The stock market may be roaring, but 2024 has been Wall Street’s year of the bond fund. Bonds are paying the highest yields in a generation and interest rates are poised to come down. Meanwhile, a record number of retirees are looking to cut risk in their portfolios. That combination has investors pouring money into both indexed and actively managed funds. Wall Street is seeing dollar signs. U.S.-listed fixed-income exchange-traded funds have taken in nearly $150 billion through late July, a record through this point in a year. When looking at mutual funds and ETFs together, taxable bond funds were responsible [...]

While Federal Reserve officials aren’t likely to change interest rates in the coming week, their meeting will nonetheless be one of the most consequential in a while. At each of their four meetings this year, interest-rate cuts have been a question for later. This time, though, inflation and labor-market developments should allow officials to signal a cut is very possible at their next meeting, in September. As a result, the coming week’s meeting, which wraps up Wednesday, could resolve the trade-off Chair Jerome Powell has been weighing between the risks of cutting rates too soon and waiting too long, in favor [...]

The challenge of both finding and affording workers faces small governments scattered around the U.S., and often leaves those still there to pick up the slack. ... Rural areas have long struggled to hang onto—or recruit—young residents launching their careers. Small-town officials say they face particular hurdles when it comes to offering competitive salaries to compete for workers. Source: Wall Street Journal