 11 occasions.

SK Hynix and Samsung’s wild ride has become South Korea’s, too, thanks to their size. The benchmark KOSPI Composite Index fell into a bear market on Wednesday when it closed more than 20% below last month’s all-time high. Still, the KOSPI is up nearly 75% since the start of the year, making South Korea the world’s best-performing stock market.

This article was originally published July 9, 2026. It has been updated to reflect fresh market data and context.

News of the day for July 9, 2026

The Dow shed nearly 600 points on Wednesday while oil prices surged amid an escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran.
Credit: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Stock futures are slightly higher this morning as investors monitor developments in the Middle East; PepsiCo’s results narrowly beat Wall Street estimates as strength in international markets offset sluggish sales in North America; Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix is reportedly seeing heavy demand for its upcoming U.S. stock listing; AstraZeneca shares are sinking after a disappointing heart drug trial; and Levi Strauss shares are falling after the denim apparel maker issued weak guidance. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stock Futures Tick Higher As Investors Monitor Iran Developments

Stock futures are pointing higher this morning as markets look to bounce back from yesterday’s stumble caused by escalated fighting between the U.S. and Iran. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were recently up 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively. Dow Jones Average futures were hovering near unchanged ahead of the opening bell, after the blue chip index tumbled nearly 600 points yesterday. WTI crude oil futures were up 0.6% at $74 per barrel, after surging yesterday amid fears that the Strait of Hormuz could shut down again. Gold futures were up 1% at $4,125 an ounce, while bitcoin was holding steady at around $62,700. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects interest rates on loans, ticked higher to 4.58%, trading near its highest levels since mid-May.

PepsiCo Q2 Results Top Wall Street Estimates

The second-quarter earnings season is starting this week with results from several household names, including PepsiCo (PEP), which posted its results this morning. The snack food and beverage giant said it earned an adjusted $2.20 per share as revenue rose 6% from the year-ago period to $24.18 billion in revenue. The top and bottom line numbers narrowly topped the analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha. PepsiCo’s growth was again driven largely by its international business in the quarter, with each of the non-U.S. segments posting double digit sales growth. North American beverages revenue grew by 7%, but snack foods fell 2%. PepsiCo shares, which are flat so far in 2026, were down 2% in recent premarket trading.

SK Hynix’s U.S. Share Offering Reportedly Seeing Massive Demand

Investors are looking to get in early on another AI stock that’s expected to start trading in the U.S. soon. SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chip giant, is offering about 178 million American depositary receipts, with pricing expected later today and the U.S. listing set for Friday. Bloomberg reported last night that the offering is at least seven times oversubscribed as institutional investors look to capitalize on the debut. The ADRs will be equal to one-tenth of a full share, which closed Thursday up 5% to about 2.19 million Korean won ($1,445) in Korean Stock Exchange trading. Soaring AI demand for memory components has sent SK Hynix and other industry heavyweights such as Micron (MU) to record highs this year, though the stocks have pulled back recently.

AstraZeneca Stock Slumps on Heart Drug Trial Data

Shares of AstraZeneca (AZN) are tumbling Thursday after the pharmaceutical company said that Wainua, a drug in development to treat a certain kind of heart disease, failed to meet its targets in its Phase 3 clinical trial. The company said this morning that when adding the drug to the current treatment plan for the disease, it “did not provide a statistically significant benefit on the composite outcome of [cardiovascular] mortality and recurrent CV events.” The company said the full results of the trial will be shared in August. Shares were down 8% ahead of the opening bell, with the move set to drag them back to negative territory for the year.

Levi Strauss Stock Slips After Earnings

Levi Strauss (LEVI) shares are losing ground this morning following the clothing maker’s latest earnings report. After the closing bell yesterday, Levi Strauss said it earned an adjusted 28 cents per share on $1.56 billion in revenue, narrowly topping the analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha. The company lifted its full-year sales outlook to 7% to 7.5% growth, up from 5.5% to 6.5% previously, but the midpoint of Levi’s new adjusted EPS forecast of $1.46 to $1.52 came in just below the analyst consensus. Levi shares, which through yesterday’s close were up 18% so far this year, were down 4% premarket.

Companies whose main agenda is to buy and hold crypto appear to be out of vogue.
Credit: Photographer: Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Cantor Equity Partners I and BSTR Holdings were supposed to create a public bitcoin treasury with over 30,000 coins on the balance sheet. Now those plans are being reworked to account for “current market conditions.”
• High-flying digital asset treasury companies, known as DATCOs, including Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Eightco, and others have seen their share prices fall sharply over the last year.

Digital asset treasury companies are so last summer.

Cantor Equity Partners I (CEPO), a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, was set to merge with BSTR Holdings, to create what was supposed to be among the largest DATCOs—as bitcoin treasury companies are known—listed on major U.S. exchanges. That deal, announced last July, has been scrapped as of Wednesday as both parties renegotiate deal terms “intended to better reflect current market conditions,” according to a filing.

Those conditions can be seen in the 75% decline over the past year in the share price of Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, which now plans to sell as much as $1.25 billion worth of the cryptocurrency. They can also be seen in other DATCOs, including Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) and Eightco (ORBS), whose stock prices have also plummeted. The term “rekt,” crypto slang for total financial devastation, comes to mind, which could also apply to crypto markets at large.

Why This Matters to Investors

The DATCO summer of 2025, as well as a slate of crypto SPAC deals announced thereafter, promised to make digital asset businesses more visible on U.S. exchanges, and they are, but not always in a good way.

Though Fundstrat’s Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion continues to buy up ether, and its holdings are nearing 5% of the total coin supply—Lee’s target goal—about one year after its pledge to buy up the crypto, the stock is trading a fraction of what it was during DATCO summer of 2025 when shares, at peaks, were as high as $161. It recently traded at around $15.

Meanwhile, prominent tech analyst Dan Ives, who joined Eightco as chairman in September, stepped down in March; Lee was appointed to the board the same day. Eightco has about 8% of the world token supply in circulation on its balance sheet—recall these coins are linked to a Sam Altman digital identity project—and about $90 million in OpenAI, according to the company website. Nonetheless, the stock recently changed hands at 64 cents, down from a high of more than $80 last September.

Twenty One Capital (XXI), a half-treasury, half-bitcoin-related business company that listed on the NYSE in December via a SPAC merger has also fallen from peaks. Shares have lost roughly 40% of their value since the start of the year.

“Freedom Fuel” gas stations were offering low gas prices in and around Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Credit: Diccon Hyatt / Investopedia

Key Takeaways

• A chain of 25 Philadelphia-area gas stations promoted by President Donald Trump is offering fuel at lower prices than local competitors.
• The Freedom Fuel stations opened Tuesday, and on Wednesday afternoon, at least one had raised its price by 10 cents a gallon, although it was still lower than nearby options.
• Trump has pressured retailers to lower prices to reverse the spike caused by the war in Iran.

At a gas station on Route 73 in Marlton, New Jersey Wednesday afternoon, Brian Brown was getting an unbelievable deal: he was filling up his car’s gas tank for just $3.47 a gallon, a steal compared to $3.99 at the nearby Wawa.

Brown was part of a steady stream of customers visiting the newly launched Freedom Fuel station, one of 25 in the greater Philadelphia area. These stations were selling gasoline at well below the prices of nearby stations. The station, which had been plain blue with no brand the month before, had been given a patriotic makeover and was now covered in star-spangled signs.

“Usually I go to BJ’s, but I was like, well, heck, let me give this a try,” Brown said. “And sure enough, I’m sending a text to my friend right now, I go, ‘Look it, $3.47.’”

What This Means For The Economy

The Trump administration has pointed to Freedom Fuel as an example for other stations to follow, but it was unclear how the retailer could set its prices lower than those of its competitors. Falling gas prices would help reduce inflation and boost consumer spending by freeing up room in household budgets for other purchases.

The bargain price wasn’t too good to be true, but it was too good to last. Immediately after Brown drove away, the station’s digital sign changed to $3.57. The station attendant said the original price had just been a promotional offer.

Even after the price hike, though, the fuel on offer was still unusually cheap. Regular unleaded averaged $3.83 a gallon in the county on Wednesday, according to AAA. Freedom Fuel has raised eyebrows among experts because of its seemingly unsustainable prices.

‘Freedom Fuel’ Has White House Ties

The Freedom Fuel Network, which registered as a company in Delaware on June 23, was talked up by the White House. Trump announced the company’s launch on July 1 in a post on his Truth Social platform. Later, the White House official account announced the stations were actually opening.

“The FIRST Freedom Fuel Network gas station has LANDED in Philadelphia, lowering the price at the pump to $3.47 for our 47th President,” The White House official account posted on the X social media platform Tuesday. “President Trump is leading the charge to lower gas prices this summer - putting more money in your pocket. 🔥”

At least one expert said the stations are likely taking a loss.

“Stations selling at this price, it’s not sustainable,” Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at the website GasBuddy, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Generally, when losses happen, somebody’s got to pay for it.”

The Freedom Fuel network did not immediately return a message sent through its website contact form. The White House said the administration was not involved with the company or subsidizing the cheap gas.

“The Administration is not involved in the company, nor has the Administration given the company any funding,” a White House spokesperson told Investopedia over email. “There is no other entity or person subsidizing the lower gasoline costs. They are simply reducing their margin to make prices at the pump more affordable for drivers in Philadelphia and New Jersey. This retailer is taking the lead; others should follow.”

The company’s launch comes amid a Trump effort to push down gas prices that spiked in March after the war in Iran disrupted oil supplies from the Middle East.

As of Wednesday, a gallon of regular unleaded averaged $3.80 nationwide, according to AAA, below the recent peak of $4.56 but still well above its $2.98 average on Feb. 28, before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.

Late last month, Trump urged gasoline retailers to lower prices in line with crude oil prices, which similarly spiked when the war began but have since fallen close to pre-war levels. Trump said gasoline should average $2.50 a gallon, which would be the lowest since 2021 and nearly a dollar cheaper than Freedom Fuel’s launch price.

“Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY!” he posted on Truth Social. “The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE! There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal. If Retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead!”

Elevated gas prices strain household budgets, especially for lower-income households, and are a major source of public dissatisfaction with the economy, according to consumer sentiment surveys.

Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• The price of Forever Stamps is set to rise to 82 cents, double the 41-cent cost when they were introduced in 2007.
• The cost of Forever stamps has risen faster than inflation, meaning that thrifty customers who hoarded them for almost two decades have come out ahead.
• As an investment, Forever stamps return far less than stocks.

If you want to own a small, sticky, square piece of eternity, the price is about to go up.

Starting Sunday, the Postal Service is increasing the price of its Forever stamps to 82 cents from 78 cents, bringing them to double their 41-cent price tag when they were launched back in 2007.

The milestone raises a question: Were people who stocked up on Forever stamps when they first came out crazy, or crazy like foxes? It depends on how you look at it.

What This Means For The Economy

The uptick of Forever stamp prices is a reminder of the increasing cost of living, although stamps themselves are not a significant outlay for most households.

At the time of their introduction, sending letters came with a small annoyance: whenever postage costs rose, as they regularly did, you had to attach a bunch of one- or two-cent stamps to your old first-class stamps whenever you mailed something. Forever stamps eliminated that problem: the Postal Service will always deliver a standard one-ounce letter with a single Forever stamp, no matter how much prices rise in the future.

“Who said nothing lasts Forever?” Postmaster General John E. Potter said in a statement at the time, according to news reports. In addition to solving a logistical hassle, the Postal Service created an incentive for thrifty customers to buy up a stockpile while they were still cheap and use them, well, forever.

“Folks who want to hedge against inflation could lay in a supply of the stamps for long-term use,” NBC News noted at the time.

The stamps also represented an intriguing new kind of financial asset, one that promised to increase in value indefinitely, depending on how much mailing prices rose over the decades.

However, at the time, financial writers cautioned that Forever stamps were not likely to be a wise investment. Slate Magazine, for instance, told its readers they should “absolutely not” hoard Forever stamps, since until that point, postage rates had always gone up slower than the overall rate of inflation.

“Should this historical pattern hold, you’d be paying more for today’s Forever stamps than you would for any stamp in the future, no matter how high the rate goes,” Nathaniel Rich wrote.

Some stamp hoarders ignored that advice. The month after their release, someone in Pennsylvania walked into a post office and spent $8,000 on 19,512 Forever stamps, according to local news reports.

Fortunately for the pack rat, who went unnamed in newspaper articles, the historical pattern did not hold. Since April 2007, the Consumer Price Index has risen 62%, while the price of Forever stamps has doubled. In other words, you’d come out ahead if you had bought Forever stamps upon their release and were somehow able to sell them at today’s face value, or if you sent enough postcards to make such a purchase worthwhile.

However, as a pure investment, you’d have been much better off following the standard financial advice and putting the money into stocks: the S&P 500 index has risen 428% over the same time period. And for most people, stamps are an insignificant part of the budget. The average household spent just $43.29 on postage in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In a way, though, the hoarders can be said to have licked the system. There were many worse things you could have done with that amount of money in early 2007, on the eve of the Great Financial Crisis and subprime mortgage crash.

And if the anonymous Pennsylvania man sent a letter every day with his collection, he’d be less than halfway through his supply by now, getting a bigger discount every time—laughing all the way to the mailbox.