Concerted Russian assaults, damage to vital energy infrastructure and mass emigration have inflicted catastrophic damage of up to 40 per cent of the country’s pre-war GDP. Kyiv’s budget payments to millions of soldiers and state employees are currently being paid by the EU. Without those subsidies – the lion’s share of the €60bn in direct financial support so far sent by Brussels – Ukraine’s government finances would instantly collapse. Massive losses on the battlefield have worsened labour shortages, with a record-low unemployment rate of 2.4 per cent. Russia spent more on its military in 2024 than the rest of Europe combined, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ latest Military Balance report – a staggering $462bn, if adjusted for purchasing power. Trump was asked by host Jim Cramer whether it’s still the case that stock market indexes were a good barometer of his performance.

US stock futures rose as investors digested reassuring signals from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after the central bank held interest rates steady on Wednesday. The current crazy levels of expenditure are unsustainable, so Putin has a strong economic incentive to bring his war to an end. Putin intended his full-scale invasion of Ukraine to be a three-day operation that would force regime change in Kyiv. Neither Putin nor his military or economic planners anticipated a grinding war that now soaks up over 40 per cent of Kremlin spending. Trump was asked about the market after a selloff Monday and more trembling on the markets Tuesday. Investors expect the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates unchanged when it concludes its two-day meeting this Wednesday.

The latest official inflation figures in the US showed the rate of price increases cooling in February, however. In the US, a recession is defined as a prolonged and widespread decline in economic activity typically characterised by a jump in unemployment and fall in incomes. Meanwhile, even as the latest figures indicate inflation is easing, analysts say the odds of a downturn are increasing, pointing to his policies. Now forex moving average two months into his presidency, he’s painting a slightly different picture.

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• A group of retail investors who regularly exchanged trading tips on a Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets noticed how many institutional investors had shorted GameStop.
• The Fed could lower interest rates further to help the economy, but that would also push upward on inflation.
• It exploded from $46 on its first day of trading to a peak of $225 just this February.
• In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.23% from 4.25% late Wednesday.
• Given the unpredictable nature of Reddit stocks, traders should avoid putting too much of their portfolio into one position.

Is the US really heading into a recession?

As a primarily text-driven platform, it just isn’t as impactful, in my view. The social media platform received pretty dim coverage from Wall Street analysts. Don’t hesitate to tell us about a ticker we should know about, market news, or financial education.Check out our WIKI that has beginner & advanced topics on both investing & trading.

‘You don’t have the cards’ – How to play poker against Trump

• In this article, we will study the rise in popularity of meme stocks (stocks that gain momentum through social media buzz rather than traditional analysis).
• And he predicted that if Democrats won the 2024 presidential election, the stock market would have crashed.
• Google made some changes to its algorithm that led to Reddit nearly doubling its size in the past 18 months.
• Please bear with us as we address this and restore your personalized lists.
• Now trading around $110, the stock is still up nearly 140% since going public.

For the first quarter, its guidance called for revenue of $360 million-$370 million, representing 50% growth from a year ago, which is still strong but a notable decline from the fourth quarter. Being a Boglehead of late hasn’t been fun; nobody enjoys a stock market decline of 10 percent. Bogleheads have lost on Tesla too, but Tesla makes up just 1.39 percent of VTI. As a result, this social media hype causes stocks to surge rapidly, often without any connection to the company’s underlying fundamentals. This is on top of Reddit’s karma system which enforces group consensus.

Accenture’s Stock Drops as Federal Cuts Hit Revenue

For many firms, the biggest question mark is tariffs, which raise costs for US businesses by putting taxes on imports. As Trump unveils tariff plans, many companies are now facing lower profit margins, while holding off on investments and hiring as they try to figure out what the future will look like. Prices were up 2.8% over the 12 months to February, down from 3% in January, the Labor Department said.

$32 Billion Wiz Deal Boosts Google Cloud Security Amid AI Threats

A hedge fund, Melvin Capital (one of the most notable funds shorting GameStop), reportedly lost billions during this short squeeze. At press time, RDDT shares closed at $167.08, tracking 128.94% returns to shareholders over the last six months. Last Monday, RDDT stock hit an all-time high price of $179.49, more than double the 52-week average of $81.06 per share. The company guided fourth-quarter revenue of between $385 and $400 million, handily surpassing the $357.9 million consensus view.

Tech analyst Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management wrote on social media this week that his optimism had “taken a step back” as the chance of a recession increased “measurably” over the past month. That could deliver a major hit to the US economy, which is driven by consumer spending and has grown increasingly dependent on those richer households, as lower income families face pressure from inflation. “But what the president and his cabinet are signalling is actually a bigger deal. It’s a restructuring of the American economy,” he said.

Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool’s premium services. Chipmaker Nvidia, for example, saw its share price jump from less than $15 at the start of 2023 to nearly $150 in November of last year. Investors were already jittery about the possibility of a correction, after big gains over the last two years, driven by the sharp run-up in tech stocks fuelled by investor optimism about artificial intelligence (AI). The head of the US central bank, Jerome Powell, offered assurances in a speech last week, noting that sentiment had not been a good indicator of behaviour in recent years. Brian Gardner, chief of Washington policy strategy at the investment bank Stifel, said businesses and investors had thought Trump intended tariffs as a negotiating tool.

Like many social media derivatives essentials sites, Reddit has struggled for years to achieve sustained profitability, as indicated by positive net income for consecutive quarters. Before the IPO, Reddit reported $159 million net loss in 2022, and another $91 million net loss in 2023. In terms of user growth, Reddit’s network effect yielded 97.2 million daily active uniques in Q (ending October), which is a 47% year-over-year increase. As of January 2025, according to Ahrefs’ traffic data, Reddit ranks 6th worldwide with a 762.1 million search traffic volume, which is valued at $386.4 million.

“And that’s what’s 20 50 and 200 day moving average been driving markets in the last couple of weeks.” “If the White House remained committed to its policies even in the face of much worse data, recession risk would rise further,” the firm’s analysts warned. Goldman Sachs last week raised its recession bets from 15% to 20%, saying it saw policy changes as “the key risk” to the economy.

We’ll also examine the tactics behind trading these stocks, the importance of risk management in such volatile markets, and how social media continues to influence new meme stocks like Virgin Galactic and BBIG. Finally, we’ll look at how regulators respond to this phenomenon and consider what’s next for retail traders in markets such as cryptocurrencies and penny stocks. The stock market isn’t just driven by corporate profits and economic data anymore. Traditionally, institutional investors like hedge funds, investment banks, and mutual funds held a dominant influence on stock prices.

Reddit’s number one source of income is through IPO funding, which has gone over 10 rounds since the company first went public back in March of 2024. At that time, the site entered the New York Stock Exchange, and quickly debuted at $34 per share, according to CNBC. Another key factor in Reddit’s success is the company’s willingness to embrace the use of AI, which has become a major hot-button issue in the world of tech.

While advertising sales generate the majority of Reddit’s revenue, AI licensing deals with Google’s Gemini and Open AI’s ChatGPT add a valuable boost to the social media platform’s top line. Reddit’s stock has performed extremely well since going public in March of 2024. It exploded from $46 on its first day of trading to a peak of $225 just this February. Now trading around $110, the stock is still up nearly 140% since going public. But in recent months, analysts have grown concerned about the company’s reliance on Google.

Terms like “diamond hands” (referring to holding a stock through volatility) and “tendies” (profits) became commonplace. This also created an “us vs. them” mentality, which encouraged retail investors to resist selling in the face of price drops. On Monday, February retail sales data arrives as worries over consumer resiliency grow after spending declined sharply in January and consumer confidence waned over tariff fears. Several reports of housing data are on tap for this week as real estate professionals begin to look toward the spring selling season to thaw a frigid housing market that has suffered under high prices and limited inventory. As retail traders continue to grow their influence, it’s important to stay informed about the trends emerging on social media and how they can affect the market.

Will Trump’s tariff war spark big-bang reforms in India?

The federal government accounted for 17% of Accenture’s North American revenue last fiscal year, and its stock sank 7.9%. Barring a surprise, we’re unlikely to see the 2024 surge in the stock continue this year. Profits also soared, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) going from $23.2 million to $154.3 million, and it reported earnings per share of $0.36, which topped estimates at $0.25.