Wall street

Fears of a U.S. recession have been mounting with Wall Street appearing to be headed for its worst December since 1931 -- yes, during the Great Depression. The stock market's sustained slump since October has been fueled by investor concerns about lower corporate profits, higher corporate debt, a festering trade war between the U.S. and China and a broader global slowdown.So is a U.S. recession imminent? Not necessarily.Plenty of economic gauges suggest that far from being derailed by a stock market that's set to suffer its first annual loss in a decade, the $20 trillion U.S. economy is barreling forward. Employers are hiring, consumers are spending ahead of the holidays and economic growth has been brisk, thanks in part to President Donald Trump's deficit-financed tax cuts.But America's economy has been growing since mid-2009 and nothing -- not even what has become the second-longest U.S. expansion on record -- lasts forever. As this recovery has aged, economists and business leaders … [Read more...] about Is a recession coming? Making sense of Wall Street’s wild signals

Washington — There was fallout on Wall Street on Monday following a Texas judge's ruling that the Affordable Care Act is "unconstitutional" and should be thrown out. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by 18 Republican state attorneys general. Health care stocks tumbled after the Friday ruling as more than a dozen states vowed to appeal. "We have never faced as imminent a threat to the health of our people as we face right now," said Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear. If upheld, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor of Texas would eliminate all of Obamacare's provisions — including Medicaid expansion, protections for preexisting conditions and the ability of children to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26. "This decision is devastating. the good news is that the judge seemed way off the deep end," Sen. Chuck Schumer said. O'Connor declared Friday the individual mandate requiring all Americans to buy insurance is unconstitutional, … [Read more...] about Wall Street, Congress react to federal judge ruling Obamacare unconstitutional