Linda Bolton Weiser, Water Tower Research Managing Director explains how Procter & Gamble (PG), e.l.f. Beauty (ELF), and Estée Lauder (EL) leverage brand equity, product innovation, and the "lipstick effect" to maintain strong pricing power and stay inflation-proof.
News
High-signal headlines only - macro events, earnings, M&A, regulatory. Listicles and analyst clickbait filtered out by default. Refreshed hourly.
Pre-Market Stock Futures: Futures are trading higher this morning after a brutal day across Wall Street on Wednesday. The combination of the Iran war renewing, oil surging higher, and the continued semiconductor stock sell-off and rotation was just the catalyst needed to launch the selling. As expected, the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. Still, ... Here Are Wednesday’s Top Wall Street Analyst Research Calls: Bloom Energy, Dave, Fiverr, Humana, Las Vegas Sands, Lemonade, Procter & Ga
A quarter-points rate hike has been bandied about as a possibility today.
Today Federal Reserve meeting: Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET, following the FOMC interest-rate decision at 2 p.m. Earnings (a.m): Procter & Gamble, Humana, L3Harris, Biogen, General Dynamics, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Airbus Earnings (p.
Today Earnings (a.m.): Coca-Cola, UPS, Boeing, Sherwin-Williams, Hilton, Centene, PayPal, S&P Global Earnings (p.m.): Visa, Ford Motor, Mondelez International, Waste Management, PPG Industries, Bloom Energy, Avis Budget, Seagate Technology Economic data: Consumer confidence index, Johnson Redbook retail sales index, U.
This is a huge earnings week, with nearly a third of S&P 500 companies reporting. The Fed is expected to hold rates steady after its confab ends Wednesday, and we’ll see key inflation data on Thursday.
Seventy companies have raised their dividends through every recession and rate shock for at least a quarter century, but a bruising few quarters for some of NOBL's most-watched names put that unbroken record under real pressure heading into mid-2026.
Walmart and Procter & Gamble both navigated the same tariff storm in their latest quarters, but one leaned into aggressive reinvestment while the other quietly played defense with pricing and productivity. Which strategy is actually winning, and what the next six months will reveal, changes the calculus for investors on both sides.
A portfolio paying $55,000 this year feels useful today, but inflation has a way of quietly making that same paycheck feel smaller every year you spend it. The yield you choose right now could either protect your retirement income or slowly hollow it out.
The typical American household spent $78,535 in 2024. Headline PCE inflation was running at 4.1% year over year in May 2026, which means the same lifestyle can become thousands of dollars more expensive in a single year. Social Security benefits are rising 2.8% in 2026, but that adjustment may not fully offset the higher cost ... The Portfolio That Lets You Ignore Inflation
Every new tariff headline, rate decision, and earnings miss seems to demand a financial response, and that constant pressure is exhausting. There is a way to build a portfolio so sturdy that the daily news cycle loses its grip on your nerves.
A long-term care policy does not just protect against a future care bill. It also creates a premium bill that may have to be paid for decades. A healthy 55-year-old buying meaningful inflation protection can face annual premiums in the low-to-mid thousands, and a 55-year-old couple can easily cross $5,000 combined. The planning question is: ... What Would It Take to Permanently Cover Long-Term Care Insurance Premiums?
A 12% yield looks unbeatable on day one. A retiree who wants $60,000 a year needs only about $500,000 at that yield, compared with roughly $1.7 million at a 3.5% yield. But retirement income is not a one-year problem. The better question is which income stream can hold up after inflation, market cycles, and years ... The Dividend Growth Snowball: How Modest Income Today Can Become Serious Income Later
A retiree who starts with a 10% dividend yield can collect far more income on day one than someone earning 3.5%. Twenty years later, the tables may have turned. One income stream stayed flat while inflation chipped away at its buying power. The other kept growing year after year until it was paying dramatically more. ... Double Your Retirement Income in a Decade. Here’s How.
The Vanguard Value ETF (NYSEARCA:VTV) has turned into one of the best large-cap stories of 2026, trading near $218 with a 16% year-to-date gain and a 27% advance over the past year. That run rests on a narrow set of legs: a healthcare snapback led by UnitedHealth, a financial-sector grind led by JPMorgan, and energy ... VTV’s Next 12 Months Hinge on One Fed Inflation Signal: Here’s What to Watch
The Fed’s pivot toward a rate-hike bias changes the math for a 67-year-old with $1.5 million in a 401k. Bond reinvestment risk just got more interesting, but equity duration got more dangerous. My answer is three Dividend Kings whose payouts have survived every rate regime since the Eisenhower administration. Here is the safety case for ... 67 With $1.5 Million. Here Are My 3 Defensive Anchors
A $1 million portfolio is often discussed as though the balance itself answers the retirement question. It does not. What matters is the amount of income that ultimately reaches your bank account after taxes. The yield displayed on a brokerage statement is only the starting point. Federal taxes, state taxes, and the type of income ... The $1 Million Retirement Mistake: Counting Income You’ll Never Get to Spend
Five thousand dollars a month in spendable dividend income works out to $60,000 per year after federal tax, roughly equivalent to the salary of a typical police officer in Indiana. The headline yield shown on a brokerage statement does not tell the full story. Taxes, the type of distributions received, and future dividend growth all ... Get Paid Like an Indiana Police Officer With $5,000 a Month in Dividend Income After Taxes
At the 24% federal bracket, a portfolio throwing off $40,000 in high-yield dividend income hands roughly $9,600 to the IRS every year when those shares sit in a taxable account treated as ordinary income. For investors in the gap years between retirement and RMD age 73, that drag compounds quietly until required minimum distributions force ... How to Maximize Dividend Income in Retirement Before RMDs Change the Math
High energy prices have investors worried about a recession; these businesses should survive the hit just fine.
A 50-year-old woman planning to retire at 70 on the equivalent of $80,000 in today’s purchasing power is actually targeting a much larger nominal income figure. Assuming long-run inflation averages 3% annually, maintaining that same lifestyle 20 years from now would require roughly $144,500 per year in nominal dollars. That is the income her portfolio needs ... Inflation Adjusted Dividend Income: How to Replace $80,000 in Today’s Dollars 20 Years From Now
A California retiree with a $1 million dividend portfolio earning a 5% blended yield grosses $50,000 in annual income. After federal qualified-dividend tax and California’s state income tax, that number drops sharply. California treats dividends as ordinary income at the state level, with marginal rates running from 9.3% to 13.3%. The math is what separates ... What a $1 Million Dividend Portfolio Actually Pays After Federal AND State Taxes in California
A federal employee retiring at 62 after 30 years of service with a “high-3” salary average of $90,000 would receive an estimated FERS basic pension benefit of roughly $29,700 annually, based on the standard formula: 1.1% × 30 years × $90,000. For private-sector workers without access to a defined-benefit pension, that figure provides a useful ... You Do Not Need 30 Years of Federal Service to Build a Pension. Here Is the $495,000 Dividend Portfolio That Pays Like One
What inflation? Despite rising costs and economic uncertainty, consumers are showing resiliency. Trader Talk host Kenny Polcari breaks down the true state of this with PwC Consumer Markets Industry Leader Ali Furman and Wall Street Alliance Group Partner Aadil Zaman.