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Two hours into the trading day and it's time for Yahoo Finance's market minute. US stocks moving higher after the latest consumer inflation report revealing easing prices in April that the Dow is under pressure due to UnitedHealth. Look at Honda shares also under pressure as the company expects a $3 billion hit to annual profit. The automakers citing the impact from US tariffs on cars and car part imports. Under Armour reporting better than expected net revenue for the fourth quarter. The company only providing an outlook.The first quarter amid trade policy uncertainty, the companies see 1 quarter revenue down 4 to 5% compared to the same period last year, and First Solar shares are surging as JPMorgan highlights the company as best positioned to benefit from the US budget reconciliation bill. For Solar also getting an upgrade at Wolf Research to outperform from Pure Perform. Wolf is noting the company's domestic moat remains intact. That's your Yahoo Finance market for more on what's trending, scan the QR code below.

Welcome to Wealth everyone brought to you by Synchrony. I'm Brad Smith, and this is Yahoo Finance's guide to building your financial footprints. Our community of experts will give you the resources, tools, tips, and the tricks that you need to grow your money. Hey, on today's show we're breaking down the latest inflation prints. We'll examine the cost of things that impact everyday Americans like eggs and cars and child care and of course we gotta talk about some Social Security changes during this show that you need to watch this year as well.Senior columnist Kerry Hannon will break them down plus the eye-watering dollar amount. One expert says you need to have saved up to be ready for any emergency. We'll give you that figure just a little bit a little bit later on. But first, let's begin things as we always do, taking a look at some of the market action. We're 90 minutes into the trading day. Stocks, they're mixed following Monday's rally fueled by the US and China, agreeing to temporarily reduce tariffs. Investors.Now digesting today's CPI report showing inflation cooling in April. Joining me now, we've got Malcolm Dorson, who is the Global X senior portfolio manager and head of emerging markets strategy. Great to have you here with us. So how are you looking at the state of markets right now? Coming off the rally we've now seen the S&P 500 essentially get back into territory and perhaps on pace to erase some of the losses that we've seen over the course of this year.

Well, thanks for having me, Brad. Uh, big picture, I think investors are incredibly under allocated within emerging markets. We see the average retail investor has roughly 3 to 5% exposure to the asset class, and if you look at what the benchmark says, it should have about 10%, 10.5%, and emerging markets make up 25% of global market cap. So people are dramatically underinvested, coming out of a period of really significant US outperformance. And now that we've reached this period of sort of uncertainty.You know the main questions we're getting at our, you know, GlobalX portfolio consulting group is people are looking for a second set of eyes and how do I find diversification, and we think emerging markets is a key area

and so where within emerging markets are there specific regions that you're looking at

for surebecause.Historically people used to be happy buying the index in emerging markets, but now if you take a look at it, it's over 80% Asia, about 37% China, 26% state owned enterprises. There are a lot of areas within EM that people don't want to touch justifiably, but there are also pockets that present a ton of opportunity.So right now we're most excited about, you know, depending on what perspective you want to look at it, but from a long term structural opportunity, India is a compounding machine. Uh, our fund NDIA has been getting a ton of attention.Uh, from a value perspective that I know a lot of investors, you know, not only want to preserve wealth, but they see that as the best way to, to, to grow wealth, getting in at cheap prices. Greece, Greece trades below book value with a 7% dividend yield and it's now an investment grade sovereign with some of the fastest growth growth in Western Europe, um, and then in addition to that we kind of take a look at a contrarian opportunity in Brazil. Brazil just hiked interest rates.14 75%. It's a powerful carry trade. We think that that is now going to contain inflation by the end of the year rates should start coming down and historically speaking in Brazilian rate cutting cycles, the average rally has been 96% versus the average drawdown being 17%. So we really like that risk reward set up.

What is the checklist for emerging markets amid geopolitical.Tensions and a lot of the trade talk that still needs to be netted out and formulated into deals that we're all awaiting some of the details around.

Sure, so starting out with trade, we think that coming out of the election and his first few months his presidency.Now Trump's all about the deal, the art of the deal, and the way that he approaches things is through sort of anchor an anchor-based negotiation tactic where he really likes to wait to one side or anchor things to one side starting out with sort of a worst case scenario and that created a lot of volatility in EM but also created windows of opportunity. So whether it was China, Colombia, Mexico, investors who paid attention to this.Got in quickly and have been able to to benefit from the upside. So now we're trying to scan this universe and see who's aligned with Trump's policies and where are we gonna see a deal next. So we have this 90 day reprieve with China fantastic, but India is gonna be a very interesting opportunity and we've seen really strong negotiation outcomes coming out of that with JD Vance visiting New Delhi a couple of weeks ago. Uh, we think Argentina, the president.Malay is very aligned with Trump, uh, that we should see some news coming out from from the southern hemisphere aswell.

When you boil it down to and, and even refine further to a sector-based approach within specific markets that you would like to invest in, how do you identify which sectors are best positioned to be a core or pillar of some of the trade deals that we're still waiting to come through here?

So it's a good question because there are two different ways to approach this from a sector perspective looking at the deals and kind of from a more tactical opportunity you'd probably be looking at areas where these countries, you know, manufacture and export whether it be electronics in Northern Asia, whether it be commodities in Latin America or in the Middle East or in parts of Africa.Um, or whether it be pharmaceuticals coming out of India, but that is more tactical. I think longer term when you're approaching emerging markets, you kind of want to differentiate old economy versus new economy.And EM historically has been kind of making something or digging something and taking advantage of cheap labor, labor, and these are asset heavy low return business models but looking forward, these companies have have evolved. They have really strong private management teams now and you have a lot of opportunities more in consumption in the services sector which are higher offer higher levels of profitability, higher.Growth and overall better corporate governance so long term that's why we like the compounding opportunity.

Just lastly while we have you, we know that there of course is the meetings that are taking place in the Middle East right now. Presidents starting his international travels and a few of the CEOs also tagging along trying to be not just flies on the wall but perhaps critical voices in these conversations. What should you be watching.For even as the president is going through these international visits and where this could net out in some investment opportunities

and looking for for deal headlines. So the Middle East is is is very interesting because it seems like Saudi Arabia in particular is really playing ball um near term I think that might create a headwind for Saudi's market, but they're long term thinkers, you know, it's vision 2030 and beyond.So yes, near term we're seeing a weaker dollar. The Saudis, Saudi Arabia's currencies pegged to the dollar, so that could be a negative for Saudi and other Middle Eastern countries as well and same in terms of lower oil prices. The longer term, having a strong relationship with the US is gonna open a lot, a lot of doors for them, and, uh, and I think it should be a net positive. So near term what we look for is saying, OK, this arrangements being made with the Middle East, energy prices are coming down.Seen some sort of volatility. People are looking at gold a lot these days. Who benefits from that? And that's where I kind of come back to India again. India imports 80% of their net energy needs, so low oil prices really help. The average household savings in India is made up 20% of gold, so consumer confidence is booming. They're now starting to cut interest rates because inflation's come down, and it sets a really nice picture forthem.

Interesting, Malcolm, thanks so much for taking the time in studio with us.

Thanks for having me, Brad. Appreciate it.

Now time for some of today's trending tickers. We're watching Under Armour, Intuitive machines, and Cyber Ark. First up, Under Armour topping revenue estimates in the fourth quarter, excuse me, boosting optimism around a turnaround for the retailer. The revenue in the quarter that fell 11% to $1.2 billion but analysts expected a decline of 13%. The company.Provided an outlook solely for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 due to evolving trade policies and the macroeconomic environment, they see revenue falling 4 to 5% compared to Q1 of fiscal 2025. Next up, we've got intuitive machines soaring as the company reaffirms full year revenue guidance of $250 million to $300 million the midpoint of the number.is positive and it's above the street's estimate here. The company sees positive run rate adjusted EBITA by the end of 2025 and positive adjusted EBITA into 2026 as well. And finally, security software firm Cyberrock reporting earnings and providing what many see as conservative guidance here. The first quarter results beat estimates in the firm raising its full year profit outlook to.$3.73 to $3.85 a share. That is from the previous range of $3.55 to $3.70 a share. Tita Cowan calls these results strong. Stevens says the results reflect continued fundamental growth and strength for the company. You can scan the QR code below to track the best and worst performing stocks of the session with Yahoo Finance's trending tickers page.Coming up on the other side of this short break, we'll dig into the latest inflation print. We're talking egg prices and car prices after the break.Some relief for consumers at the grocery store. Egg prices falling in April, dropping 12.7% from the month prior. And while that is significant improvement, prices are still up nearly 50% from a year ago. Will we keep seeing this downward trend? That's the big question here.And here to react we've got Tom Flacco, good friend of the show, and Pete and Jerry, CEO. Tom, great to have you in here in studio with us. Good to be here. Let's discuss this. I mean, what, what are you seeing on the production front? Of course, the avian flu was one of the larger considerations and headwinds for the egg business, driving prices higher. So where are we at in the kind of the you are here map of all of the.Egg price brouhaha that's been everything from campaign talking points now and also been hitting a lot of the prices at households as well,

correct? Yeah, so just a reminder, um, that there really are two different egg worlds out there, egg markets out there. They're the conventional eggs which you're getting all the headlines. So what you just read were prices of caged or cage free eggs.Uh, our eggs, Pete and Jerry's and Nelly's are, uh, specialty eggs, which, yeah, premium, so free range and pasture raised eggs, so the birds get access to the outdoors. Uh, that group of eggs, the specialty eggs, have actually not gone up nearly as high. Uh, we, we haven't taken a wholesale price increase to our retailers in the last 18 months, uh, but the ones that get all the headlines are priced off of Burner Barry.And that's all a supply and demand number of hens out there laying the number of eggs will increase the amount or decrease the amount of supply if the hens go down. So we all know about 30 million hens unfortunately have been called since the beginning of the year.That's what drove the prices up. Now those hens are being repopulated, but it takes a long time. It takes 6 months for a hen to get to full laying age. So to put on those new hens and then for those hens to start to repopulate and reproduce or produce, sorry, eggs for the market, that's why you're starting to see prices come down.But they're not coming down as far as they were, you know, the place they were last year, so we, we're, we're makingprogress.

So how's that shaping the outlook right now for where egg prices may continue to trend? Yeah, so

again, the, the specialty eggs, I don't think you're gonna see you, you shouldn't have seen big spikes, so you shouldn't see big declines.The conventional eggs we should start to see come through the summer out into the 3rd quarter. You should start to see prices really start to regulate. They've already come down in Barry more than 50%, uh, and you'll continue to see that work its way through demand.Slacks off a little bit in the summer. People bake less, so that gives you a that gives the producers a chance to build up some inventory, which also helps moderate prices. So there's some dynamics that we think are gonna provided, you know, but the bird flu doesn't come back. It's been very quiet the last month to 6 weeks. We only had, uh, there's one conventional or I guess it was a, a cage free facility in, um, North Dakota was hit about 2 weeks ago, lost about a half million birds, but that's been the only big.Hit for quite some time.

How big of a riskis that that we could see a resurgence?

Well, it is, it follows migratory birds. It's a, it's definitely a a a virus that has gotten more potent. So could it come back in the fall? There's always that chance, uh, that's when we saw it last year. Uh, we just, we just don't know now the good news is I think a lot of farms have gotten a lot more serious about, um.Their, um, protocols for safety, uh, for biosecurity tightened up a lot of issues that they, they might have had. Our farms are we're on over 300 farms around the country. Most of them are family farms for those people, they're not coming on and off a lot, so there's not the opportunity to track the virus in from another facility or something like that.Uh, so our farms are, are, are, are our farming model protects our birds. Our birds get outside, but they're protected, uh, on the inside by a lot of high biosecurity.

I wonder what you're hearing on aggregate from the retailers, those who are relying on customers, adding eggs to their basket week in, week out, right?

The retailers, I mean, they've been in a very tough spot. It's been eggs are a traffic driver. People remember what they pay for eggs, usually eggs, bananas, and milk, uh, and so people will.Based a lot of their other shopping decisions on eggs and egg availability. Uh, we, as well as, uh, others in the industry have been working very hard to keep retailers in stock so that their shelves aren't.Empty when consumers come in um but we're we're not all the way where we need to be at uh and so we're working with our retail partners to um to improve that level of supply. We're also helping them educate consumers at the shelf because in the end when a consumer walks in and they think cage free and free range are the same they're not cage free birds don't get outside free range birds do.Educating the consumer on that is one of the reasons why our eggs can be a little bit more expensive than cage free, but a lot better for the bird, a lot better for the, the egg, it's better tasting egg it's, it's, it's better for hen welfare, it's better for the environment. So, um, that's the those are some of the things that we lean into with our retail partners to help them.Make the eggs set a little, little bit, a little better experience for theirconsumers.

Tom, always balanced, uh, always giving us some insight and of course we'd love to see the CEO lens really to know how you're navigating this environment and what you're hearing from consumers, your customers and retailers as well. Thanks so much for taking the time. All right, Brad, thank you. Good to see you.Used car prices fell for the second month in a row, according to the April inflation print from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, known in your hood as the BLS. Prices are down 0.5% in April, but still were up 1.5% from a year ago. Meanwhile, new vehicle prices, they were flat last month but rose slightly on.Over a year basis here with more we've got Greg Miglioi who is the editorial director at Auto Guide. Greg, just take us into your reaction from the print first and then we'll get into some of the other, uh, of course major drivers of what's taking place broadly here within the mindset of consumers.

Sure, Brad. Well, thanks for having me. Good to see you. I mean, right now, the car business is still trying to sort out the impact of the tariffs, and I think that was evident in the better than expected CPI numbers and some other numbers you mentioned. We haven't seen a dramatic immediate effect on pricing due to tariffs. Uh, II think there just really wasn't enough time to feel the impact, but we are seeing these tariffs hit in other ways. So we're starting to see fallout as companies like Honda and Nissan are expected to report lower profits. Uh, Ford even specifically called out that its tariff hit is going to be $1.5 billion this year.So, uh, I think we're in kind of a wait and see mode right now as far as some of these immediate impacts for consumers.

And so, what is the overall kind of sentiment that we're seeing among consumers who are both hearing from car brands that they are, you know, putting vehicles out on the lot, the non-tariff.on the lot and then additionally how consumers are just trying to make sure that they aren't seeing a higher price when they know that from a range of countries and how vehicles are produced in in essence that there could be some pass through costs that they may incur one day and trying to front run that instead.

Well, I think it's actually pretty confusing for consumers right now. You're thinking to yourself, hey, should I rush to the dealership and try to get something before the car I want is actually impacted by tariffs? Should I wait? Are the tariffs could actually happen this week or this month. So it's definitely a confusing situation. That being said, it's actually been a pretty good year for car buying. The seasonally adjusted selling rate, uh, was over.17 million by a lot of uh metrics the last couple of months, which is a very strong uh performance for the US auto industry. Uh, you are seeing uh some companies like Stellantis, for example, offering employee pricing, which is where they, you know, try to make it uh basically a cheaper, you know, one cost sort of price, and companies are getting aggressive, which I do think that could benefit consumers.The auto industry is used to operating on a very like low margin, uh circumstances for many of their products. They're used to this increased competitiveness, they're used to macroeconomic headwinds.It's all sort of par for the course for the car business. So in some ways, I think the car world is uniquely positioned to deal with these headwinds. And

so with that in mind, what about on the used vehicle side? I mean, we, we've even heard the strategy from companies that are in the rental space but also have a used vehicle sales arm like Hertz and within their own.Within their own recent announcements talking about a company's cornerstone sell right strategy trying to maximize value, improve unit economics, and ultimately leaning into how they can communicate their own value proposition amid some of the tariff-driven pricing dynamics that they're seeing.With used car prices rising and and what they essentially label as DPU declining here, what does that ultimately mean, especially as you hear companies like Hertz talking about their best quarter for retail vehicle sales in the first quarter of 2025 and where that's moving consumers to.

Well, I think when you, you're trying to get yourself a deal, you think used car, right? It's just a natural sort of consumer reaction to uh price hikes that we think will impact the new car market.Uh, I think it's a frustrating time for consumers on the used car front because you're seeing prices basically higher than ever. I saw a figure that said they were 28,000. That was the average price of a used vehicle, uh, earlier this year, which to me is kind of, it's almost an astronomical figure. You don't expect to pay that much money for a used car, even if it were something.More in the premium space. So again, I think it's a frustrating time for consumers, uh, but for companies, you know, that do have large fleets that they're trying to offload, I do see great opportunity. You have a chance to get in there, perhaps, you know, cycle through some vehicles you might like to, you know, offload from your general rental fleet or whatnot, uh, move the metal, and make a little.of money. So I think for companies like Hertz, it's a great time to, you know, frankly, make some money and try to even reach new consumers, remind people that you're out there. And it's, it's like many things in this economy. It's, it's not really good for everybody, but for certain segments of it, you know, there's really some spotlight, uh, opportunity.

So how is that influencing the summer outlook then for car buying?

So I think this summer, it's gonna actually be a decent time to buy a car. I think the summer buying season for the car industry, you get into like, uh, Memorial Day, and then right through Labor Day, people are going to dealerships. That's usually a time, it's, it's nice out, people are interested in, into getting something new and setting themselves up for.You know, the rest of the year, school year, you know, the winter, it's human nature, right? So generally, you see decent foot traffic and companies are pretty aggressive. Uh, I saw that the average, um, you know, incentive was over $3000 last month, which is actually a pretty hefty amount of cash on the hood for vehicles.Credit is still reasonably available. It's not quite as good as it was, but for most people, it's out there. You can use it to finance, uh, your new vehicle purchase. We're seeing longer and longer car loans in excess of 72 months because people know that, hey, you could maybe spread out that payment over time. Is that the best financial decision? Probably not, but it helps you get into a new vehicle. So, uh, I actually think this summer is going to be a decent time to buy a car.

All right, Greg, we're gonna be watching closely. Maybe I'll go kick the tires somewhere maybe appreciate the time.Thank you.Coming up, changes to Social Security. What you need to know after the break.We are excited to partner with Synchrony Bank, our premier sponsor for Wealth. Synchrony Bank is working with Yahoo Finance and Wealth to bring you the insights for your personal finance playbook and help you make your money work for you. Let's get a check of the markets here as we're two hours into trading on the day and taking a look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Here's what we're keeping close tabs on here. We got a little bit of ground, fractional percentage ground to make up to be back in positive territory on the year to date. However, the Dow is down by about 0.0%.Right now we'll continue to watch that. The Nasdaq composite has ultimately still about 1.5% in a move higher that needs to be made to get back into year to date. Uh, well, actually it's still down 1.5% year to date still has more than that of a move to the upside that it needs to make in order to get back into positive territory. All things considered, it's moving and grooving here today. It's up by about 1.6%. S&P 500, that back in positive territory year to date. That's up 0.25% right now. Let's dive just a little bit deeper for a hot.Second into some of the moves that we're seeing transpire here on the day and for that I first want to take us to some of the sector activity that we are tracking as you're seeing on your screen likely at home and here we've got it loaded up here on our screen as well for the Wi Fi Interactive, more gainers than laggards right now pulling up caboose, you've got healthcare likely being weighed on by some of those moves that we're seeing out of United Healthcare. We'll get into that in a hot second. That's down by about 2.5%, but leading the pack, look at technology blinding me with science. My gosh, we're up 2%.here on the day and then additionally energy and you're seeing communication services joust for that second spot as well. Taking a look at the Nasdaq composite, you are seeing a lot of green on the screen, but a fair amount of red as well here but more green is transpiring to the upside here. Palantir, that's leading the pack. You've got Alex Karp, CEO of Palantirer, also traveling internationally trying to be a part of some of the deal making taking place in the Middle East and so that, uh, as we're seeing a range of other CEOs also present.Nvidia's Jensen Wong also out making some rounds and then just lastly here, taking a look at the Dow 30 components here and this is where I actually just wanted to briefly touch on some of that healthcare move to the downside here. I'll put this on equal just so you could see the biggest laggard on the Dow today is UnitedHealth Group. They have an executive changeover taking place. Shares are down 16%. J&J and Merck also moving lower here. We'll continue to watch that. Could be some pharmaceutical moves on the tariff front coming forward. We'll be bringing that your way.Switching gears, the Social Security Administration has seen a number of changes under the 1st 100 days of President Trump's second term, including a new commissioner for the agency, and here to break down the changes we've got Yahoo Finance senior columnist Carrie Hannan. Carrie, what do we know?

Well, great to be here, Brad. You know, there's just been so much change at Social Security. There have been thousands of jobs eliminated. There's lots of field offices that are set to be closed. So people have been pretty concerned about all the flux surrounding Social Security. And so there's about 6 things I think we could run through that we're seeing as really kind of things to pay attention to that the new commissioner is going to have to be responsible for. And um the first one is uhSomething that, uh, I believe you and I have talked about before, but the Social Security Fairness Act, uh, is something that is a good thing that was, uh, passed by bipartisan support. Biden signed it into law. And this, uh, is something, uh, with Social Security that individuals who worked, say, as a teacher or as a firefighter or any sort of job like that, that had, did not, uh, have Social Security attached to it. But at another time in their career, theydid have a job that they paid into Social Security, um, because of things like the windfall, windfall elimination provision, and there was another one called the government pension, uh, offset that made it, uh, these folks weren't getting the Social Security they paid into. This changed that. So this year they've started to see, uh, either a partial or all of that repaid to them, which is a good thing. Um, but we've had some other things, uh, that, uh, are, are a bit concerning, um,This administration, people who were paid too much into their Social Security. Now, this can happen. The government sends you a check that is more than your check should have been. And these mistakes happen. They're errors. It's no fraud involved here. It just happens. And it takes a while for it to be recognized. And under the Biden administration, when this was discovered, people would have to repay that money, 10% or $10 out of each of their checks. Uh, under the Trump.they bumped that up that you needed to pay 100% of it, uh, out of every check until you made up the amount that was overpaid. Then they reversed that, or I should say reduced that from 100%. Now, uh, starting April 25th, I believe it's 50%, I believe it is 50% now. So that has come down a bit, Brad, but, but that still can be pretty onerous on a senior who's depending on that check to meet their monthly cost of living, to all of a sudden have it reduced.

So with that in mind, the next two on our list are changes under Trump, default withholding rates and garnished benefits from student loan debtors. What do we know on that front?

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, I think, well, first of all, let's talk a little bit about the student loan thing. I was just on a call with the Federal Reserve, the New York Fed this morning that shows that student loan defaults have, uh, really soared in the first quarter of this year as they've started to be reported again. And under this, uh, new, uh, provision here, uh, Social Security now, if you are getting Social Security checks and you are in default with your student loan, theyCan take that student loan, uh, debt and, uh, start to take that away from your Social Security check, just like they would if say you had, um, you know, other sort of childcare support, that sort of thing. So that's going to be back in action again, and that can impact someone's Social Security check if they're defaulted on their student loan. So that is something, uh, that I think we need to be concerned about. Um, and, uh, so moving forward, and then also, um,I think there was another thing we talked about the, uh, digital ID code, right? Um, sort of, oh no, this is the important thing. I'm sorry to digress. Um, in person and, um, you know, having to show up in person at field offices to identify yourself, this became a big deal earlier this year about the trying to stop people being able to call in the 800 number in order to sign up for Social Security and so forth. Um, and they said, hey, hey, no, you, we're not doing call.You've got to only do it online or show up in person. This was really hard for people, seniors who didn't have access to online, uh, rural broadband systems, and they lived far from field offices in order to go in, they backed that, they backed away from that. So now you still can do the 800 numbers, but what is happening is there's still field offices are scheduled to be closed. The wait times have continued to increase. The number of calls.To the 800 number at Social Security have jumped 25% uh in April over April a year ago. Uh, more people are, are anxious to, to find out, and more people are turning 65 and retiring and applying for benefits. So we're seeing a surge in interest. But again, Brad, I have to note, Social Security, there was always, uh, problems with customer service in terms of wait times and so forth. And I have a friend I, I spoke to over the weekend.It took him a year to get his Social Security first check, uh, last in 2024. So this isn't new, but it's, uh, scheduled to get a bit worse. And the final thing is digital ID codes are on the way in June, so that you'll be able to identify in my Social Security account and you won't need a paper Social Security ID.

Kerry, thanks so much for breaking this all down. A lot to keep tabs on here and some of those changes. Appreciate it.Well, Americans are struggling under the weight of child care costs, prices for tuition, other school fees, and child care. Guess what, it rose 0.2% in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it's up 3.6% from last year. We see a similar story with daycare and preschool prices, although flat last month. They are up 5.4% from last year. Joining me now on set to discuss, we've got Reshma Saujani, who is the founder and CEO of Moms First. Moms First is a nonprofit that advocates.For policies to support working women, great to have you here with us in studio. Great to be here. So let's discuss this, especially as we're thinking about the state of child care costs for households right now and where we're still seeing some of those price pressures really impact the household budget. Yeah,

well,listen, I mean, parents have always been in crisis when it comes to the cost of childcare. 55% of parents are in debt because of the cost of child care. That is if you're gonna find it, you know, we're sitting here in New York City.Every single borough in New York City is a child care desert, right? And so most women in particular have to choose between like funding their daycare and feeding their babies, which is unconscionable. And so parents are desperate to not be priced out of parenthood and to, you know, implore upon leaders to reduce the cost of childcare and we're at mom's first have been really working to kind of build that voice, put the pressure on politicians to actually do something about it.

You found in in your own discussions that you've been having having the the research as well that's been carried out that is keeping the costs so high?

Well, I mean it's just fundamentally expensive, right? The business model of child care is broken, right? And even the way I think regulation is a big issue, for example, in, in New York you have to have a child childcare center on the bottom floor even though kids live in high rise, it doesn't make sense and makes it incredible.Expensive we are not paying childcare workers enough at all, you know, most of them are barely making a living wage and so when it comes to like again the business model of childcare, it's broken so somebody has to provide the subsidy. Is it gonna be businesses because workers can't work without childcare or is it gonna be the government or is it gonna be both? And I would say it should be yes and.

And so with that in mind we've often seen to your point, many businesses try to figure out as a talent acquisition or retention.Strategy how they can lessen the load for some parents are those tactics and strategies that many businesses have put forward, are they still applicable? Where do they need to also improve and perhaps go a little bit further? I mean,

we just need more. I mean, we have a a moms first. We have a national business coalition on childcare, over 200 businesses. We took 80 of them to Washington a few weeks ago to kind of lobby Congress to do more in the tax bill, for example, on 45F CDC and the CDCTC.And so I think businesses have to continue to provide the subsidy if if government isn't gonna get it done if government is gonna continue to leave behind parents then businesses need to step up in addition to that businesses have to become advocates for policy, right? Like we have to make child care affordable period you know last September I got a commitment from President Trump that he was gonna make childcare affordable. His viewpoint on this.Was that once I put in place tariffs, the cost of childcare will go down. We just saw that's not happening, right? The CPI index today said the cost of childcare is increasing while inflation is staying flat. So this administration is not making good on their promises to working families to reduce the cost. What

would you like to see in terms of the next tax cuts and Jobs Act as well, where there are certainTalks at least at this juncture about what would be offset, what wouldn't be offset, what type of exemptions would be put forward here that could actually help working parents.

Well, I was absolutely disappointed with what I saw yesterday in, you know, the proposed tax bill. Number one, they did not increase, they didn't have a meaningful increase on the CTC, right, which many families rely upon, andThen the CDCTC, which hasn't been increased, you know, in decades, essentially stayed flat. There was talk of actually cutting it, so you, for every parent should know this. You get a deduction of less than $600 on your childcare costs, even though the average cost of childcare per family is $11,000. It's not even a drop drop in the bucket, right? And so you're not seeing this Congress.Make good on its promise to working families to be focused on affordability. You're also seeing this administration not do good on its promise to focus on affordability. We saw last week, you know, several articles that showed, you know, that kind of talked about, well, this administration's great plans, you know what I mean, for increasing the birth rate because as you know, the birth rate is at a 50 year low. A declining birth rate is a dying nation.What are the big ideas being put forth by the Trump administration? Medals for mothers, fertility highways, tracking our menstruation cycles. I mean, give me a break, right? Like I, we don't want any more gimmicks. We need real solutions and it's not rocket science of what we need to do. We need to make child care affordable and provide paid leave period and when we do that.We will not price families out of parenthood, and you will see the birth rate both increase and you will give families choice and freedom to move in and out of the workforce without penalty because that's what women want, right? Give me flexibility, give me choice, give me control over my schedule and mytime.

Just lastly, while we have you here, because I mean you're making great points and in the absence of some of that action which we're still waiting for here.As we think about some actionable tips that households can employ right now amongst themselves to make sure that they're taking any type of necessary steps to alleviate cost pressures, what are some of the ways that you've been hearing from parents that they're enacting, you know, different tools in order for themselves to to try and make sure that they're navigating any type of inflation they're seeing on the child?

I mean, listen, I think that the choices that parents have.Are none essentially like again like the amount of mothers that I talked to they are literally choosing between can I buy diapers this month or can I pay for my child care right? they're already like their backs are already broken so I do not think that we need to ask more from our families. I think we need to ask more from our government. The one thing I will say to working families is your voice matters so like.Get ready, get loud, get active. Elections are coming up, you know, both in the mayoral race, quite frankly, and in Washington in the midterm elections. So let your voice be heard.com childcare voters, and that's the movement that Moms first were building.

Reshma, thanks so much for joining us here in studio. Great to have this conversation. Coming up, everyone, why one study finds that you might need more money in your emergency fund. Oh yeah, more than you thought. That's next on wealth.A new study by Investopedia finds that the average American family should have $35,000 in their emergency fund. If that sounds like a lot, you're right. According to the Census Bureau data, it's only roughly 40% of Americans' annual income here. Joining me now in studio, we've got to discuss this study and how Americans can save better. Caleb Silver, Investopedia editor in chief. Caleb, good to see you here. I mean how.How did we arrive at this number and, and what are the costs that Americans should be aware of?

Yeah, and we're talking about households here. We're not talking about individuals. We're right about the needs, not the wants, right, the essentials, medical care, cars, uh, health, uh, housing and utilities, food, all the things you were gonna have to pay for if you suddenly lost your income. Not talking about the vacation, not talking about, uh, you know, the discretionary theater visit. We're talking about what you're actually.Have to pay for if you're raising a family and you need to get through those costs, especially those medical care costs. Those average add up to around 11 and $0.6,000. So we're talking about a fair amount of money whether you're covered with COBR if you lose your job, you have to get additional healthcare. You have to get additional healthcare riders, but also most households have more than two cars, so we're talking about putting one in the garage and servicing the other and getting gas, things like that, and then housing and utilities, you know, those costs keep rising.Every single month, so everybody's number is different, but we took the median household and we took the actual cost of things based on the BLS, based on the consumer price index based on Kaiser Permanente's family study and said this is what you actually need if you have to make it 6 months, and people should planfor that.

How does it compare to the average amount that households have saved right now? Yeah,

average households only have savings of around 80 to $85,000 and we adjusted that for inflation to the Census Bureau ran that a couple.Years ago, but still people aren't saving enough because everything costs too much or they're spending too much. So we're talking about putting that money away and putting it in a place where it can grow over time like a high yield savings account, but you that you can access immediately. It has to be liquid. You have to be able to access it if you have that emergency and you can't have it tied up in a CD. You can't have it tied up in the stock market, and it is a lot of money, Brad, but when you think about what you actually have to pay for, this is kind of what it comes down to.

We often hear about, uh, especially with inflation in mind, the cost of living type of adjustment that your emergency fund also needs to take into consideration, how is inflation and price changes affecting some of these numbers?

Yeah, we took the average rate of inflation, which is somewhere between 2.5 and 3%. We got a nice inflation reading today, but we took that average rate just because things continue to cost more over time. But when you take something like healthcare, where it's actually outpaced inflation, housing costs.As well we had to account for those too, but when you're thinking about what you can't get away from paying for if you want to sustain in the household, these are the things you have to be thinking about now if you're single, it's gonna cost you a lot less if you have several children in the family, you're taking care of, uh, you know, uh, older family members, it's gonna cost you more. It's all about determining what it costs to be you, the absolute essential cost of what it costs to run your household and making sure you're accounting for that over.At least 3 months but hopefully 6. That's where that 6 month $35,000 numbercomes in.

If people want to calculate their own 6 month expenses for the household, what what are those buckets that they should be tracking in to really give them that holistic

figure? Yeah, medical care and special insurance coverage, right? What do you, what are you gonna have to pay? What might you have to pay out of pocket for, God forbid if something should happen, but automobile is also a big one. You're thinking about maybe if you have two, putting one in the garage again, doing some carpooling, but still you have to service.That car you gotta pay insurance on that car. You got to fill it with gas. You gotta think about that and then your housing and utilities. You can't get away from paying the rent. You gotta keep, you know, yourself in the house, all of those things, uh, that go into that. So it's really determining, and this is the quintessential question in wealth planning is how much does it cost to be you and how much does it cost to be you essentially you wanna make sure you have that number times 6 months.

Caleb, great to see you here in studio with us. Thank you. Thanks for taking the time.We've got much more on wealth everyone after the break. Stay tuned you're watching Yahoo Finance.If you're saving your child's future, there are a few tax advantage accounts that you can put to work for that savings strategy, but it's important to know the pros and cons of each. Here to explain and joining me now, we've got Lisa Green Lewis, who is the TurboTax CPA and tax expert. Lisa, great to have you here with us. Let's, let's just start with an account many parents are probably familiar with a 529 college savings plan. What are the benefits to opening one for your child?

Yes, thank you for having me. So first, the 529 account, um, that's great for qualified expenses for a college education, so like you're, uh, anything that, um.You're not able to pay for with other like tuition, so you could pay for books, um, it could also be used for tuition, and then, um, something that's fairly new over the years, you could also use it to pay for K through 12 education up to $10,000.

So with this in mind, there are also custodial accounts. Explain the pros and the cons of a custodial account for us.

Yeah, so a custodial account can also be used for anything that a 529 can't pay for. So for instance, um, you know, like room and board at college or even a car, you know, you're able to pay for other items for your kids, um, and you can contribute up toUh, the gift tax limit without paying any taxes. So the gift tax exclusion is up to $19,000 if you're single, up to $38,000 if you're a married couple, so you are able to contribute that much and um parents can pick the investments that they'reThat that money goes into.

We, we've been hearing about them. We know parents probably know this well about this kitty tax. Could you define what the kitty tax is for us?

Yes, so, um, the kitty tax.Um, you would be subject to the kitty tax with the custodial account because when you withdraw that money, um, it's considered income for your kids, and so your tax on, um, your, your kids are taxed on a certain amount up to um their tax rate as well as the parents' tax rate, and their income can go into your tax return as well.

And also here, some kids even qualify for a Roth IRA. uh What should parents know about opening up a retirement account for their kids?

Yeah, so, as we all know, the earlier you start saving for retirement, the better, and so with uh Roth IRA for your kids, you know, they're getting those years of tax-free growth on income that they're able to withdraw when they retire, and with that the con contributions can also be withdrawn tax-free.Um, if they do withdraw for college, um, that income can be taxable, but it is also a great way to save for college.

So those are three great accounts for parents to keep in mind. Could you also tell us some of the disadvantages that parents should be mindful of with 529s, custodial accounts, and Roth IRAs?

Yeah, so the disadvantage with uh 529 um states have so many different rules on these, um, and there are also restrictions on the qualified expenses. It's mainly for college expenses, um, you can withdraw for other things besides college, but you would be taxed on those withdrawals as well as a 10% penalty, and then um just the variations of uh.Of the different types of programs that they have, it varies by state.

Lisa, great to have you here with us. Thanks for breaking down some of these accounts.

Thank you for havingme.

Let's do a final check of the markets here as we are approaching the noon Eastern time hour. Taking a look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average right now, fractionally moving lower here, largely being pressured and weighed on by some of those healthcare names, notably UNH, United Healthcare. That's moving lower double digit percentage throughout today's session. Take a look at the S&P.P 500, that's been a key one to track here. We're just a stone's throw away from erasing some of the declines that we've seen over the course of 2025 here and depending upon when you've been looking at the tick by tick, we were able to get into that ballpark. We'll see exactly where things close out on the day's trading activity and then also taking a look at the Nasdaq composite tech heavy.Nasdaq is up by about 1.6% right now, largely being led by Palantirer Nvidia, those two of the names that are really boosting the NASDAQ here on the day. That's it for wealth, everyone. I'm Brad Smith. Thank you so much for watching. You can stay tuned for market domination with Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton that comes up at 3 p.m. Eastern time. They'll count you down to and through the market close.