Are you trying to find stock market news and figure out what is going on in the markets?
While there are many different investment strategies, including the famous set it and forget it approach, you still may want to keep an eye on what is going on the stock market.
There are various news outlets and media platforms that you can use to get an understanding of why the US stock markets is up or down on a given day.
Typically, most people don’t really care when the markets are up.
Who cares why it’s up, all you care is that it is up!
But, then a day comes around where someone mentions that the markets are down a lot.
You start to worry about your investment portfolio.
It’s a lot easier to remain calm and not make any drastic decisions when you at least know what is happening in the stock market.
On any given day there can be multiple forces that are pushing the stock market one way or the other.
Generally, you can at least understand what news is the leading force behind large moves in the major indexes.
Here are a few places where you can find news about the markets:
- Financial Advisor
- Brokerage Firm
- Bloomberg
- Wall Street Journal
- MarketWatch
- Financial Times
- Reuters
- Barron’s
- CNBC
- StockTwits
You may have to go to multiple places to figure out what’s happening in the stock market but after some time you’ll figure out your favorite places to get information.
Sometimes, it will even take you doing some critical thinking about why a piece of news may be positive or negative for an economy or market.
Financial Advisor
If you have a financial advisor, he or she may be the first person you want to reach out to discuss the factors affecting the different stock market indices.
Generally, a good financial advisor who manages investments is going to have an understanding of the major news harming or helping the markets.
Additionally, the financial advisor may provide some advice on how to adjust your portfolio to take advantage of the situation.
Brokerage Firm
Some brokerage firms will provide insight into what is going on in the markets for their customers.
You can usually find a news section which may include an aggregate of news stories as well as brokerage firm produced news.
Finance News and Reporting
There are few different news publications out there that focus on business, finance, and the different markets.
Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a great source for all types of markets (stocks, commodities, debt, etc) and typically focuses on major news affecting the markets.
The media company also covers international news so you may be able to find information if you’re wondering about a country-specific market.
You can usually find an article that covers all of the major news leading the markets each day.
Bloomberg has both a website and a television channel.
Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is similar to Bloomberg but focuses more on producing articles.
So, you’ll likely be able to find information about why the major markets are moving but it may be more of an in-depth look.
The Wall Street Journal started as a physical newspaper but now you can get articles online too.
CNBC
CNBC is one of the most popular sources for financial news and information.
A lot of firms that are involved in investments have this channel on throughout the day.
While the television channel does look at various markets and investments, the focus is on stock market news.
The channel spends most of the time discussing different companies and stocks but they do provide thinking about the markets in general.
Also, they can be a bit theatrical at times as they try to cut through all of the different media offerings available to you.
They also have a website where you can see top news and look at news from various markets.
The producers of the content know that a wide audience is watching so the news and articles shared are usually not complex.
MarketWatch
MarketWatch is a website that produces content on the markets as well as personal finance articles.
You can find information about what is happening in the various markets by searching the Market Snapshot section.
Financial Times
Financial Times is essentially the UK equivalent of the Wall Street Journal.
But, there is an international edition which provides news content on all of the world’s largest markets.
At this web publication, you can find an article called Markets Briefing every day.
It provides an overview of what is going on in the markets and the major forces behind the moves.
Barron’s
Barron’s is a magazine that has also transitioned to provide content online.
On the website, you can find the section, The Brief (on the home page), which helps you to figure out why the stock market is increasing or decreasing in value.
Barron’s also publishes stories of interest on topics related to investing, business, and economics similar to the Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg.
Reuters
Reuters is an international news publication that covers a range of topics including market and financial news.
You can find news on regional markets of the United States, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
It is another great place to find out what’s going on in the markets.
Social Media
With the rise in popularity social media platforms, market news has found its way into both general social media platforms as well as a platform specifically for discussing assets and the markets.
While these are not journalists and may not be experts, there is some benefit to understand what fellow people are thinking.
Additionally, some sites like Twitter have built a group of professionals who share what they are seeing in the markets.
You may think that Twitter is only good for discussing Game of Thrones or getting two million retweets to bring back something.
But, there are also people on Twitter discussing what’s going on in the stock markets.
There are plenty of people you can follow who are providing insight into different markets and even into specific companies.
You can even search for tickers just like you search for hashtags.
Instead of using #CATS you would just put $CATS.
A great place to start for stock market news is $SPY.
StockTwits
StockTwits is kind of like the Twitter of stocks, where each ticker or index has its own chat board.
Here, you can search for indices or stocks and see what other people just like you are saying about what’s going on.
Sometimes you can find really good insight about why a market or company is moving up or down.
And, sometimes you find nothing but crap on the site.
It depends on the popularity of the ticker you’re looking at for comments.
Also, make sure to take every opinion with Himalayan mountain sized-grain of salt.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of
You may be just sticking all of your money in ETFs, tracking a few index funds.
But, knowledge of
Investing is all about the long-term results but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what’s going on day-to-day.
And, there are plenty of places to find out what is causing people to buy more (pushing up values) or sell more (pushing down values).
You’ll probably find a few different areas that you find the easiest to navigate and digest.
We hope that this list provides you with a few options that help you understand what’s moving the stock markets as well as the other markets.
