Monitoring financial news is one of the best ways for investors to stay informed about the latest developments in the market. Financial news can provide clues as to where the market is headed, provide insight into individual stock movements, and more.
In this guide, we’ll explain the different types of financial news and highlight the best financial news websites you can start using today.
The Importance of Studying Financial Matters
Every investor should make reading financial news a part of their daily market approach. That’s because financial news provides important, current information about all the different factors that can affect the market. If there is a big announcement, a general feeling of hope or concern among traders, or another topic making waves in the market, you can read about it on financial news websites. Following financial news is especially important when market conditions change rapidly.
Another reason to read financial news is that it can give you investment ideas. You might find an article about a company you’ve never heard of before, or find practical information about a particular market sector. You can also use financial news to find the right time to invest or double down on stocks that have been on your watch list.
Types of Financial Issues
There are several different types of financial issues, which we will divide into three categories:
Full Market News
Stock market news is any news about the stock market as a whole. These stories often include coverage of how major indices or entire market sectors are performing, and can provide insight into what traders and analysts are currently thinking about the market. Stock market news may also cover markets other than stocks, such as bond, cryptocurrency, forex, or commodity markets.
Stock Specific News
Stock-specific news includes articles that focus on individual companies. These types of articles often cover earnings reports, company announcements, mergers and acquisitions, and executive suite benefits. Often, stock-specific news includes commentary about the stock’s peers, especially in cases where competitors experience price changes because one company in the sector reports surprisingly good or bad earnings.
Economic Affairs
Economic news covers economic trends beyond the stock market. Interest rate increases, central bank announcements, global events, and changes in the housing market are all types of economic news that can affect the stock market and investors may want to monitor.
Types of Financial Information Services
Broadly, there are two different types of financial news services. Financial news websites provide real-time news articles that are often organized into different categories so that investors can find the news that is most relevant to them.
Meanwhile, financial news feeds, also known as streaming news services, often provide live feeds of trending topics. These services are designed for novice traders who want to be able to buy and sell within seconds of breaking financial news. Everything about these services is designed for speed, and they may not provide much detail about the story behind the title.
Best Financial News Websites
There are many different financial news websites, many of which offer articles for free. Ideally, investors will follow multiple media sources to ensure they are getting a complete and unbiased picture of the market.
With that in mind, here are six of the best financial news websites you can start using today.
CNBC – Ready for Breaking Stock Market News
CNBC is a great source for breaking stock market news. The site is often among the first to break big news, and you can count on CNBC to cover the biggest stories in the stock market each day. Another advantage to CNBC is that it offers a basic news feed, making it easy to keep an eye on the latest news as it breaks.
Much of the content on CNBC is accessible for free. You can subscribe to CNBC Pro for $29.99 per month or $299.99 per year to get access to live broadcasts of CNBC network TV shows and premium analysis articles. If you want to learn more about the pro service, read our CNBC Pro review.
The Motley Fool – Great for Investment Ideas
The Motley Fool is best known for its paid stock-picking newsletters, but the site also offers a wealth of free news and analysis articles. These articles usually cover individual stocks and provide insight into why the stock’s price went up or down significantly on a particular day. Some articles include multiple stocks or recommend top stocks in certain market sectors, making this forum an excellent source for generating investment ideas.
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Note that the Motley Fool emphasizes fundamental analysis and long-term growth, so you won’t find much discussion of technical analysis in the news articles on this site.
Investors looking for even more in-depth research and premium stock picks can sign up for the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor service. You can read the Motley Fool Stock Advisor review to learn more.
The Wall Street Journal – Best for Economic News
The Wall Street Journal is a major economic news source that covers everything from the stock market to business to politics. It is an excellent source of investigative journalism that dives deep into the inner workings of companies and the underlying issues of the US economy as a whole. The Wall Street Journal is a journalistic source first and foremost, so you’re more likely to learn about big economic trends than to get specific investment advice.
The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription that costs $8 per month for the first year, then $38.99 per month.
Reuters – Best for Global Market News
Reuters is one of the most trusted sources of global markets and business news. This news organization has top-notch journalists from around the world, and has a long history of breaking major economic news in Europe, Asia and Africa. Additionally, news on Reuters is organized by region, market sector, and markets, so investors can easily find the news that is most relevant to their investments.
Market news on Reuters is free to read.
Yahoo! Finance – Ideal for Company Specific News and Press Releases
Yahoo! Finance has a similar focus to CNBC: providing market-wide updates during each trading day to help investors stay on top of the most important issues. However, Yahoo! Finance also provides more security for individual companies. It publishes press releases from companies that provide insight into new products and services and includes announcements from executive offices that tell investors where the company is headed next.
News content on Yahoo! Finance is free, however the company also offers a premium service called Yahoo Finance Premium.
Bloomberg – Best for Business News
Bloomberg offers a wide range of financial news, including general market news and economic news. The site is most prominent in its Businessweek magazine, which features in-depth business news that addresses broader market trends. These stories are engaging and offer real reporting, so Bloomberg is a great source of market news that you won’t find covered anywhere else.
Bloomberg offers a limited number of free articles each month. Unlimited access requires a subscription that costs $4.99 per month for the first year, then $39.99 per month.
Best Financial News Resources
Active traders can use financial news websites, but they also need real-time streaming news delivered throughout the day. Here are two of the top resources for broadcasting financial news.
Benzinga Pro – Best for active traders
Benzinga Pro is a powerful news streaming service designed for stock traders who want to buy and sell on breaking news. This newswire service is very fast and provides sentiment indicators on all topics so that traders can make decisions very quickly. Benzinga Pro also features a squawk sound function, a real-time news filter, symbol and keyword-based news alerts, and a chat room where traders can talk to Benzinga news analysts.
Benzinga Pro News Feed starts at $27 per month. Audio squawk and real-time scanning require an Essentials subscription, which costs $177 per month.
Appreciation – The Best in Topics
Brief information is provided by live, broadcast news articles written by expert market analysts. The headlines are written for action, so traders don’t need to read full stories to make a decision about how to trade. The service offers simple filters to narrow the stream of earnings reports, analyst rating changes, and more. Traders can also set up alerts and custom watch lists to make sure they don’t miss a headline.
Brief information starts at $75 per month.
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Conclusion: Financial News Websites
Staying up-to-date on financial news is key to measuring the market and finding new investment ideas. With these financial news websites and news feed services, investors and traders alike can make sure they don’t miss an important topic.
