Hey friends - thanks for giving me a pass last week. Took the weekend off to make some memories with my wife and our new little girl. It’s been a crazy month. Plus the launch of the new Share Scoops for financial advisors. Doing 5-10 demo calls a day.

🌎 The Big Picture

Here's what you need to know this week:

Gas prices are back to record 2022 levels, and some states are getting hit much harder than others.

AAA reported the national average hit $4.53 per gallon on May 14, up more than $1.35 from a year ago and pretty much right back to the gut-punch levels we saw in 2022. If you're in California ($6.14), Washington ($5.77), Hawaii ($5.64), Oregon ($5.34), or Alaska ($5.26), you're getting hit the hardest right now.

A global oil supply crisis is the main driver, and lower-income families are feeling it most.

The near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, following the U.S. entry into military conflict with Iran on February 28, triggered the crisis. Before things escalated, about one-fifth of the world's oil flowed through that waterway. Now it's down to a trickle, crude oil has pushed into the $100-per-barrel range, and real people's budgets are feeling it. Low-income families are getting squeezed the most, handing over a bigger chunk of every paycheck every time they pull up to the pump.

A proposed federal gas tax suspension could help, but the savings may be smaller than advertised.

President Trump proposed suspending the federal gas tax, which would knock about 18 cents off the price per gallon. It's not huge, but it matters for a lot of families. Fair warning, though: experts say the actual savings could be smaller once retailers and distributors take their share. It's also worth knowing that the tax funds highway construction and maintenance, so suspending it means tradeoffs we'd all feel down the road. And with AAA saying Americans are planning to travel in record numbers over Memorial Day weekend, all that extra demand could push prices even higher before things ease up.

New listings outpaced home sales for the first time this year, as mortgage costs pushed buyers to the sidelines.

Zillow reported 426,000 new homes hit the market in April, up 2.1% from a year earlier, but 0.4% fewer homes actually sold compared to last April. It's been a tough, slow spring for anyone trying to navigate the housing market.

Home prices are still rising, but the pace has slowed, and monthly payments are down from a year ago.

The typical U.S. home value rose 0.7% over the past year to $366,712, great if you already own, but increasingly discouraging if you're a first-time buyer trying to break in. The silver lining: the monthly mortgage payment on a typical home came in at $1,829, down 3.4% from a year ago, thanks to lower rates earlier this year.

Buyers have more inventory and more negotiating power than last spring, though climbing rates are cooling the rebound.

Active inventory rose 3.7% from April 2025, and 23.5% of listings saw a price cut in April, which means sellers are more open to negotiating than they used to be. Still, with rates climbing back above 6% following the conflict with Iran, the spring sales rebound Zillow had hoped for probably isn't going to play out the way anyone wanted.

Employers added more jobs than expected in April, but the broader hiring trend has cooled significantly.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 115,000 new jobs last month, down from a strong 185,000 in March but well above the 65,000 economists were expecting. Over the past 12 months, though, employers have averaged only 22,000 new jobs per month, a fraction of the pace we saw in stronger years. Healthcare led hiring again, followed by transportation and warehousing. Federal government employment kept sliding, shedding another 9,000 jobs and bringing total federal losses to 348,000 since October 2024.

Wages are growing, but not fast enough to keep pace with what most workers are dealing with.

Average hourly pay rose just $0.25 for the month, up 3.6% over the past year, a touch slower than economists had expected.

Unemployment is still relatively low, but the number of people who want more work than they can find is climbing.

The unemployment rate held at 4.3%, but the number of people actually out of work did climb. More folks said they've stopped actively looking for a job altogether. And maybe most telling: the number of workers stuck in part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work jumped by 445,000 to 4.9 million, a real reminder that a lot of people out there want more hours and more stability than the market is giving them right now. Most employers are holding onto the people they have, but if you're out there job hunting, it's tougher than it was not that long ago.

Taken together, the picture this week is one of cost pressure hitting from multiple directions. Energy prices are squeezing household budgets and business bottom lines at the same time, the housing market is cooling but not in a way that makes it easier for buyers, and a job market that looks acceptable on the surface is showing real signs of strain underneath. None of these trends exists in isolation, and together they add up to an environment worth watching closely in the weeks ahead.

🏭 The Companies Everyone’s Talking About

❔ The Big Question of the Week

Scoops app users: We have taken the beta app offline for a short period for some major updates. Can’t wait to show you all what we’ve been working on! Reach out if you have any questions.

We’re going to switch up the content in this spotlight for a bit to make sure you all have the info you need to master your week.