Markets
How the overall market is doing today: indices, interest rates, mood and the headlines moving prices.
How is the market doing today?
Today's market story
What is moving markets and what it could mean for investors.
Rules of thumbHow rates, the dollar, oil and stocks usually affect each other.
When interest rates and the dollar both rise:
Growth and tech stocks tend to fall.
Future profits are worth less when safe bonds pay more, and a strong dollar shrinks the value of US companies' foreign sales.
When short-term rates rise above 10-year rates:
A recession warning (the “inverted yield curve”).
Investors lock in long-term bonds because they expect the economy to slow and the Fed to cut rates.
When oil jumps while the VIX is above 20:
Company profit margins come under pressure.
Higher energy costs meet nervous markets, and central banks have less room to help.
When small companies beat the S&P 500:
The rally is broadening.
Money is moving beyond the biggest tech names into the wider economy, usually a healthy sign.