Daily Commentary
Get a weekly roundup of our market insights.
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter.
By Andrew Zaleski, Slate, 4/2/2025
MarketMinder’s View: The titular “it” refers to health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs), whose uses are broader than many may realize. As this article asks: “What can’t a health savings account do?” HSAs in particular feature a great perk: Funds deposited are pretax, “meaning Uncle Sam can’t touch it. Increasingly, people who open HSAs to save money that would otherwise be used on medical costs are instead letting their cash grow with the market over time—creating, in effect, a supplemental retirement account.” Unlike IRAs, though, you can use those pretax funds immediately on “healthcare” expenditures, which the piece notes are becoming more broadly defined—making HSAs more useful to many for stretching their dollars further. “Some now use the money to pay for preventive health services and goods such as meal plans, fitness trackers, gym memberships, and nutrition help.” Now, HSAs may not be for everyone: “The catch comes down to who even qualifies. For starters, you must be enrolled in a high-deductible health plan: For 2025, that means a plan that has a deductible of at least $1,650 for single coverage and $3,300 for family coverage. The trade-off here is simple: If you can handle that kind of high deductible, you can lower your monthly premium payments and bank the money you save in an HSA. (In 2025, those contribution limits are $4,300 for singles and $8,550 for families.) You also can’t have health coverage that would disqualify you, something like Medicare. And you can’t be claimed as a tax dependent by somebody else.” But if you do qualify, taking advantage of these accounts can help investors’ financial and physical health—so it is worth doing the research to see if they make sense for you.
About a Third of Americans Stop Buying Eggs Due to Rising Costs, Study Shows
By Marina Dunbar, The Guardian, 4/2/2025
MarketMinder’s View: Here is an illustrative reminder that prices are a signal influencing supply and demand. The article focuses on the latter for eggs, whose prices have soared this year (albeit, cooled somewhat in recent weeks). Unsurprisingly, consumers are forgoing eggs as prices have risen—the more something costs, the less people buy it. Eggonomics 101. This article offers some details on such behavior. According to one study, “34% of Americans have stopped purchasing eggs as prices for the breakfast staple are becoming less affordable. On average, these consumers say they won’t begin buying eggs again until costs come down to $5 or less for a carton. The report compared the average price of eggs across all US states, observing a significant jump in 2018, when the average was $1.49. In 2025, that figure is sitting at about $5.18. ... The research also found that the majority of Americans (61%) are eating fewer eggs due to rising costs, and 44% are seeing themselves using fewer eggs in their cooking and baking habits.” This all reflects what already happened, though. What are the likely downstream effects? One is substitution (e.g., egg alternative options). High prices can also incentivize production and/or imports—which take time to ramp up, so they tend to hit supply at a lag. Moreover, the article presumes what people say they will do translates directly into action, but survey responses aren’t prescient—a useful lesson to keep in mind when articles warn something may knock spending. For more eggsellent lessons (and fine yolks) investors can glean from the current scrambled price picture, please see, “An Inflation Microcosm in Eggs.”
Pupils in England to Be Taught About Online Spending and Scams
By Sally Weale, The Guardian, 4/2/2025
MarketMinder’s View: While the article highlights lessons for English pupils, the spending and scam-spotting advice is useful for kids (and adults) of all ages everywhere. “Lessons for primary school children teach them where money comes from, how to keep track of it, and the difference between wants and needs. They can learn about credit and debit cards, the tactics advertisers use, and how to keep money safe from scammers. Resources for secondary schools are designed to help pupils understand inflation, personal risk, cryptocurrency and investing. There are also lessons on how to understand bank statements and payslips, and how to scrutinise data and claims made by campaigners, advertisers and online influencers.” MarketMinder covers many of the same personal finance topics, so we applaud these educational efforts. The earlier and more people know about how to handle such matters, the better. In our view, personal finance isn’t an elective anymore.
By Rebecca Feng and Santiago Perez, The Wall Street Journal, 4/2/2025
MarketMinder’s View: Are Chinese joint ventures with Mexican firms—the practice of “nearshoring” to skirt US tariffs on goods from China—endangered? The title suggests as much due to the Trump administration’s increasing ire at the practice: “His administration now wants to stop what it views as a major loophole in the trade agreement he signed with America’s closest neighbors.” However, nearly all the evidence and examples cited here point to how difficult it is likely to be to close that “loophole,” suggesting the titular tariff-dodging isn’t necessarily in dire straits. The only action cited otherwise: “Mexican officials have halted plans by [a Chinese battery and electric-vehicle maker] to open a factory in the country, fearing such a move would anger Trump.” (Note here that MarketMinder doesn’t make individual security recommendations; companies mentioned serve only to illustrate the broader theme.) But that voluntary action is an exception that proves the rule, in our view. Without draconian enforcement, the tide remains in favor of further investment and trade. “Some Chinese companies have put Mexican expansion projects on hold. But those that have already invested heavily in the country are likely to try to weather the storm.” Now, upcoming US-Mexico-Canada Agreement renegotiations could change that, but as the article sums up, “Unwinding crucial parts of the global supply chain will be costly and cumbersome for everyone, from manufacturers to consumers. Yet as long as the current trade agreement holds, so will the Chinese-Mexican connection to the U.S. market, experts say.” (Note, this article published before Trump’s reciprocal tariff announcements on April 2, but administration officials have clarified these tariffs don’t apply to Canada and Mexico presently, so we don’t think the calculus changed suddenly.)
About a Third of Americans Stop Buying Eggs Due to Rising Costs, Study Shows
By Marina Dunbar, The Guardian, 4/2/2025
MarketMinder’s View: Here is an illustrative reminder that prices are a signal influencing supply and demand. The article focuses on the latter for eggs, whose prices have soared this year (albeit, cooled somewhat in recent weeks). Unsurprisingly, consumers are forgoing eggs as prices have risen—the more something costs, the less people buy it. Eggonomics 101. This article offers some details on such behavior. According to one study, “34% of Americans have stopped purchasing eggs as prices for the breakfast staple are becoming less affordable. On average, these consumers say they won’t begin buying eggs again until costs come down to $5 or less for a carton. The report compared the average price of eggs across all US states, observing a significant jump in 2018, when the average was $1.49. In 2025, that figure is sitting at about $5.18. ... The research also found that the majority of Americans (61%) are eating fewer eggs due to rising costs, and 44% are seeing themselves using fewer eggs in their cooking and baking habits.” This all reflects what already happened, though. What are the likely downstream effects? One is substitution (e.g., egg alternative options). High prices can also incentivize production and/or imports—which take time to ramp up, so they tend to hit supply at a lag. Moreover, the article presumes what people say they will do translates directly into action, but survey responses aren’t prescient—a useful lesson to keep in mind when articles warn something may knock spending. For more eggsellent lessons (and fine yolks) investors can glean from the current scrambled price picture, please see, “An Inflation Microcosm in Eggs.”
Pupils in England to Be Taught About Online Spending and Scams
By Sally Weale, The Guardian, 4/2/2025
MarketMinder’s View: While the article highlights lessons for English pupils, the spending and scam-spotting advice is useful for kids (and adults) of all ages everywhere. “Lessons for primary school children teach them where money comes from, how to keep track of it, and the difference between wants and needs. They can learn about credit and debit cards, the tactics advertisers use, and how to keep money safe from scammers. Resources for secondary schools are designed to help pupils understand inflation, personal risk, cryptocurrency and investing. There are also lessons on how to understand bank statements and payslips, and how to scrutinise data and claims made by campaigners, advertisers and online influencers.” MarketMinder covers many of the same personal finance topics, so we applaud these educational efforts. The earlier and more people know about how to handle such matters, the better. In our view, personal finance isn’t an elective anymore.