Every weekend, I recap “news you can use” from the week — a handful of quotes from major (and often expensive) financial news sources — so you can stay up to date on the news that affects your money without spending a dime and in less than a minute.

Here’s an overview of what happened this week.

Investors are misreading news about the Iran war, analysts say as markets whipsaw (April 20, MarketWatch)

Deutsche Bank also urged caution in a note on Monday.

Its head of macro research, Jim Reid, cited an “uncomfortable” comparison with recent history — the more-than 10% S&P 500 rally in the early weeks of the war in Ukraine in 2022, as brief optimism over an early negotiated settlement left investors “disappointed.” The headline U.S. index went on to fall around 25% from its January peak to its October trough, finishing the year with a decline of 19% — its worst showing since 2008.

How the world’s leading political risk consultant now assesses cease-fire after Strait of Hormuz closed again (April 20, MarketWatch) 

Eurasia Group observes that while the U.S. side is “projecting confidence a deal can be reached, signals from the Iranian side are more pessimistic.” It seems clear that both sides are trying to derive maximum leverage ahead of the next round of talks. The likely scenario, Brew maintains, is the cease-fire holds, but it’s fraught with risk until the U.S. withdraws military assets and the Iranians relax their grip on the strategically vital chokepoint.

Retail sales jump to a 3-year high due to surging gas prices, but consumers also aren’t showing any quit (April 21, MarketWatch) 

Retail receipts jumped 1.7% last month, the government said Tuesday, after factoring in seasonal patterns in sales. That’s the largest increase since the beginning of 2023.

If gas stations are omitted, retail sales rose a more modest but still healthy 0.6%. What’s more, sales in February and January were revised higher, a sign the economy was stronger than previously believed.

Health insurers raise questions about Medicare program that will offer GLP-1s to seniors for $50 (April 21, MarketWatch)

As part of its Balance program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services negotiated the prices of several GLP-1s for Medicaid agencies and insurers that offer Medicare Part D plans, aiming to give people with Medicare coverage access to weight-loss medications for the first time since the 1990s.

CVS Health told Bloomberg that it won’t participate in the program. A UnitedHealth Group executive described “notable challenges and outstanding questions” around the program on that company’s earnings call Tuesday morning.

What Everyone Got Wrong About Jobs and the Immigration Crackdown (April 22, Wall Street Journal) 

Unemployment is up slightly for U.S.-born workers, and wage growth has slowed. Wage growth has also slowed in the blue-collar industries that tend to employ low-skilled migrants, a sign that widely feared labor shortages haven’t materialized, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Labor Department figures.

US Business Activity Expands While Prices Rise Most Since 2022 (April 23, Bloomberg) 

US business activity picked up in April, fueled by the strongest manufacturing growth in nearly four years as war-related supply disruptions prompted a scramble for supplies.

Businesses are quickly passing costs along, with the composite measure of selling prices increasing to 59.9, the highest since July 2022, and the overall inflation picture is now the most worrying for almost four years.

See Also:

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A long life isn’t cheap: Underestimating your longevity will cost you (April 23, MarketWatch) 

Only 1 in 3 Americans can correctly identify how long a 65-year-old will typically live, according to new research from the TIAA Institute. That has real consequences, as workers who underestimate longevity tend to save less, plan less and risk running out of money in what could be a decades-long retirement.

Today, overall life expectancy in the U.S. is an average age of 79, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But for those who reach age 65, the average life expectancy is now 84 for men and 87 for women. 

‘Bubble’ Signal Flagged by BofA as Tech Stocks, Volatility Soar (April 24, Bloomberg)

“It’s a statement to us that the fear of missing upside seems to outweigh the fear of downside,” said Nitin Saksena, Bank of America’s head of equity derivatives research. “That’s kind of the psychological lens through which people seem to be approaching the market.”

Every weekend, I recap “news you can use” from the week — a handful of quotes from major (and often expensive) financial news sources — so you can stay up to date on the news that affects your money without spending a dime and in less than a minute.

Here’s an overview of what happened this week.

CPI inflation soars by most since 2022 as gas prices bite (April 10, Yahoo Finance):

Headline inflation clocked in 3.3% higher than a year ago, while being up 0.9% on a monthly basis, a rapid acceleration from February’s levels. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated a 3.4% increase from a year ago and 0.9% from a month prior.

On a “core” basis, which strips out volatile categories like food and energy, prices rose by 0.2% from February’s levels and 2.6% on an annual basis.

The economy slowed sharply even before the Iran war. Where does it go from here? (April 9, CNBC):

Fourth-quarter GDP was revised down again, to 0.5% from 0.7%, showing a big slowdown in growth in the final three months of last year. Originally, the increase in GDP was reported as 1.4%.

By contrast, the economy grew at a frothy 4.4% annual pace in the 2025 third quarter and 3.8% in the 2025 second quarter.

Inflation was getting worse before Iran war. PCE price increases show how much. (April 9, CNBC):

The personal-consumption price index, the Fed’s preferred price gauge, rose by 0.4%, matching the forecast of economists.

The yearly increase in the core rate of inflation slipped to 3% from 3.1%. Both of these measures show inflation is still far above the Fed’s 2% goal — and is likely to rise even higher in the short run because of a spike in oil prices.

U.S. crude oil posts biggest one-day drop since 2020 on U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement (April 8, CNBC):

The apparent ceasefire came less than two hours before Trump’s 8 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait. The president had threatened to bomb every bridge and power plant in Iran if its leaders did not meet that deadline.

U.S. rally loses steam after Israel agrees to negotiate with Lebanon (April 8, CNBC):

The ceasefire is fragile as the U.S. and Iran dispute the terms of the agreement. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, said on Wednesday that Washington had breached the deal.

“The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments — a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” Ghalibaf said in a statement posted on social media.

Donald Trump’s ‘TACO’ Still Leaves Tensions Simmering Over War in Iran (April 7, MarketWatch):

Trump’s announcement Tuesday that he was accepting a proposal for a two-week ceasefire in Iran was met by relief in global capitals and jubilation in financial markets.

But amid celebrations of another “TACO Tuesday” from a president known for pulling back from the brink was the looming realization that the same core challenges remain.

US and Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire as Trump pulls back on threats (April 7, Associated Press):

Iranian officials on Tuesday urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants, as U.S. President Donald Trump warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran does not meet his latest deadline to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump threatened to destroy all of Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran does not allow traffic to fully resume in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits in peacetime.

A Fire Sale Has U.S. Office Buildings Going for 90% Off (April 7, Wall Street Journal):

Landlords and their lenders held on to their office towers for years, hoping for a turnaround after Covid. Now, they are accepting enormous losses. Owners and creditors are capitulating to the reality that more employees are splitting their work time between home and office. They are also resigned to stubbornly higher interest rates, which lower property values and make it harder for buyers to borrow.

See Also:

Beware These 7 Common Car Insurance Shopping Mistakes

Inflation Expectations Jump With Iran War, Fed Survey Finds (April 7, Reuters):

US consumers said they expected an inflation rate of 3.4% over the next 12 months, up 0.4 percentage points from February, according to the median response in the New York Fed’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations. The outlook for inflation in three years rose slightly to 3.1%, and expected inflation in five years remained unchanged at 3%.

AI agents have stolen a lot of jobs from humans over the past year (April 6, Yahoo Finance):

Goldman Sachs economist Elsie Peng warned in a new note that the substitution of artificial intelligence has reduced monthly payroll growth by about 25,000 jobs and raised the unemployment rate by 0.16% over the past year. At the same time, AI augmentation — the use of AI tools by human workers — has added 9,000 jobs to monthly payroll growth and lowered the unemployment rate by 0.06%.

Net-net, AI has caused a drag of 16,000 jobs per month on payroll growth and a 0.1% boost to the unemployment rate.

2 Early Signs of Home Sales Look Promising. Maybe Higher Mortgage Rates Didn’t Scare Buyers After All. (April 6, Barron’s):

Pending home sales in March showed significant increases, with Zillow reporting a 29.8% rise from February and 4.6% year-over-year. Mortgage rates climbed about half a percentage point from late February to late March, causing housing stocks to drop nearly 16%.

Despite rising rates, buyer resilience in March was attributed to pent-up demand and rates still lower than the previous year.