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The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point Wednesday for the third time since September, bringing its key rate to about 3.6%, the lowest in nearly three years. Before September, it had gone nine months without a cut.The benchmark rate is the rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another, and the Fed has two goals when it sets the rate: one, to manage prices for goods and services, and two, to encourage full employment. The benchmark rate also affects the interest rates consumers pay to borrow money via credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and other financial products.Typically, the Fed might increase the rate to try to bring down inflation and decrease it to encourage faster economic growth, including by boosting hiring. The challenge now is that inflation remains higher than the Fed’s 2% target but the job market has cooled. The government shutdown had also prevented the timely collection and release of some data the Fed relies on to monitor the health of the economy.Here’s what to know: Interest on savings accounts will continue to decline For savers, falling interest rates will continue to erode attractive yields currently on offer with certificates of deposit (CDs) and high-yield savings accounts.Three of the big five banks (Ally, American Express, and Synchrony) cut their savings account rates since the last Fed rate cut in October, according to Ken Tumin, founder of DepositAccounts.com. The top rates for high yield savings accounts right now remain around 4.35% to 4.6%.Those are still better than the trends of recent years, and a good option for consumers who want to earn a return on money they may want to access in the near-term. A high yield savings account generally has a much higher annual percentage yield than a traditional savings account. The national average for traditional savings accounts is currently 0.61%, according to Bankrate. A cut will impact mortgages gradually For prospective homebuyers, the market has already priced in the rate cut, meaning mortgage rates continue to hover around the lowest levels in more than a year.Mortgage rates are also influenced by bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.“While there’s no guarantee that the Fed’s move will push mortgage rates lower, there’s reason to be optimistic that homebuyers could see rates below 6.00% in the next year, even if only briefly,” according to Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree. “That would likely spur more Americans to refinance their current high-rate mortgages and possibly even to consider shopping for a new home.” Credit card rate relief could be slow Interest rates for credit cards are currently at an average of 19.80%, down from a record-high 20.79% set in August 2024, but still historically high. The Fed’s rate cut may be slow to be felt by anyone carrying a large amount of credit card debt. That said, any reduction is positive news.“The reductions could mean hundreds of dollars in savings for debtors,” according to LendingTree’s Schulz.While the decrease is incremental, improved affordability could also help stabilize delinquency trends, according to Michele Raneri, vice president of U.S. research at credit reporting bureau TransUnion.“Lower borrowing costs can begin to ease household budgets, providing relief from inflationary pressures and reducing financial stress,” she said.Still, the best thing for anyone carrying a large credit card balance is to prioritize paying down high-interest-rate debt, and to seek to transfer any amounts possible to lower APR cards or negotiate directly with credit card companies for accommodation.Raneri added that the current economic environment continues to be defined by “persistent affordability challenges.” Auto loans are not expected to decline soon Americans have faced steeper auto loan rates over the last three years after the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate starting in early 2022. Those are not expected to decline anytime soon. While a cut will contribute to eventual relief, it might be slow in arriving, analysts say.And more borrowers are falling behind on car payments, a sign of economic distress. In October, 6.65% of subprime borrowers were at least 60 days late on their payments, according to Fitch Ratings, the highest delinquency rate on record, since record-keeping began in the early 1990s. The costs of both new and used vehicles remain high, according to Bankrate, which may be in part due to a shortage of used cars.Generally speaking, an auto loan annual percentage rate can run from about 4% to 30%, depending on the borrower’s credit score. Bankrate’s most recent weekly survey found that average auto loan interest rates are currently at 7.05% on a 60-month new car loan. The cut signals the Fed cares about the labor market If you’re a job-seeker right now, the Fed rate cut is good news, since cheaper borrowing for businesses could help them invest in additional employees to grow their business.“Overall, we’ve seen a slowing demand for workers with employers not hiring the way they did a couple of years ago,” said Cory Stahle, senior economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “By lowering the interest rate, you make it a little more financially reasonable for employers to hire additional people. Especially in some areas – like startups, where companies lean pretty heavily on borrowed money – that’s the hope here.”Stahle acknowledged that it could take time for the rate cuts to filter down to employers and then to workers, but he said the signal of the reduction is also important.“Beyond the size of the cut, it tells employers and job-seekers something about the Federal Reserve’s priorities and focus. That they’re concerned about the labor market and willing to step in and support the labor market. It’s an assurance of the reserve’s priorities.”The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism. Cora Lewis, Associated Press
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Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are taking Gemini Space Station Inc. into the prediction market space. The cryptocurrency exchanges CEO and president, respectively, said on Thursday that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has granted a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license to a company affiliate called Gemini Titan, LLC. Gemini Titan will offer event contracts written as yes-or-no questions about future occurrences, essentially letting U.S. users gamble on the outcomes of everyday events. As examples, Gemini in its announcement provided the questions, Will 1 bitcoin end this year higher than $200k? and Will Elon Musks X end up paying the full $140 million fine to the European Commission in 2026? The news comes three months after the Winklevoss twins, made infamous in the 2010 film The Social Network, brought Gemini public amid a wave of crypto-focused IPOs this year. Geminis shares (Nasdaq:GEMI) soared about 16% during after-hours and into premarket trading on Thursday. However, its stock is still down more than 64% from a high that it had reached around its market debut in September. “Making America the crypto capital of the world” The CFTCs granting of the license comes half a decade after Gemini first applied on March 10, 2020. Tyler Winklevoss credited the approval to President Trump for ending the Biden Administrations War on Crypto. He also thanked the CFTCs acting chairman, Caroline D. Pham, for her hard work and dedication to help realize President Trumps vision for making America the crypto capital of the world. Tyler Winklevoss continued his fawning: Its incredibly refreshing and invigorating to have a President and a financial regulator who are pro crypto, pro innovation, and pro America. As for when Gemini Titan will be up and running, the release simply states that it’s starting shortly. U.S. customers should be able to use dollars to trade event contracts in their Gemini account on the web and, eventually, the mobile app. The company adds that Gemini Titan might add crypto futures, options, and perpetual contracts to its derivative offerings in the future. It will have to compete with existing prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi.
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E-Commerce
Today, investors are waking up to red on their screens as many tech and AI stocks are dropping in premarket trading. But why are shares in these companies falling? Much of it has to do with the cloud infrastructure company Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and its latest quarterly earnings results. Heres what you need to know. Oracle’s Q2 2026 results send ORCL plunging Yesterday, Oracle reported financial results for its second quarter of fiscal 2026. To say investors were disappointed in the results is an understatement, given how poorly ORCL shares are performing in premarket trading this morning. As of the time of this writing, ORCL shares are down over 12% as investors unpack its results: Non-GAAP Earnings per Share: $2.26 Total Revenue: $16.1 billion On the surface, the numbers look good. Non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) were up 54% and total revenue was up 14%. However, as noted by CNBC, while Oracles non-GAAP EPS beat LSEG analyst expectations of $1.64, analysts were expecting higher total revenue figures: $16.21 billion versus the $16.1 billion Oracle delivered. That discrepancy caused the stock to tumble, even after the company announced new agreements with major AI investors, Nvidia, and Meta. As noted by Investopedia, although these agreements have helped boost Oracle’s remaining performance obligations to $523 billion, they have also raised investor concerns about circular spending in the AI industry. Circular spending refers to when companies invest in each other, effectively passing money back and forth. Circular spending is also one of the biggest reasons why many fear we could be in an AI bubble waiting to pop. Chip stocks fall after Oracles earnings results These AI bubble fears seem to have been renewed today after Oracles financial results. As of the time of this writing, major chip companies operating in the AI space are seeing stock price declines, including: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD): down 1.2% Arm Holdings plc (Nasdaq: ARM): down 1.2% Broadcom Inc. (Nasdaq: AVGO): down 1.3% Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC): down 1% Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU): down 1.1% NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA): down 1.3% QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM): down 0.9% Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM): down 1.4% Big Tech shares are also falling after Nvidias earnings Oracle’s disappointing earnings and renewed fears of an AI bubble also seem to be impacting the stock prices of many of techs most prominent players this morning, albeit to a lesser extent: Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG): down 0.5% Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN): down 0.7% Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL): up 0.1% Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META): down 0.9% Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT): down 0.6% Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA): down 1.3% As for Oracle itself, the companys stock price is currently down over 12% to $196.25 per share. This decline follows a strong year for Oracle. As of yesterday’s close, the stock is up 33% so far in 2025, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite’s rise of 22.68%. Over the past 12 months, ORCL shares have climbed 25%.
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