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In a statement Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she was “pleased” the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would review the decision to lay off more workers.
The recent FDIC firings were part of DOGE’s effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
The FDIC is already severely understaffed, Warren has said.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to a crowd gathered in front of the U.S. Treasury Department in protest of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency on Feb. 4, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Rose Layden | Getty Images

In response to a request from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will review President Donald Trump’s recent move to lay off more workers at the watchdog agency.
Backed by the Trump administration, Elon Musk and his advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, reduced the FDIC staff by around 1,000 employees so far this year through buyout offers and the layoffs of probationary employees, according to reports. The additional firings were part of a larger effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

The FDIC is already severely understaffed, which “threatens the stability of the banking system,” Warren, D-Mass., said in a letter sent on Feb. 10 to Inspector General Jennifer Fain and shared exclusively with CNBC. Sens. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., also signed the letter.
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Fain responded to the lawmakers in a letter dated Feb. 19, which was also shared exclusively with CNBC, saying “the full effect and impact on the structure and mission of the FDIC due to the hiring freeze, deferred resignations, and any reshaping and restructuring remain to be seen.”
Further, Fain said, “we will be adapting our oversight work to better understand and determine the effect of recent changes and their impact on the FDIC to maintain stability and confidence in nation’s banking system.”
In a statement Thursday, Warren said she was “pleased that the FDIC Inspector General will review the threats to the stability of the banking system caused by the Trump Administration’s recent buyouts, terminations, and job rescissions to bank examiners and other FDIC staff.”

“These cuts threaten the reliability and integrity of federal deposit insurance and inhibit the FDIC’s capacity to ensure the stability and confidence that underpin our nation’s banking system,” she said.

Risks of ‘a shortage of cops on the beat’

In the initial letter to Fain, the senators said staffing shortages directly contributed to Signature Bank’s failure in March 2023.
The lack of examiners “led to a series of supervisory delays, canceled or postponed exams, and quality control issues in the supervision of Signature,” the letter said.

“The lesson learned in this case was that a shortage of cops on the beat can threaten the safety and soundness of the banking system and pose risks to the Deposit Insurance Fund,” the letter stated.
The incident marked the largest U.S. banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis, and one of the biggest bank failures in U.S. history. The unexpected shutdown also caused widespread concern among consumers about their deposits, their bank and the banking system.

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The Royal Caribbean cruise ship ‘Explorer of the Sea’.
Getty Images

Shares of cruise lines tumbled Thursday after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested the Trump administration would crack down on taxes paid by the companies.
“You ever see a cruise ship with an American flag on the back?” Lutnick said in an appearance late Wednesday on Fox News.

“None of them pay taxes … every supertanker. None pay taxes … all foreign alcohol. No taxes. This is going to end under Donald Trump,” said Lutnick.
Shares of Carnival dropped 5.9%, Royal Caribbean lost 7.6%, Norwegian Cruise Line fell 4.9% and Viking Holdings weakened by 3%.
Analysts at Stifel Financial called the selling in cruise stocks a “massive overreaction,” and recommended investors use the slump to buy the names “on weakness.”
“[T]his is probably the tenth time in the last 15 years we have seen a politician (or other D.C. bureaucrat) talk about changing the tax structure of the cruise industry,” wrote analysts led by Steven Wieczynski. “Each time it was presented, it didn’t get very far.”
“[F]om a tax standpoint the cruise industry is embedded under the cargo industry in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service,” Stifel wrote. “That would mean the entire cargo industry would have to be turned upside down even before they got to the cruise industry, which is a sliver of the size of the cargo industry.”

The cruise industry might respond by moving their corporate headquarters outside the U.S., reducing the number of jobs kept in the U.S., the report said. “With 90%+ of their business being conducted in international waters, it would then be impossible for the U.S. (or any other entity) to target the cruise operators.”
Stifel has buy recommendations on six cruise industry stocks: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Viking as well as Lindblad Expeditions Holdings and OneSpaWorld Holdings.
“Cruise lines pay substantial taxes and fees in the U.S.— to the tune of nearly $2.5 billion, which represents 65% of the total taxes cruise lines pay worldwide, even though only a very small percentage of operations occur in U.S. waters,” said the Cruise Lines International Association, in a statement. “Foreign flagged ships that visit the U.S. are treated the same for taxation purposes as U.S. flagged ships visiting foreign ports, which provides consistent reciprocal treatment across international shipping.”

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Investors continued to dump Palantir shares on Thursday, escalating concerns that the latest hot pick among retail traders could be fizzling out.
Shares of the technology stock retreated more than 5% on Thursday, building on Wednesday’s slide of around 10%.

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Investors continued to dump Palantir shares on Thursday, escalating concerns that the latest hot pick among retail traders could be fizzling out.
Shares of the mysterious technology and defense stock retreated more than 5% on Thursday, regaining some ground in afternoon trading. Still, that builds on Wednesday’s slide of around 10%, which came after shares touched an all-time high earlier in the day and marked the stock’s worst session since May.

Wednesday’s initial decline came as investors keyed in on the CEO’s new stock sale plan and comments from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reported by The Washington Post on plans to slash defense budgets.
Now, the continued downturn raises alarm of a popular stock among retail investors showing signs of petering out. Shares had run up amid investor excitement around artificial intelligence, making Palantir the best performer within the S&P 500 last year.
Palantir has been one of the most-bought securities among everyday investors, data shows. The company seeks out these traders, with executives such as CEO Alex Karp speaking directly to them on earnings calls and in video addresses.
“The activity in Palantir is dominated by retail investors,” said Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson. “The company embraces that and caters to those investors as much or more than any other company.”

Stock chart icon

Palantir, year-to-date

Vanda Research found the stock has trailed just Nvidia, Tesla and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) in net inflows from retail investors, according to 2025 data that runs through early February. Palantir was also one of the most-bought stocks by individual traders over the past week, per data from JPMorgan released Wednesday.

Palantir has become a sort of cult favorite among the retail crowd in recent months. The stock shot up more than 60% in November alone as investors evaluated which companies would benefit from President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Layered on top of that is the fact that Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal with Elon Musk, has chaired Palantir’s board for more than two decades. Musk is leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to cut government spending, and there is speculation he could even use Palantir’s technology to help him do it.
The company’s valuation has given some market participants reason for pause, as its 198 forward price-to-earnings multiple far exceeds the S&P 500’s at 22. But sustained devotion from retail investors can actually help justify its lofty valuation, according to D.A. Davidson’s Luria.
“Palantir is trading at an unprecedented premium to other software companies,” Luria said. “The reason is that they have this very loyal retail investor support.”
In other words, Palantir’s valuation makes it a “live-by-the-gun, die-by-the-gun” stock, Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown said Thursday on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.”

‘Crazy expensive’

Two news items appeared to catalyze the initial pullback on Wednesday.
Hegseth reportedly told Pentagon officials to prepare to slash defense budgets by 8% annually over the next five years, a move that can worry investors about the state of deals between the government and contractors such as Palantir. However, Palantir executives previously said they are optimistic about members of DOGE seeing value in the company’s contributions.
Palantir also disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday night that Karp can sell 10 million shares of the company’s stock over the next six months. His eccentric persona has drawn comparisons to Tesla’s Musk and is considered to be helping to drive attention and interest among retail investors.

With these declines, the stock is down more than 10% this week. Still, shares are up more than 40% in 2025 after skyrocketing around 340% in the prior year.
While mom-and-pop investors have rushed into the stock, Wall Street isn’t as on board. The average analyst polled by LSEG has a hold rating, with a price target implying shares should drop from here.
Part of this disconnect between Main Street and Wall Street stems from the fact that everyday investors don’t fully understand that “a good product doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good company, and a good company doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good investment,” said Christopher Schwarz, a finance professor at the University of California Irvine who studies retail trader behavior.
Schwarz pointed out that the stock is trading at around 80 times its sales, adding that no company of any size would be considered a smart investment at that rate.
“It’s just crazy expensive — and people just don’t understand that there’s no way they can make money on the stock over the long term,” Schwarz said. “The more it goes up now, the more it’s going to crash in the future.”

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There are signs that the housing market is swinging to favor buyers. But renewed worries about the economy are holding some buyers back.
“A lot of it is coming from the White House,” said Chen Zhao, an economist at Redfin.
Here’s what to know if you’re house hunting.

monkeybusinessimages | Getty

There are signs that the housing market is swinging to favor buyers. However, renewed worries about the economy are holding some buyers back.
On the upside for homebuyers, home price growth has slowed and mortgage rates have retreated from recent peaks.

The median sale price for homes was $375,475 in the four weeks ending February 16, up 3.7% from a year prior, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage firm. That is the smallest increase in nearly five months.
Meanwhile, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage inched down to 6.87% the week ending Feb. 13, per Freddie Mac data. That’s the lowest so far in the year, and down from the latest peak of 7.04% in January.
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However, “buyers are still faced with this massive affordability challenge,” said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow.
Mortgage applications for the week ending February 14 fell 6.6% from a week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Banker’s Association. Experts forecast January home sales data — set to come out Friday — to show a decline.

On top of relatively high costs, some buyers could be having second thoughts as uncertainty about the broader economy creeps in, according to Chen Zhao, an economist at Redfin.
“A lot of it is coming from the White House,” she said of the reasons that have buyers worried.

Promising signs in the housing market

Some factors in the housing market are giving buyers more room to negotiate prices, according to experts. 
For one, inventory is growing as more owners put their homes up for sale. With more options available, buyers have “a little bit more bargaining power in the market,” Divounguy said. 
According to Redfin data, there were 564,642 new home listings in January, up 1.9% from a month prior and 4.7% higher from a year earlier. New home listings hit the highest level since July 2022.

Some home sellers are cutting their asking prices, too. The typical home is selling for 2% less than its asking price, the biggest discount in two years, per Redfin data.

Buyers worry about the economy, job loss

Some buyers are rethinking their plans given broader economic uncertainty, experts say.
As of mid-February, thousands of workers across multiple federal agencies and departments have been laid off as part of President Trump’s aim to reduce the government workforce.
This can make people who either work directly with the government or are connected through contract work or federal funding “nervous that there could be big changes on the horizon,” Zhao said.
“They are worried about job security,” said Zhao, which takes a home purchase off the table.
“The first thing you might do is hold off on a really big purchase because you’re worried about financial security,” she added.

A lot of it is coming from the White House.

head of economics research at Redfin

The anxiety doesn’t stop there — the possibility of trade wars and drastic changes in government spending may leave Americans wondering “what’s next?” Zhao explained.
Trump signed a presidential memorandum laying out his plan to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on foreign nations. The plan allows the U.S. to treat other countries’ non-tariff policies as unfair trade practices that warrant tariffs in response.
For consumers, the prospect of higher prices on everyday items and the potential for inflation to accelerate may make them hesitate to invest in a new home.

How to navigate the buyers’ market

If you’ve been in the market for a while and you see a house that you really like, try to negotiate hard on the price and see where it goes, Zhao said.
If the home seller isn’t open to lowering the asking price, see if they can cover additional expenses like closing costs or to pay for the buyer’s real estate agent fees.

Those can be valuable concessions.
Closing costs can run between about 2% and 6% of the loan amount, according to NerdWallet. If you take out a $300,000 mortgage, you could pay from $6,000 to $18,000 in closing costs on top of the down payment.
The average buyer’s agent commission was 2.37% for homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from 2.45% a year prior, per a data analysis by Redfin. 
If not, check out the new builds market — some builders are offering incentives like “in-house lending” and often provide favorable loan terms like lower rates, experts say. More

Americans are racking up more credit card debt, but at a slower pace than they were before.
The average consumer’s credit card balance is now $6,580, a new report by TransUnion found.
For borrowers with a revolving balance, here are the best payoff strategies.

Americans are racking up more and more credit card debt.
Collectively, consumers owe a record $1.21 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently reported.

The average balance per consumer now stands at $6,580, up 3.5% year over year, according to a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion.
Despite the uptick, the rate of change has slowed considerably, said Charlie Wise, TransUnion’s senior vice president of global research and consulting. “Consumers are still continuing to use their credit cards, but the amount they are leaning on them seems to be declining.”

In the wake of the pandemic, higher prices and high interest rates put many households under pressure and prices are still rising, albeit at a slower pace than they had been.
The consumer price index — a key inflation barometer — has fallen gradually from a 9.1% pandemic-era peak in June 2022 to 3% in January. but is still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal.
The central bank cut its benchmark rate by a full percentage point in the second half of 2024, but policymakers have been advocating a more cautious pace ahead as they evaluate the overall strength of the labor market and President Donald Trump’s policy ramifications.

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According to meeting minutes released Wednesday, Federal Reserve officials agreed they would need to see inflation come down more before lowering interest rates further, and expressed concern about the impact tariffs may have.
In the meantime, households have largely adjusted to a new normal of high prices and high rates, Wise said: “We’re seeing a bit less of a reliance on credit cards to make ends meet.” After balances soared in 2022 and 2023, the growth in credit card debt has slowed considerably, he said.
Credit card delinquency rates, or those 90 days or more past due, fell year over year for the first time since 2020, TransUnion also found. “This is a good sign,” Wise said.

How to get out of credit card debt

“While most people are generally doing okay, the truth is that many, many Americans are a job loss, medical emergency or some other big, unexpected event [away] from being in a world of hurt,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree and the author of “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More.”
“It wouldn’t take much for them to go from pretty good to pretty dicey,” he said.
Credit cards are still one of the most expensive ways to borrow money after the Federal Reserve’s string of interest rate hikes lifted the average credit card rate to more than 20% — near an all-time high.
Even as the Fed lowered its benchmark at the end of last year, the average credit card rate barely budged.

“The good news is that there are plenty of options to help you pay down card debt,” Schulz said.
Rather than wait for a modest adjustment in the months ahead from further Fed rate cuts, borrowers could call their card issuer now and ask for a lower rate, switch to a zero-interest balance transfer credit card or consolidate and pay off high-interest credit cards with a personal loan, Schulz advised.
“If you’re really struggling, an accredited nonprofit credit counselor can make a huge difference,” he said. “Doing nothing, however, is not an option. It’ll only make things worse.” 
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There’s a special tax break, known as the Section 121 exclusion, that shields part of your home sales profit from capital gains taxes.
The limits are up to $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly but you must meet IRS rules.
Renting out your home could reduce or eliminate the exclusion, experts say.

Busà Photography | Moment | Getty Images

Capital gains ‘exclusion’ for your home

That tax surprise stems from a special tax break, known as the “Section 121 exclusion,” that shields part of your primary home sales profits from capital gains taxes. The limits are up to $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly.
To qualify for the exclusion, you must meet the IRS ownership and use tests, which require that you owned the home and used it as your primary residence for 24 months of the past five years, with some exceptions. The 24 months of residency, however, don’t have to be consecutive.
You’re generally eligible if you didn’t claim the exclusion for another property within two years before the sale.

Any home sale profit above those thresholds could be subject to 0%, 15% or 20% capital gains taxes, depending on your taxable income. You also could owe net investment income tax of 3.8%, depending on your other investment earnings.
You can reduce your profit by increasing your “basis,” or the home’s original purchase price, by tacking on so-called capital improvements and other expenses.

Landlords may only get ‘a portion of the exclusion’

However, “if you’re renting the home, you’re only going to get a portion of the exclusion,” said Mark Baran, managing director at financial services firm CBIZ’s national tax office. 
For example, if you make $250,000 profit selling your home but rented out the property for three out of the past five years, you would only receive two-fifths of the $250,000 exclusion, or $100,000.
That leaves $150,000 of profit that could be subject to capital gains taxes before any adjustments to the home’s basis.
Alternatively, you could still be eligible for the full $250,000 exclusion if you met the ownership and use tests but didn’t rent out the property, Baran said. More

President Donald Trump’s order pausing all U.S. foreign aid put many charities in jeopardy.
In some cases, individual donors can bridge some of the funding gap.
Here is a list of highly rated nonprofits that have been affected by the freeze on foreign assistance. 

President Donald Trump’s order to suspend all U.S. foreign aid, which was announced on January 20, is currently on hold amid a legal review.
But for nonprofits, charities and public service organizations that rely on federal funding, some damage has already been done.

“Foreign assistance programs don’t operate with an on/off switch,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, which provides HIV prevention resources worldwide.
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About 30% of the overall nonprofit sector’s revenues come from government grants and contracts, according to Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, which brought a suit against the federal funding freeze resulting in a temporary restraining order. 
“The temporary restraining order preventing the administration from freezing all federal funding has had a positive effect, with many nonprofit organizations previously unable to access funds to continue their vital work now able to do so,” Yentel said.
However, “some federal agencies continue to make expected funding unavailable, and many nonprofits — especially the smallest among them, with the least resources to fall back on if a federal payment doesn’t come through — are having to make difficult decisions to furlough or lay off staff, or to close programs entirely,” Yentel said.

A worker removes the U.S. Agency for International Development sign on their headquarters on Feb. 7, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images

Trump’s foreign aid freeze and the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development is part of a larger effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
Backed by the Trump administration, Elon Musk and his advisory group known as the Department of Government Efficiency said dismantling the USAID is a first step.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X on Feb. 3.
Most Americans support foreign aid. A 2024 poll by the Reagan Institute found that 54% of Americans believe the U.S. should be more involved in international affairs, while 33% want less U.S. engagement. Even more — 77% — said the U.S. has a moral obligation to stand up for human rights and democracy around the world.

‘Now is the time to dig deep’

The freeze on foreign assistance funding sent “a shock wave through the nonprofit sector,” said Michael Thatcher, the CEO of nonprofit evaluator Charity Navigator.
Many international organizations operate with less than 100 days of working capital, according to Thatcher, which means “this is going to change their ability to pay their staff and maintain operations,” he said. “About half may not survive.”
In some cases, individual donors can bridge some of the funding gap, Thatcher said. “If some of these causes are things you care deeply about, now is the time to dig deep.”
In fact, foreign assistance only comprises about 1% of the federal budget — or roughly $63 billion in fiscal year 2023 — and less than 0.33% of gross domestic product, according to a Brookings Institution report from September. By comparison, U.S.-based institutions and individual donors contributed about $49.3 billion to overseas causes as of a 2020 tally.

Where to give

“Individual givers and philanthropy on a larger scale has a really important role right now,” said Michael Jarvis, executive director of the Trust, Accountability, and Inclusion Collaborative, a Washington, D.C.-based network of funders that operate around the world.
“There’s no way that private givers can fill the gap that the U.S. government is leaving,” Jarvis said, “but it means that their funds are all the more important and needs to be strategically deployed even more effectively.”
To that end, Charity Navigator compiled a list of highly rated nonprofits that were affected by the funding freeze on foreign assistance, including Save the Children and UNICEF, among others. 
Individual giving “is already an important player and I do think people will step up more now,” Jarvis said. “There are ways people can use their voice effectively and certainly use their money effectively.”
There may even be a tax benefit, depending on how those donations are made.
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