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In his Sunday column, Jim Cramer explored key battleground issues for the stock market such as the Iran war and software sell-off. View More

We have so many struggles going on right now that it's hard to believe the market can stay up at this level for much longer. It's a visceral moment where the losses mount quickly if you are on the wrong side of the trade. We all know that it's time to embrace the bear, right? But we always recall that when we declare we cannot take it anymore and sell — whether it be in the days after "Liberation Day" or the days leading up to last week's Iran war truce — we're immediately proven wrong. The result: The selling that can go from a trickle to a flood stays at a trickle longer than we think, aided, of course, by a brain-dead bond market that doesn't seem to care about the fundamentals, even as that's all it is supposed to care about. The benign bond market, though, masks some cogent themes. They need to be looked in to. So, let's do this. Let's examine the three most salient battlegrounds in play right now: Iran, software and earnings, not because they are emblematic of the market, but because there is nothing emblematic about this market at all. Instead it is just tugs-of-war that are surprisingly disparate and surprisingly separate from each other. Iran war First, we know the Iran war basically caused oil to double from where it started the year — that is, before last week's big decline on the two-week ceasefire news . Nevertheless, if history was our guide , the S & P 500 should be down some 20% from its highs right now. Not only is history being disobeyed, but since the market rally began in all of it pessimistic glory two weeks ago, we are capable of punching to new highs with another strong week. The S & P 500 ended Friday 2.3% below its Jan. 27 all-time closing high. At its lows of the year on March 30, the index was off 9% from the highs. Why is that? First, we use less oil than we used to for a variety of industries, including the refining of gasoline. Interestingly, it is not our continental self-sufficiency that has helped keep down the price of oil or gasoline; both are set by the world's market forces. In the past, oil shocks have primarily hurt us at the pump. But today's vehicles are more fuel efficient. Perhaps more important, despite all of the griping, it simply isn't that high versus inflation. We've been here before and it didn't cause a downturn, so the market is concluding it won't do so again. Additionally, natural gas is the largest single source of power generation in the U.S. We're blessed that we produce a ton of it, and that its domestic price is less connected to global market forces than what we see with oil. Since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, U.S. natural gas futures are actually down over 7%. The chart of Europe's benchmark natural gas contract looks much different . While the U.S. is exporting a lot of natural gas via LNG terminals, we still have plenty of domestic supply. It's obvious that our country's efforts to become more fuel efficient and energy independent have worked. So why does the price matter so much? I think there's a tremendous fear that oil is about to go to $150 when the various strategic petroleum reserves around the globe run out — a big reason for the urgency of the unsuccessful peace talks in Pakistan this weekend. If that happens, we will most surely see some countries in real trouble, like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and many others, especially in Europe, where the price at the pump will be prohibitive. Ultimately, we will see some inflationary ripple effects here that could lift bond yields and make it so even President Donald Trump's dovish nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, can't cut rates . The tone of our market will surely change if that happens. Friday's March consumer price index report was already elevated by tariffs in key categories like apparel. Now, the oil-influenced part of the economy will cost more, and while we can asterisk both the tariffs and the war, the Fed doesn't want to risk its credibility by cutting into one of the more serious inflation waves our nation as had. It's unfortunate that housing and its accoutrements have only gotten weaker — a testament to how many long-term mortgages were taken out when rates were historically low during the Covid-19 pandemic . We don't have home-price appreciation any more, but the depreciation where it does exist has not inspired transactions. The "lock-in effect" is real. Without intrusion from the bond market into the stock market, there is no uniform way for the active managers to do anything but shift their money from sector to sector. They can't leave the market all together because when they do, you get the kind of rally we've had since the March 30 bottom — one that interest rates gave permission for. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note topped out on March 27 at almost 4.5%, following a big surge during the first few weeks of the Iran war. The 10-year yield settled Friday at 4.32%. Bond prices move inversely to yields. We have not made enough of the low rates as a spur for stock buying. Maybe that's because these rates almost seem impossible to believe. Every session they stay up is another day money gets put to work. It's almost as if they can withstand everything, yet all we talk about is the Fed and its minions even as they aren't the cause of the low rates. I have been negligent in bringing up the power of low rates because it's the chief reason the bulls keep winning and why the market isn't down more. Let's not overthink that. And let's stop trading on the discourse of Fed heads or the possibilities of rate cuts versus rate hikes. Sure, low rates may be the endpoint of a million different decisions, but it is the endpoint and we should not look a low-rate gift horse in the mouth even if we think it's a Trojan horse. Tech trade The second battleground is what's happening with technology stocks. Here, we have an unheard-of roiling that went existential last week : the extinguishing of software at the hands of hardware and artificial intelligence. Given that the whole story of technology stocks since 1986 is the wasting of hardware by software, what's gone on this year is as astounding as it is frightening. We have software stocks that are down 30% to 40% despite the fact they're making incredible amounts of money. We have hardware stocks up 50% to 150% with no sign of stopping. It's breathtaking. The attack on software is so complicated that I will do my best to unpack it, but there's no surety anyone can comprehend something this hideous. Let's start with the software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. Here, we have a once-great business model that is said to be broken because the companies that use SaaS vendors supposedly are no longer growing. They don't need more SaaS because AI has allowed these companies to cut back on hiring, and AI coding tools allow you to create in-house applications that mimic what you previously paid for externally. Now, there is no evidence that any of this actually occurring and many of the companies with stocks being eviscerated are still growing at a healthy clip. However, it doesn't seem to matter in the eyes of investors. If there's a belief that AI can hurt you, then it gets extrapolated rather quickly. It all seems alleged, not factual, but it doesn't matter. We just know to dump and bet against the stocks that are — or will be — hurt by the power of AI to change things. The two biggest and most important allegedly crushed companies are ServiceNow and Salesforce . Neither has copped to any pain from AI, just pleasure. They laugh at the destruction thesis, and they say they haven't even seen a slowing. There couldn't be more of a disparity between what the Street thinks of these companies and what the managers think of their own businesses. These were — and, to some degree, still are — large companies. ServiceNow has an $86 billion market cap, but it peaked at almost $242 billion in January 2025. Salesforce clocks in at $152 billion, down from its December 2024 peak of $352 billion. These are highly visible companies that Wall Street had loved for years, particularly ServiceNow. NOW CRM,.SPX 1Y mountain ServiceNow's stock performance compared with Salesforce and the S & P 500 over the past 12 months. We have owned Salesforce seemingly forever, although it is our smallest position and we have not encouraged buying it into this AI disruption sell-off. I am a huge believer in CEO Marc Benioff and have used Salesforce's applications twice at my old stopping grounds, TheStreet.com. While it is expensive and hard to implement — we had to hire an outside contractor to install it — the product worked. We had a 30% lift in sales each time we introduced the product. I have heard gripes about its costs, but I have never heard anyone complain about the results. The most recent addition to its "forces" — Agentforce — is seeing traction, with annual recurring revenue of $800 million as of its late February earnings report. Major companies with huge customer-facing businesses swear by it. The company's Slack is arguably the preferred way to communicate with coworkers. And it doesn't matter one whit. Nor did the debt-fueled $25 billion accelerated share repurchase executed in mid-March, part of a larger $50 billion buyback authorization. That hasn't kept the stock afloat at all, with shares touching a fresh 52-week low Friday. The whole escapade is a little crazy. Salesforce is one of the most successful companies in history. Last fiscal year its revenue topped $40 billion, and it has a record of beat-and-raise quarters challenged by very few. And yet, whatever it does, the Street thinks not only that its growth will slow — heck, it's trading at 12 times forward earnings, per FactSet data — but some smart minds think the company may not survive . That's right, survive. I don't believe that to be the case. But my belief has proven to be ineffective in the face of an avalanche of selling in the stock. It is becoming harder and harder to justify holding even this tiny piece of what I still think is a tremendous company. The gulf between the business and the stock is simply shocking to me. Again, it doesn't matter. If I were to return to my hedge fund days where Karen Cramer ran the trading desk, I can imagine exactly what would happen. She would be furious that I had made her ride it down to these levels, turning a big gain into nothing. She would lose so much patience that she pulled the ultimate trick reserved for when she was really upset with my buffoonery. "Would you mine going downstairs and getting me a soft pretzel from the guy at Wall and Water?" she would say. "And don't forget the mustard!" When I got back she would say, "Thanks. Oh, and while you were gone, I sold the Salesforce position." I would look up, angered, and she would spit out, "Hey, if you are so pissed off at me, you can always buy it back." I never did. Telling. Yeah, it would be gone at Cramer & Co. It would have been gone a long time ago. My astonishment in its decline is trumped only by its relentless speed. I want to wait for the several-day rally I would expect from this extremely profitable company, if I am going to sell it, but it can't seem to put together even the most minor of a win streak. Put it in the to-be-determined class of stock. The ServiceNow decline is even more odd. Business is very strong. The company has embarked on a full-scale remake, with CEO Bill McDermott recently telling The Wall Street Journal that 50% of its new business revenue is coming from its non-seat based pricing model — remember, it's the seat-based licensing model that investors fear is cooked if companies cut their headcounts thanks to AI. But that just leaves the Street very worried about the other 50%, even as it is extremely fast growing and profitable. UBS just downgraded the stock Friday. For all intents and purposes, this ServiceNow is every bit as good or better than the one that had less AI. But it doesn't matter. This is another company that the clients all laud. Any amount of homework makes you love it more. Doesn't matter. Go get me a soft pretzel and then tell me you want to buy it back. You won't. You will be relieved I took action while you remembered the mustard. There's so much that is calamitous about this software unraveling — first in SaaS and now in all enterprise software — that I keep thinking if we didn't own any of these, it would just seem to be one dark comedy. Take Palantir , Alex Karp's brilliant brainchild, a data-analytics company that clients swear by. I now know it as the third-largest position in the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF , often just called the IGV in reference to its ticker symbol. The IGV is the go-to way to short software and hedge other tech positions. It gets hit every time some manager says he needs to protect himself from AI. The IGV is down 29% year to date. Palantir knew AI before there was AI. All that bragging Karp does about Palantir obliterating the "Rule of 40" metric cannot protect Palantir's stock because of its towering weighting in a foolishly designed index. It could have a "Rule of 100" and it would mean nothing. As of Friday, Palantir's weighting in the IGV is 8.29% while its market cap is $306 billion. Microsoft, with its $2.75 trillion market cap, has an 8.9%% weighting in the fund (more on Microsoft in a moment). My point: Palantir is a much smaller company than Microsoft, but it does not have a much smaller weighting. Or consider Club names CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks , both in the IGV and both designed to protect companies from predators including AI-enabled predators. Their stocks are being sold just as hard as if they caused cyberattacks. Palo Alto has a 5.7% weighting in the IGV; CrowdStrike checks in at 4.4%. Oh, and then there's true AI roadkill: Adobe and Atlassian , both of which were almost meant to be destroyed by AI. If you ask me to design two companies that could be obviated by AI, it would be those two. According to FactSet, Photoshop maker Adobe trades at 9 times forward earnings and still has a $91 billion in market cap. Where is that market cap going to go? Atlassian, which makes collaboration software, is worth $15 billion. It feels like a software version of Digital Equipment, the late maker of minicomputers. These stocks can't catch a break. None of them. Yes, the year-to-date declines are legit in Adobe (down 35.6%) and Atlassian (down 65%), but all of the others? Let's just say their declines are way out of whack with the truth. They deserve better, yet it means nothing. The flipside, the hardware stock sector, is even more insane. After being despised for ages and ages, these stocks have become scarce gems that you buy and hold seemingly no matter what. Consider memory and storage, where AI has created a massive wave of demand for their products. The big four: Sandisk , Seagate , Western Digital and Micron . Only Micron is really taking advantage of this moment and building out a lot of manufacturing capacity. The rest are tight-floated monsters that just keep reporting better and better earnings because they keep raising prices. Of course, we're a long-only portfolio here at the Club. But, if I were at my old hedge fund, I can tell you that we would own deep-in-the-money calls on all four because the earnings estimates are probably still too low and there are too many shorts in them. We wouldn't buy the common stock because they are pure momentum names now that tend to get hit with nasty declines, just like we saw when Micron reported, or when we read that Google has some propriety algorithm that could create less memory need — a knee-jerk reaction that has since been declared misguided. Then there's Intel . Left for dead after former CEO Pat Gelsinger wrecked the balance sheet, it is now buying back the 49% stake in an Irish chipmaking facility that it had desperately sold to raise quick cash to Apollo in 2024. That's a clear sign of renewed strength. INTC 1Y mountain Intel's stock performance over the past 12 months. What happened to Intel to ignite its stock over the past year with brilliant new CEO Lip-Bu Tan at the helm? Turns out, the kind of agentic AI computing enabled by Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) also requires lots of central processing units (CPUs) to help things run smoothly and efficiently. CPUs have long been Intel's bread and butter, and they still make one of the best options available for data centers. Another driver of the stock: Intel is intensely involved in advanced semiconductor packaging, a very lucrative part of the data center food chain. That makes a ton of sense considering that, from his time at Cadence Design Systems , Tan knows semiconductor packaging better than anyone on Earth. Just as it seems there is no price you can't sell Salesforce at and be unhappy, there's no price you can't pay for Intel. I am accepting that Intel should never have been at $20 a share, not that it shouldn't be at $62 and change. Actually, it should be at $70. There are so many data center innards that know no bounds either. Director of Portfolio Analysis Jeff Marks and I sit in the office and marvel at, well, Marvell Technology , or AMD , which have soared 46% and 25%, respectively, since the March 30 market bottom. Same goes for anything fiber and laser like Lumentum and Coherent , both of which inked strategic partnerships with Nvidia this year. Ciena is the optical backbone. Thank heavens for Club names Corning and Qnity . Corning is our play on fervent demand for fiber optics inside data centers. Spun off from Dupont last year, Qnity supplies all sorts of materials used to fabricate and package semiconductors. The bounty extends to our positions in GE Vernova and Eaton . It continues to Caterpillar and Vertiv. While these four companies may not be technically considered tech stocks, they are integral parts of the broader AI trade because their products are indispensable to the infrastructure buidout. It goes to Applied Materials , Lam Research and KLA Corp. And, of course, there is CoreWeave , the pure-play AI computing provider. I don't think I have ever seen such a ferocious sector move in my life, made even more vicious by how few stocks there really are in the group versus the software stocks. There is a hardware stock shortage for certain. Oddly until last week, the stocks of the guys who pay the bills, like Amazon and Meta , had performed incredibly poorly. Same for Nvidia, which couldn't go anywhere. It's disconcerting when the most obvious go up last. But I console myself by saying that playing catch-up is not a one-week affair. Before we move on from the software-versus-hardware dichotomy and journey to earnings, let's consider the biggest conundrum of all: What do we do with the stock I affectionately used to call Mr. Softee? No stock is more of a quandary than Microsoft. MSFT 1Y mountain Microsoft's stock performance over the past 12 months. Microsoft has become this market's pitiful helpless giant. It can't seem to do anything right, but because it is Microsoft you can't even say that aloud. It's obvious — perhaps to all but management — that Copilot isn't in the same league as the tools from OpenAI or Anthropic. At one time, we would have thought that Microsoft was OpenAI. Now there's all sorts of questions about their relationship, though, it should be noted, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told me last month that Microsoft is "an incredible partner." For almost four decades, Microsoft was a must-own stock, perhaps the most "must-own" stock in history (to be sure, it did spend time in the wilderness after the dot-com bubble burst, like many other tech stocks of the era). That status now seems over. But before you blow it out of the position because it is software, remember it has so much cash it can save itself. Didn't Google save itself? Aren't they every bit as smart as the people at Google? Jeez, if Microsoft would simply buy a tremendous AI company, its stock could soar more than it paid for the target. There, sub rosa, I just gave you the debate that swirls through my head every time I look at our positions. Isn't the report of Microsoft's illness — not its obituary — premature? I think it is, but I worry so much that management doesn't know it. I still think the odds favor betting on the company righting the ship. But that has to happen fast. The stock is gathering naysayers by the hour. I don't think the software-into-hardware trend is going to change any time soon, even as we thought it would get a short-covering rally some time last week. Nope. Earnings season arrives Finally, earnings. It's a bank bonanza this week . I think we own the best ones out there in Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo — the only exception is Citi , but you can't own them all. Goldman Sachs is the first big bank to report this time, which I think is terrific. The order shouldn't matter, but in many past earnings seasons, Goldman suffers by comparison and doesn't stand out because it is last to report among its peers. That's over. I think Goldman has a better story to tell than any traditional bank, and this will be the quarter to tell it. You could fault us for not switching off the Wells Fargo horse and going to Citi, but I am skeptical of the Citi rally. The main reason this stock keeps going up is because people keep underestimating how horrible this bank was before Jane Fraser took over in March 2021. So, it beats the low-ball estimates every time. If the analysts were simply to post real estimates based on the new bank that Fraser has assembled, it wouldn't go up much anymore. I keep fearing this will be the quarter that there will be more realistic estimates and the company won't trounce them. That's what keeps me out of it. The most exciting thing for me will be to hear the commentary about whether big banks are going to start buying little ones. At one time, no bank was supposed to own more than 10% of the nation's deposits. But Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase exceed that. I think this group of antitrust regulators will allow our nation to begin to divvy up the regionals, allowing for growth and rationalization in an industry in bad need of it. I just need to hear it from the banks themselves. The only other stock that I really care about this week is Johnson & Johnson , and I think we will get our typical good quarter from our newest portfolio stock. Remember, though, the stock is a rocky trader four days a year (the days it reports quarterly numbers), while it is usually smooth sailing on most others. I have seen this stock be up $4 a share in premarket trading, then open flat before falling down $4, only to finish the day up $3. Be ready. Bottom line No matter what, remember, we are up at these exalted levels — and they are exalted — not because of earnings, not because of inflation, but because of interest rates, which have become ridiculously tame in recent weeks. If they stay benign, then earnings season will start off just fine and we'll be right back into the thrill of hardware victory and the pain of software defeat by the end of the week. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Financial support from your parents can help you to become independent. But that means treating the money "as a plan, not a lifestyle," one advisor said. View More

Anchiy | E+ | Getty Images Relying on your parents for money can help you to become independent. But it can also create problems in your relationship if not handled well, experts say. About two-thirds, or 64%, of parents with Gen Z children — those between the ages of 18 and 28 — say their kids still rely on them financially, whether for money, housing or other support, according to the 2026 Wells Fargo Money Study. More than half of those parents, 56%, say that support is straining their own finances. The bank surveyed 3,773 U.S. adults at the end of last year. "Support into the mid-20s, and sometimes beyond, has become more accepted, especially when it helps a young adult finish school, manage housing costs or avoid falling behind financially," said certified financial planner Douglas Boneparth, president and founder of Bone Fide Wealth, a wealth management firm in New York City.  Read more CNBC personal finance coverageAverage tax refund is 11% higher, latest IRS filing data showsSocial Security 2027 cost-of-living adjustment estimate rises with gas pricesHere's the inflation breakdown for March 2026 — in one chartHow 'married filing separately' status could affect Trump tax breaks this seasonStudent loan forgiveness may be pricier to access after new changesPersonal assistant pleads guilty to defrauding elderly couple out of $10 millionGas prices should soon start slowly easing if ceasefire holds, analysts sayHow to save money on flights as airlines raise pricesThere's a key number to know before making a last-minute IRA contributionWith gas above $4, drivers across the U.S. say they're cutting backNational College Decision Day is approaching. How to maximize aidMailing your tax return too close to the deadline comes with a riskAverage tax refund is up $350 compared to last year as IRS deadline nearsRobinhood, BNY to build Trump accounts appCNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked But parental support should be approached "as a plan, not a lifestyle," Boneparth said. Know the terms of your parents' support The support you get from your parents can come in a variety of ways, said Elena van Stee, a sociology fellow at Harvard University who focuses on parent-child relationships. Sometimes parents will split the cost of an expense, such as rent, with their child or require that their child hold a job while receiving their help. Other examples, she said, include a parent selling their car to their child or charging them rent. "Especially in more affluent families, when parents were able to provide support but felt uneasy about it, they sometimes developed creative ways of structuring support to make it feel more culturally acceptable," van Stee said. In each case, you should ask your parents to "be very clear" about the terms of their contributions, said Boneparth, a member of CNBC's Financial Advisor Council.Specifically, you'll want your parents to spell out if the help is a gift or a loan, he said. If your parents are giving you a loan, "treat it like a real financial arrangement," Boneparth said. You should understand the total amount being loaned, the interest rate, when repayment starts and what your repayment amount and frequency will be, he said. If the support is a gift, you'll still want to know how long the help might last and when the situation will be revisited, Boneparth said. "A good rule of thumb is to revisit the arrangement monthly if the support is ongoing and meaningful, or at least every three months if the situation is more stable," he said. While these conversations can feel awkward, "ambiguity is what breeds resentment on both sides," said Tim Ranzetta, co-founder and CEO of Next Gen Personal Finance. To avoid arguments down the road, these financial arrangements are best put in writing, added Corey Seemiller, a professor at Wright State University and the co-author of "Generation Z: A Century in the Making." "For instance, if the parents agree to pay off their child's student loans, that should be in writing," Seemiller said. "If the child is going to live at home and pay rent, that should be in writing too." 'A finish line everyone can see' Young adults receiving financial support from their parents should also be up front about their plan, Ranzetta said. They "should be able to show their parents a budget, a savings goal [and] a specific timeline," he said. "It turns an open-ended situation into something with a finish line everyone can see," Ranzetta said. You should come to the regular check-ins with your parents prepared to share updates on your income, job search progress and debt repayment, Boneparth said. "The goal is to show that the support is being used intentionally and that there is forward movement toward greater independence," he said. 'Past support enables present and future independence' Often, young adults experience shame about getting financial help from their parents, said Harvard's van Stee. The support can trigger worries that you're falling behind traditional adult milestones or discomfort at your privilege of having access to this help, when so many don't, she said. The share of Black adults who receive parental assistance is much lower than among white adults, a 2021 study from researchers at the University of Buffalo and The New School found."Accepting parental support can feel incompatible with American cultural understandings of meritocracy and the idea that people should earn their own success," van Stee said. But it's often that help from parents that enable children to be able to stand on their own two feet eventually, she said. "Past support enables present and future independence," van Stee said. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

The UP-RERA amendments enhance buyer protection by allowing complaints against unregistered projects. It also eases the process of property transfers. Here's how.  View More

The project is part of a larger cluster development comprising 10 CBG plants with a total planned investment of ?700 crore View More

Foreign investors are continuing their significant sell-off in Indian stocks, withdrawing over Rs 48,000 crore in early April. This follows a record Rs 1.17 lakh crore exit in March, driven by global uncertainty and escalating West Asian tensions. Analysts cite rising crude oil prices and a weaker rupee as key concerns, with some Asian markets appearing more attractive for now. View More

Fears of a private credit crisis arrived just as the growing and less transparent bond market was being included in more fixed-income ETFs. View More

In this articleBIZDPRSDARESFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT watch nowVIDEO14:3914:39Market volatility is pushing investors back to basics in the ETF industryETF Edge Fears of a private credit crisis are rising as firms at the heart of the growing, but less liquid and less transparent, bond market face investor redemptions. That stress test has arrived just as private loans became more prevalent in the ETF market. It was a little over a year ago that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first ETF branded as a private credit fund. For ETF investors, the good news it that the risks represented by the asset class are showing up in a more controlled way, as ETFs invest directly in private credit issues are still limited in how much exposure they can have to the asset class — up to, but not exceeding 35%. Some other, older ETF products that are tied to private credit get indirect exposure only, according to Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, said on CNBC's "ETF Edge. They use vehicles like business development companies and closed end funds that primarily invest in the private credit sector. While that adds liquidity compared to holding private loans directly, it is not without investor concern in the current environment. The VanEck BDC Income ETF (BIZD), which has roughly $1.5 billion in assets and dates back to 2013, is down 13% since the start of the year. The reason is clear: among BIZD's top holdings are publicly traded shares of some of the private credit managers in the news, including Blue Owl Capital and Ares Capital. Blue Owl shares are down over 46% this year.The Simplify VettaFi Private Credit Strategy ETF (PCR) is down around 20% in the past year and also focused its investments in business development companies and closed end funds. Stock Chart IconStock chart iconPCR YTD Liquidity remains the main concern for investors, and private credit is not meant for daily trading the way ETFs are, which has resulted in issues between private credit managers and investors wanting to pull out their funds. But in the ETF space, daily liquidity and trading always give investors the option to sell, though it may come at a cost. "You can get out, you're just going to pay or you're going to sell at a discount to net asset value," Rosenbluth said.BIZD closed at a discount to its net asset value 37 times in calendar year 2025, and so far, 12 times this year.Private credit funds, meanwhile, often restrict withdrawals during times of stress. "You're gating because you said we can't have a run on the bank," Rosenbluth said. Limits on redemptions help prevent forced selling and instability, though they don't necessarily help to calm market fears.State Street's private credit ETFs, developed with alternative investments manager Apollo Global and which included the first private credit branded ETF approved by the SEC, are examples of how access is being structured within ETFs. The State Street IG Public & Private Credit ETF (PRIV) was the first of its kind, approved by the SEC in February 2025. The State Street Short Duration IG Public & Private Credit ETF (PRSD) launched later in 2025.These funds are meant to outperform standard bond benchmarks by including investment-grade private credit, and can both hold as much as 35% in private credit issues, or at times less than 10%. According to the State Street ETF web site, only one of PRIV's current top 10 holdings is private credit, with treasury and mortgage-backed securities dominating in the top 10. PRSD's top holdings are a mix of government, mortgage and currency holdings. Stock Chart IconStock chart iconPerformance of State Street's private credit ETF, the first approved by the SEC, over the past year versus the aggregate bond index. PRIV has $831 million assets under management; PRSD is much smaller, at $48 million in assets under management. Both have seen relatively flat performance since the beginning of the year. Both PRIV and PRSD hold slightly over 20% of assets in Apollo-sourced investments, according to State Street data.Jeffrey Rosenberg, systematic fixed income senior portfolio manager at BlackRock, who runs a long-short strategy in an ETF wrapper, says private credit investing issues are one example of how much ETFs have changed fixed income markets. As active portfolio managers in the bond market meet more investors through ETFs, it allows them more precision in targeting specific parts of the credit market. "They've just completely changed how liquidity provisioning, price discovery ... how the ecosystem of credit market-making functions in a modern credit market," he said on "ETF Edge." Money has been on the move during the recent market volatility, according to VettaFi's Rosenbluth, with ETF investors "taking some risk off" and moving from longer-duration bond funds into shorter-duration funds. The biggest systemic risk in private credit markets comes from the asset-liability mismatch. "The run on the bank," BlackRock's Rosenberg said. But it is his view that this type of risk is less pronounced today since many private credit vehicles limit liquidity by design. That cannot eliminate risk, but can make the risks surface more gradually, Rosenberg explained, saying impact could take place over longer time horizons as companies face refinancing at higher rates.Both Rosenbluth and Rosenberg explained that the result of this is a system that absorbs shock differently. Private credit funds may restrict redemptions and ETFs allow for continuous trading with real-time price adjustments — allowing markets to keep functioning while reflecting stress as it develops. Both approaches, they say, aim to prevent disorderly outcomes.CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Jeffrey Rosenberg's name.Sign up for our weekly newsletter that goes beyond the livestream, offering a closer look at the trends and figures shaping the ETF market. Disclaimer Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

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In some states, undocumented students have access to in-state college tuition if they meet certain requirements. Now, many of those laws are being challenged. View More

Andersen Ross Photography Inc | Digitalvision | Getty Images A battle over in-state tuition for undocumented students has been heating up nationwide. At least 22 states and the District of Columbia allow students — including those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, who are known as "Dreamers" — to pay in-state tuition at public colleges, regardless of their immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center. In order to qualify for the benefit, students generally must have attended a high school in the state for a certain number of years and graduated. For more than two decades, this has been a pathway to a postsecondary education for students who might otherwise be priced out of college.Initially, such policies had bipartisan approval. Texas was the first state to pass a law to allow undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition through the Texas Dream Act in 2001."This policy allowed for other states to pass an in-state tuition policy, and since then 25 states have followed suit," said Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, an immigration rights nonprofit. "Trying to ensure that 'Dreamers' had access to higher education had a lot of support, but it took years, in some cases, to pass such laws."Several versions of a federal law gained traction but stalled in Congress. More recently, however, the political climate changed and a number of states — including Texas — have eliminated the tuition benefit. Several more states are currently changing their tuition laws. Sign for the University of Houston hanging on Ezekiel W Cullen Building in Houston, TX.Getty Images When Juan, a Quest Bridge scholar, graduated from high school in Galveston, Texas, in 2022, he was accepted into 15 colleges but chose to attend the University of Houston, in part because of the in-state tuition benefit, he said. Juan asked CNBC not to publish his last name due to concerns about his family's immigration status. When Texas eliminated in-state tuition for undocumented students last summer, "I got really anxious because I was so close to finishing," he said. "If I had to pay out-of-state tuition, it would have been a very tough financial spot for me and my parents. With only a year left, I didn't want to transfer." Now a senior, Juan, 21, has been able to continue to access in-state tuition rates in Texas despite the state's new restrictions because of his active DACA status. "I know some of my friends that straight up had to leave" college, he said.As it stands, the accounting major will graduate with his class in May. "I am going to try and become a certified public accountant and eventually go to law school and become a civil rights attorney or immigration attorney and help people who may not have been as lucky as me," he said. Read more CNBC personal finance coverageAverage tax refund is 11% higher, latest IRS filing data showsSocial Security 2027 cost-of-living adjustment estimate rises with gas pricesHere's the inflation breakdown for March 2026 — in one chartHow 'married filing separately' status could affect Trump tax breaks this seasonStudent loan forgiveness may be pricier to access after new changesPersonal assistant pleads guilty to defrauding elderly couple out of $10 millionGas prices should soon start slowly easing if ceasefire holds, analysts sayHow to save money on flights as airlines raise pricesThere's a key number to know before making a last-minute IRA contributionWith gas above $4, drivers across the U.S. say they're cutting backNational College Decision Day is approaching. How to maximize aidMailing your tax return too close to the deadline comes with a riskAverage tax refund is up $350 compared to last year as IRS deadline nearsRobinhood, BNY to build Trump accounts appCNBC's Financial Advisor 100: Best financial advisors, top firms ranked In July, the U.S. Department of Education issued a new rule determining that undocumented students are not eligible for certain federal education benefits. The rule also confirmed that some postsecondary education programs, including Pell Grants, a type of aid awarded solely based on financial need, and federal student loans "continue to be inaccessible to illegal immigrants.""Postsecondary education programs funded by the federal government should benefit American citizens, not illegal aliens," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement about the announcement. "American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for illegal aliens to participate in our career, technical, or adult education programs or activities," McMahon said. "The Department will ensure that taxpayer funds are reserved for citizens and individuals who have entered our country through legal means who meet federal eligibility criteria." This notice is subject to litigation and has not been implemented, a spokesperson for the Education Department told CNBC. 'Out-of-state tuition costs are three times as much' "The Departments of Justice and Education are working to target these laws and policies one by one," said Pacheco of TheDream.US. "Years and years of work got unwound."Under some states' new policies, undocumented students must pay higher out-of-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. "Out-of-state tuition costs are three times as much," Pacheco said. "Many of them have to drop out or switch to community college."  At four-year public colleges, in-state tuition and fees averaged $11,950 for the 2025-2026 academic year, according to the College Board. The out-of-state tab was $31,880, on average. "You are going to have a population of students who are graduating from high school and are not able to afford higher education," Pacheco said. Specifically, "it's going to become a lot harder for the non-white or non-rich communities," she added. A legal battle over the Virginia Dream Act In Virginia, a U.S. Department of Justice challenge to in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants is currently awaiting a judge's decision, but some experts are hopeful that the state law will remain in place."The Virginia Dream Act is not out of hot water yet, but we are confident the judge will land on the side of the law," said Zuraya Tapia-Hadley, CEO of the Dream Project, a state-based nonprofit that awards scholarships to undocumented and other immigrant students who live in Virginia.About 87% of the nonprofit's scholars rely on in-state tuition rates, according to Tapia-Hadley. "In Virginia the average in-state tuition is around $14,000 to $16,000 — it would balloon to around $45,000 to $60,000; it would double or triple in cost," Tapia-Hadley said.If students become ineligible for in-state rates, there would be an "immediate impact," she said. "The fact is that by causing students to abandon education pursuits entirely, that negatively impacts the entire community," Tapia-Hadley said. "By creating barriers, we would be jeopardizing our future workforce, our pipeline. It's a loss for all."Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the Department of Education's new rule in July confirmed that some postsecondary education programs, including Pell Grants and student loans, continue to be inaccessible to undocumented students. A previous version of this article misstated the rule's determination on those programs.Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Amid rising costs and a tighter economic climate, more parents are teaching their kids financial literacy lessons that could serve them well later in life. View More

As parents contend with rising costs and an overall tighter economic climate, more of them are using those challenges as an opportunity to have frank talks with their kids about money, according to a recent survey.Honest conversations — including telling your kids "no" when they ask you to buy something, and explaining why — can give those kids an early foundation of financial literacy that can serve them well later in life, says Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist, author and associate economics professor at Creighton University.In the survey of 2,000 U.S. parents, released March 31 by financial software company Intuit, almost two-thirds — 64% — of parents raising kids under age 18 said that recent financial challenges forced them to be more transparent with their children about how they manage their finances. Sixty-six percent of respondents reported saying "no" to purchase requests more often while explaining their reasoning to their kids.Kids don't always learn much about money in school: As of March 2026, 39 U.S. states make passing a personal finance course a requirement of high school graduation, which is up from just 12 states in 2022, according to the Council for Economic Education.DON'T MISS: The leadership skills that can help you stand out at workYet children can start learning permanent money habits as early as age 5, research shows. And kids who learn financial literacy early on are more likely to form healthy relationships with money that can help improve their financial and overall well-being as adults, according to a 2022 study by researchers at Brigham Young University.You might explain to a young child that an expensive video game console doesn't fit in your family's budget, or catch your teenager up on how you've put aside funds for their college education. When parents talk to their kids about money, "those kids end up in much better financial shape later on in life, versus having to learn it the hard way," says Klontz. Shutting down your child's money questions is a 'big mistake' Many parents find money discussions with kids to be taboo, particularly specifics about their own family's financial status and spending habits, studies show. Some parents feel ashamed about the state of their own financial literacy, and anxiety over money being tight can cause parents to avoid discussing the subject, Klontz says.But avoidance is a "big mistake" when it comes to discussing money with your kids, says Klontz: Never shut down your child's questions about the topic, even if they're asking for a purchase that's not within your family's financial reach at the moment. Saying "no" to your child's latest spending request is a prime opportunity to follow up with some thoughtful and informative reasoning for that decision, he adds."You don't want to give your kids the message that this is a stressful, taboo topic that 'we don't talk about,'" says Klontz. Such an approach can harm kids' long-term financial literacy, he says, especially if they grow into adults who don't talk, or even think, about their own budgeting plans.Explain to your children what your family chooses to spend money on and why, and what you're doing with money you don't spend — like investing or saving for important or fun future purchases, Klontz recommends. "Sit down and say, 'Hey, we want a new TV, or we have this other financial goal, so ... we're going to set aside X amount of money each paycheck,'" he says.You can impart your financial values and goals to your children while showing the specific path you're taking to achieve them, says Klontz. Otherwise, "you might be saving in the background, but they never saw it. You never had them save for anything. That's a huge error that we make as parents." Offer practical lessons, don't over-share More than half of parents in the Intuit survey said they take their kids grocery shopping to give them a first-hand look at regular household costs, and 38% said they talk to their kids about regular expenses like rent, mortgage or utility payments. Those practical lessons help teach kids to be thoughtful about prices and how much you're saving for future purchases, personal finance experts say."When you're walking through a store and your child wants something, pick it up [and] show them the price," Alexa von Tobel, founder and managing partner of venture fund Inspired Capital, told CNBC Make It in February 2024. "'This costs $29. Mommy doesn't have the $29 for this today, but we can think about saving that for your birthday.'"Klontz offers one "caveat" to the transparency strategy: Design your conversations to be age-appropriate, and not too stressful. Elementary school-aged children can be expected to understand basic money concepts about the value of money, and the concept of cost factoring into what you buy, family wealth experts say. Middle school students might be more prepared to discuss complex concepts like budgeting and long-term saving.Just be careful: Scaring or stressing your kids unnecessarily can cause them to develop unhealthy relationships with money, says Klontz. If money is tighter than usual, offer a matter-of-fact explanation of why your family might cut back on certain expenses for the meantime while reiterating that everything will ultimately be fine for them and the family, he advises."You might be passing on some of this fear [and] anxiety, and that plays itself out in very detrimental ways later on in life," Klontz says. If you lie to them, you may face another issue, he notes: "Kids have really good bullshit detectors. I think it's fine to say: 'Look this is stressful, and we're not exactly sure what's going on. But, trust me ... we've got this.'"Want to lead with confidence and bring out the best in your team? Take CNBC's new online course, How To Be A Standout Leader. Expert instructors share practical strategies to help you build trust, communicate clearly and motivate other people to do their best work. Sign up today! Take control of your money with CNBC Select CNBC Select is editorially independent and may earn a commission from affiliate partners on links.Six ways to file your taxes for freeAmazon Prime is offering a 20-cent-per-gallon discount. Stack those savings with a credit cardFrom Coachella to Formula 1: How to use credit cards to access presale and VIP tickets Travel insurance is gaining popularity among spring breakers this year — how to protect your tripWhat is a good monthly retirement income in 2026? VIDEO6:0906:09How my Pakistani chopped cheese brings in up to $140K a month in NYCOn The Job

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