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S&P 500 Gains & Losses Today: Index Drops as Middle East Tensions Rise; Oracle Climbs

S&P 500 Gains & Losses Today: Index Drops as Middle East Tensions Rise; Oracle Climbs

Yahooa day ago

The S&P 500 fell 1.1% on Friday, June 13, 2025, as investors weighed the geopolitical implications of the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
Shares of payment processors and credit card issuers lost ground after a report said major retailers could disrupt the payment ecosystem by launching stablecoins.
Concerns about supply disruptions underpinned a surge in crude oil prices. Shares of oil and gas companies advanced.Major U.S. equities indexes moved lower after Israel conducted attacks targeting Iran's nuclear program and military leadership, prompting a retaliation from Tehran and exacerbating the tense geopolitical environment in the Middle East and across the globe.
The S&P 500 lost 1.1% in the week's final trading session. The Dow ended the day 1.8% lower, while the Nasdaq was down 1.3%. Read Investopedia's full daily markets coverage here.
Shares of payment processors moved lower after a report in The Wall Street Journal indicated that Walmart (WMT) and Amazon (AMZN) are considering issuing their own stablecoins, a move that could help the retail giants sidestep the interchange fees charged by credit-card providers. Shares of business payment solutions provider Corpay (CPAY) dropped 7.7%, falling the most of any S&P 500 stock, while shares of PayPal (PYPL), Visa (V), and Mastercard (MA) also declined.
Analysts at Citi downgraded Sherwin-Williams (SHW) stock to "neutral" from "buy," indicating that the persistence of high mortgage rates and softness in the housing market could weigh on the paint distributor's performance in the near term. Sherwin-Williams shares slipped 5.7%.
Shares of Adobe (ADBE) were down 5.3%. Although the provider of software for creating and editing digital media posted better-than-expected sales and profits for its fiscal second quarter, several analysts raised concerns about Adobe's progress with its artificial intelligence products, pointing to potential competitive pressure and disruption in the AI space.
Oracle (ORCL) shares surged 7.7% on Friday, securing the S&P 500's top performance for a second straight day and extending an all-time high posted in the prior session. The march higher for the stock came after the enterprise software giant exceeded sales and profit estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter and guided for revenue growth driven by its booming cloud infrastructure business.
Shares of companies with exposure to biofuel production gained ground after the Trump administration proposed to increase the amount of biofuel that oil refiners must blend into diesel and gasoline over the next two years. Shares of fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings (CF), which is engaged in projects aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of biofuel production, gained 6.5%. Shares of grain processors Bunge Global (BG) and Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) were up 5.7% and 4.7%, respectively.
Crude oil futures prices jumped as concerns spread about possible supply impacts from the escalating conflict in the Middle East, even as Iranian officials said the country's oil storage and refining facilities remain operational following Israel's strikes. The rising price of the commodity helped lift oil and gas stocks. Shares of refiner Haliburton (HAL) gained 5.5%, while shares of exploration and production firm APA Corp. (APA) were up 5.3%.
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1 Top Vanguard ETF That Could Turn $50,000 Into $542,000 in 25 Years
1 Top Vanguard ETF That Could Turn $50,000 Into $542,000 in 25 Years

Yahoo

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1 Top Vanguard ETF That Could Turn $50,000 Into $542,000 in 25 Years

The Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF invests in the top growth stocks in the country. The ETF has soundly beaten the S&P 500 in recent years. There's still a lot more growth on the horizon, particularly in tech, due to artificial intelligence. 10 stocks we like better than Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF › Generating a 10x return in the stock market doesn't have to be difficult -- if you're willing to be patient. By investing your money into a solid exchange-traded fund (ETF) and letting it grow, you can position yourself for some excellent gains, thanks to the effects of compounding. One of the better ETFs to hold for the long haul is the Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF (NYSEMKT: VUG). As its name suggests, it holds growth stocks, and that has yielded some impressive returns for investors in recent years. Here's why this can be a great investment to hang on to, and why over a period of 25 years it could turn a $50,000 investment into $542,000. The Vanguard Growth ETF can be an ideal fund to pile money into, simply because it'll give you exposure to many of the best growth stocks in the world. It specifically focuses on top U.S. stocks, which can be important if you want to limit international exposure. As of April 30, there were 166 stocks in the ETF, which gives you some excellent diversification. And at the same time, it's not overly diverse where top holdings account for just tiny pieces of its overall net assets. With an expense ratio of only 0.04%, you'll also barely get hit with any fees from this fund. Fees can add up significantly with an ETF, especially as your investment rises in value, which is why this Vanguard fund can be an excellent option to hang on to for years as it'll allow you to keep the vast majority of your gains. In recent years, the Vanguard Growth ETF has been a market-beating investment to hold on to. And when you consider that the majority (57%) of its holdings are in tech stocks, which have been red hot of late due to the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), that should come as little surprise. Tech giants Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft are its three largest holdings. Together, they make up more than 31% of the ETF's overall net assets. As these companies invest in AI and continue to grow their operations, there can be more gains ahead for them. While their valuations are undoubtedly high and there may be a period of slowdown in the future, especially amid worries of a recession and trade war on the horizon, the ETF still has the potential to outperform the broader market in the long run. Even if you assume that the ETF slows down and merely does as well as the S&P 500 -- its historical average is an annual return of 10% -- that can still be sufficient to turn your investment into more than 10x its original value. If you invest $50,000 into the ETF today and it grows by an average of 10% for 25 years, it'll grow to be worth approximately $542,000. Future returns are never a guarantee, but historically, growth stocks have generated fantastic gains for investors, and with this ETF, you can gain exposure to the best of the best. Regardless of where you think the market may be headed in the short term, as long as you're willing to hang on for the long haul, it's not likely you'll go wrong by investing in the Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF. This can be a solid investment to build your portfolio around for decades. Before you buy stock in Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,702!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $870,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 988% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Vanguard Index Funds-Vanguard Growth ETF. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 Top Vanguard ETF That Could Turn $50,000 Into $542,000 in 25 Years was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

An Aggressive Social Security Garnishment Is Underway for Over 1,000,000 Beneficiaries -- Here's How You Can Legally Avoid It
An Aggressive Social Security Garnishment Is Underway for Over 1,000,000 Beneficiaries -- Here's How You Can Legally Avoid It

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An Aggressive Social Security Garnishment Is Underway for Over 1,000,000 Beneficiaries -- Here's How You Can Legally Avoid It

Between 80% and 90% of retirees count on their Social Security income, in some capacity, to cover their expenses. The Trump administration has ended the Joe Biden-era overpayment and recovery rate of 10% and implemented a monthly clawback rate of 50% on Social Security overpayments. Beneficiaries who've received an overpayment letter from the Social Security Administration have multiple options available that can waive or reduce the amount they'll need to repay. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook › In May, nearly 53 million retired workers brought home a Social Security check, with the average payout making history by cresting $2,000 for the first time ever. Though this is a relatively modest amount of monthly income, it's imperative to the financial well-being of most aging Americans. For more than 20 years, national survey-taker Gallup has polled retirees annually to gauge their reliance on Social Security income. 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I tried 2 ways of investing in bitcoin. One thrived and one failed miserably, teaching me a valuable lesson.
I tried 2 ways of investing in bitcoin. One thrived and one failed miserably, teaching me a valuable lesson.

Business Insider

time37 minutes ago

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I tried 2 ways of investing in bitcoin. One thrived and one failed miserably, teaching me a valuable lesson.

Back in December of 2024, I decided to hop aboard the bitcoin train and add some crypto exposure to my portfolio. Markets were flush off of the recent Trump victory, there were whispers of a national bitcoin reserve, and bitcoin had recently broken the $100,000 threshold for the first time. The cryptocurrency had gone mainstream enough for late adopters like myself to deem it investable. For my first foray into bitcoin, I purchased a share of Blackrock 's iShares Bitcoin Trust Trust (IBIT). I later added a share of Semler Scientific (SMLR), a healthcare technology company that holds bitcoin on its balance sheet. I wanted to try multiple methods of investing in bitcoin. In hindsight, I realize I committed the classic retail investor impulse: buying in because of FOMO. Sure, positive investor sentiment led to gains in bitcoin, as well as the ETF I bought that was designed to track the crypto. But my stock purchase proved ill-timed. Almost six months later, bitcoin has crossed new all-time-highs, and I have mixed feelings on my investment. Bitcoin ETFs are a beginner-friendly way to get exposure I opted to buy IBIT instead of actual spot bitcoin because it was a more accessible way to get exposure. I didn't want the hassle of setting up a Coinbase account. Plus, buying a single share in an ETF was more psychologically appealing than buying a tiny fraction of a bitcoin (I did not have a spare $100,000 or the risk tolerance to buy an entire bitcoin). The performance has been encouraging. Year-to-date, IBIT is up about 14%, outpacing a 12% gain for bitcoin itself. It's done its job of tracking the crypto, and even added a little extra. And it's far outperformed the S&P 500, which is up just 2% in 2025. ETFs can experience slight tracking differences due to management fees, operational costs, and the timing of inflows and outflows. But if you want a rough proxy of bitcoin performance without actually owning the underlying asset, IBIT gets the job done. A year and a half over its launch, IBIT has gained incredible popularity, growing to over $70 billion in assets under management. Robert Cannon, a financial advisor at Experity Wealth with a specialization in alternative assets, recommends his bitcoin-curious clients to start with the ETF. "It's the easiest, cleanest representation of bitcoin, compared to some of the other strategies that are a bit esoteric," Cannon told me. The ETF wrapper has really helped bitcoin adoption take off in the last year, Rahul Sen Sharma, president and co-CEO at the custom index provider Indxx, told me. Sharma's seeing a surge in interest for bitcoin and digital asset ETFs, and he believes Trump's continued support for crypto will pave the way for more mainstream adoption. Be careful with bitcoin treasury companies Getting bitcoin exposure through other methods was indeed more esoteric — and much less profitable. I added Semler Scientific to my portfolio on January 8, 2025, and it's down more than 40% since then. There's a growing trend among companies to add bitcoin to their balance sheets, with Strategy, Tesla, and GameStop being one of the most prominent examples. The president's own Trump Media and Technology Group has recently raised $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin. Semler Scientific started adding bitcoin to its balance sheet in May of last year and now holds over 4,000 bitcoins. It sounds like a good idea in theory: holding bitcoin as a reserve asset could be a hedge against inflation and dollar weakness, and could also lead to capital appreciation as bitcoin takes off. Some companies like Strategy have had tremendous success. The firm has accumulated over half a million bitcoins, and the stock has outperformed the underlying crypto year-to-date. However, it's hard to replicate the scale and expertise of Strategy. While many of Cannon's clients often inquire about bitcoin treasury companies like Strategy, he usually recommends they stick to the basics with an ETF. There were also company-specific headwinds for Semler Scientific. The company had been under investigation from the Department of Justice for allegedly misleading claims about one of its medical devices. My takeaway from the experience is that buying a single stocks as a bitcoin proxy is probably not a good idea. When you buy into a bitcoin treasury company, you're also inheriting all of its company-specific risks. That includes everything from management decisions and financial health to legal exposure, product performance, and market sentiment around the core business. As a result, the benefits of diversification with bitcoin are watered down. If you're looking for bitcoin exposure, either buying the real thing or a spot ETF is your best bet. Maybe the strategy from here on out is to close out of my position in SMLR and do some tax-loss harvesting this year.

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