Monitoring financial news is one of the best ways for investors to stay current on the latest developments in the market. Financial news can provide clues as to which direction the market is headed, offer 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 Reading Financial News
Every investor should make reading financial news part of their daily market routine. That’s because financial news provides important, current information about all the different factors that can impact the market. If there’s a major announcement, a general feeling of optimism or concern among traders, or another headline making waves in the market, you can learn about it through financial news websites. Following financial news is especially important when market conditions are changing rapidly.
Another reason to read financial news is that it can provide you with investment ideas. You might discover a headline about a company you’ve never heard of before, or get actionable information about a specific market sector. You can also use financial news to find an opportune time to invest in or double down on stocks that have been on your watchlist.
Types of Financial News
There are several different types of financial news, which we’ll break down into three categories:
Market-wide News
Market-wide news is any news that relates to the stock market as a whole. This news often includes coverage of how major indices or whole market sectors are performing, and may provide insight into what traders and analysts think about the market right now. Market-wide news can also cover markets other than stocks, such as the bond, cryptocurrency, forex, or commodities markets.
Stock-Specific News
Stock-specific news includes articles that are focused on individual companies. These types of articles often cover earnings reports, company announcements, mergers and acquisitions, and executive suite turnover. Often, stock-specific news includes commentary about a stock’s peers, especially in cases where competitors experience price changes because one company in a sector reports surprisingly positive or negative earnings.
Economic News
Economic news covers economic trends that supersede the stock market. Interest rate hikes, central bank announcements, global events, and changes in the housing market are all types of economic news that can affect the stock market and that investors may want to monitor.
Types of Financial News Services
Broadly speaking, there are two different types of financial news services. Financial news websites offer real-time news articles that are usually organized into different categories so investors can find the news that’s most relevant for them.
Meanwhile, financial news feeds, also known as news streaming services, typically offer a live feed of breaking headlines. These services are designed for active traders who want to be able to buy and sell within seconds of important financial news stories breaking. Everything about these services is optimized for speed, and they may not provide much detail about the story behind the headline.
Best Financial News Websites
There are many different financial news websites, many of which offer articles for free. Ideally, investors will follow multiple news sources to ensure they’re getting a comprehensive and unbiased picture of the market.
With that in mind, here are the six best financial news websites you can start using today.
CNBC – Great for Breaking Stock Market News
CNBC is an excellent source for breaking stock market news. The site is often among the first to break major stories, and you can always count on CNBC to cover the largest stories in the stock market each day. Another benefit to CNBC is that it offers a basic news feed, making it easy to keep an eye on the latest stories as they’re released.
Most of the content on CNBC is free to access. You can sign up for CNBC Pro for $29.99 per month or $299.99 per year to get access to a live stream of CNBC’s network TV programming and premium analysis articles. If you want to learn more about the pro service, read our CNBC Pro review.
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 typically cover individual stocks and offer insight into why a stock’s price is rising or falling significantly on a given day. Some articles cover multiple stocks or suggest top stocks in particular market sectors, making this platform 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 technical analysis discussion in news articles on this site.
Investors who want even more in-depth research and premium stock picks can sign up for Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor service. You can read the Motley Fool Stock Advisor review to learn more.
Wall Street Journal – Great for Economic News
The Wall Street Journal is a major economic news outlet that covers everything from the stock market to business to politics. It’s a great source for both investigative journalism that dives deep into companies’ inner workings and more broad-based news about the US economy as a whole. The Wall Street Journal is a journalistic outlet first and foremost, so you’re more likely to learn about major economic trends than you are to find specific investing advice.
The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription that costs $8 per month for the first year, then $38.99 per month.
Reuters – Great for Global Market News
Reuters is one of the most trusted sources for international market and business news. This news organization has journalists on the ground in countries around the world, and it has a long record of breaking major economic stories in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Helpfully, news stories on Reuters are organized by region, market sector, and market, so investors can easily find the news that’s most relevant to their investments.
Market news on Reuters is free to read.
Yahoo! Finance – Great for Company-specific News and Press Releases
Yahoo! Finance has a similar focus to CNBC: providing market-wide updates throughout each trading day to help investors stay on top of the most important stories. However, Yahoo! Finance also offers more coverage for individual companies. It publishes press releases from companies that offer insight into new products and services and covers announcements from executive suites that tell investors where a company is working on heading next.
News content on Yahoo! Finance is free, however the company also offers a premium service called Yahoo Finance Premium.
Bloomberg – Great for Business News
Bloomberg offers a wide range of financial news, including market-wide news stories and economic news. The site stands out most for its Businessweek magazine, which covers in-depth business stories that speak to broader trends in the market. The stories are engaging and offer original reporting, so Bloomberg is a good source for market stories that you won’t find covered elsewhere.
Bloomberg offers a limited number of articles for free 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 Services
Active traders can make use of financial news websites, but they also need real-time streaming news delivered throughout the day. Here are two of the top financial news streaming services.
Benzinga Pro – Best for Active Traders
Benzinga Pro is a powerful news streaming service built for stock traders who want to buy and sell on breaking news. This newswire service is extremely fast and offers sentiment indicators with every headline so traders can make decisions as quickly as possible. Benzinga Pro also features an audio squawk function, a real-time news screener, ticker- and keyword-based news alerts, and a chat room where traders can talk with Benzinga’s news analysts.
Benzinga Pro’s newsfeed starts at $27 per month. Audio squawk and real-time scanning require an Essentials subscription, which costs $177 per month.
Briefing – Best for Headlines
Briefing offers live, streaming headlines written by expert market analysts. The headlines are written to be actionable, so traders don’t need to read through full stories to make a decision about how to trade. The service offers simple filters for narrowing the stream to earnings reports, analyst ratings changes, and more. Traders can also set up alerts and custom watchlists to make sure they never miss a breaking headline.
Briefing starts at $75 per month.
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Conclusion: Financial News Websites
Staying current on financial news is key to gauging the market and finding new investment ideas. With these financial news websites and newsfeed services, investors and traders alike can make sure they never miss an important headline.
