A personal blog about money, markets and crypto
Alex 
The Pickle AI agent app is free to download, and Pickle Plus costs $8.99 a month on the App Store. It’s an iPhone app from a Y Combinator startup founded by Korean entrepreneurs, and it makes phone calls, books tables and places orders for you. The Herald Business reported on October 22, 2026 that it had reached 17th in the free social networking chart of Apple’s Korean App Store. Is your money safe? According to the…
The Nikkei 225 fell 10.27% in the month to November 12, 2026, closing at 60,819.36 (Yahoo Finance). Most of why the Nikkei 225 is falling comes from the AI chip trade breaking down across Asia, and it happened even though a yen at 159.71 per dollar should have helped Japanese exporters. Your bank savings aren’t touched by this. A Japan stock fund, though, has just had a one-month drop of correction size, and what hap…
The BLS publishes October producer prices on Friday, November 13 at 8:30 ET. September’s index jumped about 1.34% in one month and sits 6.35% above a year earlier. Here’s what a hot or cool October print would mean for the 5.0% 10-year yield, the dollar, stocks, gold, bitcoin and your own money.
Gold has fallen 10.27% in three months to $3,984.90 an ounce (Yahoo Finance, November 12). Any World Bank gold price forecast 2028 you read now starts from a lower base than it did this summer. Two things are pushing gold down: a US 10-year Treasury yield of 5.0% and a dollar index up 3.19% in three months. Both are still in place. Your gold isn’t going anywhere, but right now it earns nothing while a Treasury pays 5…
The bitcoin price post midterm elections is $73,559, down 7.97% in a week, per CoinGecko. The November 3 vote didn’t drive the slide. Spot bitcoin ETF outflows running four days straight (CoinDesk) and a 10-year Treasury yield sitting at 5.0% (Yahoo Finance) did. Your coins are only as safe as where you keep them, and the next few weeks come down to ETF flows, bond yields and Strategy’s exit from MSCI indexes at the …
Safe high-yield dividend stocks are surging in search interest this week, and I understand why: the 10-year Treasury yield hit 5.0% on November 11 (Yahoo Finance), October CPI came in at 3.74% (BLS), and the S&P 500 is down 2.38% over the past month. Income investors want yield, but they’re nervous. The question behind every search is the same: which dividend stocks actually protect my money?
Goolsbee October CPI “borderline disturbing” Fed rates warning landed November 11: the 0.4% monthly jump pushed annual inflation to 3.74% (BLS), and the Chicago Fed President’s blunt language came as the 10-year Treasury yield touched 5.00% (Yahoo Finance). When a voting Fed official uses words that harsh while yields spike, you pay attention.
Stock market open on Veterans Day 2026: yes, and the S&P 500 starts it at 7,520.93 (Yahoo Finance, Nov. 10). The NYSE and Nasdaq run normal hours on Wednesday, Nov. 11. The US bond market and most banks take the day off, so the 10-year Treasury yield stays parked at its last close of 4.98% until Thursday.
The October 2026 CPI report results show U.S. consumer prices rose 0.4% in one month, per BLS. That headline is rounded. On the seasonally adjusted index the rise was 0.35%, core prices climbed 0.30%, and the 10-year Treasury yield jumped back to 4.98% the same day. Your bank deposits aren’t at risk, but cash now earns almost nothing after inflation, and the next Fed move depends on whether core inflation keeps runni…
The answer to “did mortgage rates drop today” is almost certainly no: the 10-year yield hit 4.98%. Lenders price 30-year fixed loans against that Treasury yield, and it rose 2.45% in a single session on Nov. 10 (Yahoo Finance) after the October CPI report showed prices rising faster than expected. A fixed-rate mortgage you already have doesn’t change at all. If you’re shopping or waiting to refinance, the next inflat…