It’s been a brutal stretch. Stocks just posted their worst week since April, oil is above $90, the jobs report was a disaster, and the VIX is screaming at levels not seen since last year’s tariff crisis. But Jefferies’ equities trading desk is pounding the table: buy this mess. “I think we rally from here,” said Michael Toomey, a managing director on Jefferies’ equities team, in a Friday note to clients. “This has been the most painful week in a long time for performance and we’re hitting a variety of stress levels that tend to help the tape bottom.” It’s a contrarian call — and he’s got the ...

When the world’s largest asset manager starts limiting how much money you can take out of a fund, it’s worth paying attention. BlackRock announced Friday that it’s capping withdrawals from its HPS Corporate Lending Fund — a $26 billion private credit vehicle — after investors flooded it with $1.2 billion in redemption requests in Q1 alone. The fund paid out $620 million, hitting the 5% net asset value threshold that triggers withdrawal restrictions. BlackRock shares dropped 5% on the news. This isn’t an isolated incident. It’s the latest domino in what’s becoming a slow-motion confidence cris...

Friday’s jobs report didn’t just miss expectations — it obliterated them. The U.S. economy shed 92,000 jobs in February, turning what was supposed to be a modest 59,000-job gain into the second-largest monthly payroll decline since January 2025. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%. And the three-month average? A pathetic 6,000 jobs per month. That’s not cooling — that’s stalling. The damage was nearly across the board. Healthcare — the sector that’s been carrying the labor market like Atlas holding up the sky — dropped 28,000 jobs, largely due to a Kaiser Permanente strike that pulled 31,...

Remember when everyone thought the future belonged to companies that fit in a laptop? Yeah, that era just got a major reality check. There's a seismic shift happening in the stock market right now, and it's got a name: HALO. No, not the video game—though honestly, the metaphor works. HALO stands for "heavy asset, low obsolescence," and it's basically Wall Street's way of saying, "Oops, we've been worshipping the wrong gods." Josh Brown, the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and the guy who actually coined this term, is watching the market rotate away from tech darlings and into companies tha...

Crude oil ripped above $90 a barrel this week — its highest level since 2023 — and the catalysts are piling up faster than traders can price them in. The Iran conflict has escalated dramatically, the Strait of Hormuz is effectively choking off one of the world's most critical oil arteries, and the Trump administration's $20 billion reinsurance plan for stranded tankers is already being called insufficient by analysts who actually understand maritime insurance. Here's the situation. After U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran intensified, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — which handles roughl...

When the Oracle of Omaha — a man who spent decades avoiding tech stocks like they were radioactive — quietly adds Alphabet to the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, you pay attention. It's the kind of move that makes you ask: what does Buffett see that the rest of the market is sleeping on? The answer is hiding in plain sight. Alphabet just crossed $400 billion in annual revenue for the first time. Operating profit hit nearly $100 billion — not a typo — with margins pushing toward 25%. The company is a cash-printing machine that also happens to be building some of the most important AI infrastruct...

Jack Dorsey just cut 4,000 employees from Block — roughly 40% of the company's entire workforce — and the stock surged 24% after hours. Billions in market value appeared overnight. Not because the business was struggling. Because Dorsey told investors, with zero apology, that AI had made thousands of his people unnecessary. "Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company," Dorsey wrote. He didn't blame a downturn. He didn't use the word "right-sizing." He said the quiet part out loud: AI replaced them, and within a year, most CEOs will arrive at the same conclusion. ...

Here's a wild idea: what if you could trade stocks at 3 AM on a Tuesday? Nasdaq thinks that's not just possible—it's inevitable. The exchange just announced plans to file with the SEC for 24-hour trading, five days a week. No more waiting for the opening bell. No more FOMO at midnight. Just pure, unfiltered market access whenever your insomnia strikes. The timeline? Nasdaq's aiming for the second half of 2026, assuming regulators don't throw a wrench in the works. And honestly, the logic behind this move is pretty solid. Why Now? The world's gotten smaller, but the stock market's operating ...

Remember when everyone was obsessed with asset-light companies? You know, the ones that basically run on vibes and venture capital? Yeah, those days are officially over. There's a market rotation happening right now, and it's got a name: HALO. That's "heavy asset, low obsolescence" for those keeping score at home. And while Wall Street's biggest firms—Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley—have all caught onto the trend, the guy who actually invented the framework says they're still missing the plot. Enter Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and the person who literally came up with HAL...

Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud: Block just fired 4,000 people, and Wall Street threw a party. The stock popped 24% after hours. Billions in market value materialized out of thin air. And CEO Jack Dorsey didn't apologize or blame the economy—he basically said, "AI made these jobs pointless, so we're cutting them." Then he added the kicker: "Most CEOs will figure this out within a year." He's probably right. And that's the problem. This wasn't a typical layoff. It was a signal. A very loud one. **The Domino Effect Nobody's Ready For** Block's competitors—PayPal, Shopify, Toas...