Days later, the United States and Israel attacked Iran, setting off an energy crisis and raising new inflation concerns in financial markets. The result has been a jump in the yield on government bonds, and falling expectations for interest-rate cuts later this year. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which acts as a broad reference interest rate that underpins the U.S. mortgage market, climbed to 4.25 percent on Thursday, up from below 4 percent before the war began.
When fear spikes, most investors flee to gold or Treasuries. But five quietly resilient stocks have been doing the work all along, and most investors aren't paying attention. The ranking below weighs dividend stability, earnings consistency, balance sheet strength, and cash flow predictability in a turbulent environment.
During the 12 months ended in February, they ran 1% below the previous 12-month period. That's the 22nd-best performance among the states and tops the nation's 0.3% dip. Claims fell in 24 states, topped by Wisconsin's 16% dip, Indiana's 14%, and Massachusetts and Arizona, off 13%.
He said that while many people set target retirement ages, people in the FIRE movement set target portfolio numbers. Unfortunately, he believes this is "inherently riskier" because you're biased towards being exposed to risk as long as possible to help your wealth grow quickly - unlike people who usually rebalance their portfolios and shift to safer assets as their retirement age nears.
This year has been volatile for brands. With tariffs taking effect, the job market slowing, and consumer spending barely keeping pace with inflation, it's no surprise that ad spend has slowed in tandem. Amidst economic uncertainty and an onslaught of unanswered questions, brands are increasingly looking for demonstrable ROI in their marketing and design budgets. Some may choose to invest in a costly new campaign or commit to a new brand identity, while others will default to slashing their budgets altogether.
Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at the ecommerce company, made the announcement Wednesday in a blog post. The latest reductions follow a round of job cuts in October, when Amazon laid off 14,000 workers. She said U.S.-based staff would be given 90 days to look for a new role internally. Those who are unsuccessful or don't want a new job will be offered severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits, she said.
Among the museum directors paying keen attention to the ruling, on 3 December, that all federal grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) would be reinstated, the director of the Seattle Art Museum Scott Stulen heaved a sigh of relief. In 2025, the Pacific Northwest's leading art museum saw all its federal funding cut. That represented the loss of an annual income stream, he says, of between $300,000 and $400,000.
David Deal's 2026 outlook is what he describes as a "whack-a-mole of worry." While he's 62 and presumably approaching retirement, 65 is "just a number" for him, not a milestone marker for throwing in the towel on his career like his parents' generation. The thing that really has him wound up, though, is healthcare, which he calls a "DEFCON 1" situation.
We're running out of snappy ledes about how the labor market has roiled from economic challenges...and it seems we're going to need to get creative. While slightly more employers plan to hire in Q1 2026 than in Q4 2025, many anticipate continuing to hold off, citing economic uncertainty, a new ManpowerGroup survey found. Forty-three percent of employers plan to increase their staff in Q1 2026, while 16% are planning reductions, according to the survey, which tracked responses from 6,000-plus employers in the US.
Like many artists, Voynovskaya, is trying to navigate a rocky economy and policy shifts that could make health care harder to attain. Voynovskaya is insured through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, also known as Covered California. The ACA subsidizes insurance premiums through tax credits, making coverage affordable to many. But some of those tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year, raising premiums for more than 74,600 people in Alameda County.
The United States gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration, the government said in delayed reports. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, highest since 2021. Both the October and November job creation numbers, released Tuesday by the Labor Department, were late because of the 43-day federal government shutdown. The November job gains came in higher than the 40,000 economists had forecast.
Firstly, 2025 really took on the 'challenging times economically' baton from 2024 with gusto. I've written numerous times attempting to provide some guidance for people tackling uncertainty and a challenging economic landscape. From leaders struggling with team cuts to international students facing sponsorship challenges to professionals questioning their career paths; 2025 wasn't the return to abundance we all hoped for.
I think the news certainly makes things more complicated. I think people are confused. We had a terrific second quarter. We talked about the back-to-school business being pretty healthy, and yet we all see potential storm clouds on the horizon. So we're trying to be cautiously optimistic... You could stay up all night worrying... But in reality, our job is to make sure we create a better shopping experience for the customer.
These are trying times for corporations. The marketplace is rife with unpredictability, especially when it comes to economic and trade policy. The 2025 World Economic Forum's Chief Economists Outlook report concluded that "uncertainty has become a defining feature of the global economic landscape," with 82% of chief economists gauging uncertainty as "very high." This year, the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, which tracks data from around the world, spiked to its highest level in three decades.
Karp notes that while the company has "grown quite significantly," it has kept to its "constraints." "Our head count is one manifestation of this disciplined approach," Karp wrote in the letter to shareholders. "The casual expansion of our ranks would have diminished the need to lean even more heavily on the strength of our software and the Ontology and to ensure their continued maturation.
Mexico is facing a crucial week for its economy. Thursday marks the end of the 90-day deadline that U.S. President Donald Trump gave the Mexican government to evaluate their trade relationship and define the tariffs that will remain in place between them. The Latin American country is the United States' main trading partner; however, it has failed to contain the protectionist onslaught that Trump has launched globally.
Are finance chiefs simply adapting to this unending unpredictability? "Uncertainty has become the new norm," Steve Gallucci, global and U.S. leader of Deloitte's CFO Program, said during our discussion of the firm's Q3 2025 CFO Signals report released this morning. Gallucci emphasized that it's critical for CFOs to foster strategies and mechanisms designed to manage persistent variability-a reality that's unlikely to change soon. According to the report, the CFO confidence score came in at 5.7, slightly up from last quarter's 5.4 reading.
To do so, Modern Retail+ Research surveyed 68 brand and retailer professionals about their past and current use of sales channels during the holidays, their past and current holiday marketing tactics, as well as how their current holiday season discounts and holiday revenue expectations compare to last year's. We also interviewed executives at the Fwrd Group and NEOM Wellbeing to learn about their plans and expectations for the upcoming holiday sales season.
Financial tycoons shared their advice for young people to succeed at work and in life. Billionaires Leon Cooperman, Jeff Greene, and John Calamos said passion and hard work are vital. Kevin O'Leary, Nassim Taleb, and Ross Gerber said they need to be responsible and disciplined.
At first, I took things a bit personally, but then when I connected with other fellow agency owners and consultants, I noticed that many of them were going through the same thing at some level, at least on the marketing side.The truth is that we're at an inflection point. The forces reinventing marketing are not merely external; they're structural. Economic shifts are the main driver, but also AI disruptions, talent trends and evolving client expectations are fundamentally altering the way value is delivered.
Some 60 per cent of British millionaires believe they would have a better life abroad, a new survey has revealed. More than half of all the 1,000 wealthy respondents also said they are more likely to consider leaving the UK if Rachel Reeves introduces a wealth tax.
Economic uncertainty globally is influencing demand for hybrid workspace and leading companies to adopt flexible office arrangements. Share price reactions are not always rational in such an environment.
"I'm basically starting over - that's the part that bothers me," said Francis, who's in her 50s and based in the Northeast US. "But I have to do what I have to do to survive."
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board has warned that the recent 15% tariff agreement with Japan could carry long-term strategic costs in the form of rising prices and mounting pressure on consumer and business sentiment.
"Interest rates have fallen as expected, giving buyers more financial capacity, but a lot has changed in the past six months. The prospect of future tax rises, particularly in the autumn budget, is likely to weigh heavily-especially at the top end of the market."
A recent Bank of America Institute note spotted a contradiction: While data shows customers increasing spending at restaurants recently, when surveyed, shoppers said they actually cut spending on dining out. They explain this by deal-hunting: Diners still went out, but scaled down the types of restaurants they visited to get more bang for their buck.
Frasers Group anticipates adjusted pre-tax profits between £550 million and £600 million for the new financial year, reflecting little to no profit growth due to economic uncertainty and potential tax rises.
Shares of ASML, the Dutch semiconductor equipment giant, tumbled 11% on Wednesday after the company announced it could no longer confirm that it will grow in 2026.
