Investors Are Holding $3 Trillion in Cash. Money Managers Aren’t Happy.

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Alex Ossola (0:34)

New data out today adds to a growing picture of a weaker economy and investors are keeping a near record amount of money in cash and financial planners aren't happy about it.

Miriam Gottfried (0:45)

If you're a wealth manager, you want to be giving your clients advice. You want to be proving that you're worth something and if you're just saying keep your money in cash, it's not really very sophisticated advice.

Alex Ossola (0:56)

Plus, AI slop is popping up in surprising places and knowing what's real isn't even the biggest challenge. It's Friday, August 14th. I'm Alex Ossola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson in 2024, pleaded guilty today to two federal charges of stalking. During a court hearing, Mangione told the judge that he spent years enduring severe pain and became frustrated with the health care and insurance bureaucracy. Speaking outside the courthouse, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie MacDonald, said no grievance, political belief or ideological cause could justify Mangione's actions.

Jamie MacDonald (1:47)

The defendant committed this murder in an attempt to draw public attention to his dislike of certain businesses, but we live in a civilized society governed by the rule of law.

We debate, we disagree, we protest. We do not commit murder.

Alex Ossola (2:05)

MacDonald said his office will seek the maximum penalty under the law, life in prison, when Mangione is sentenced in December. This plea to federal charges resolves one criminal case against Mangione but could upend or delay a separate state murder case where he faces different charges. That trial is scheduled to begin in early September. In other legal news, the Trump administration has filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to allow construction of President Trump's planned White House ballroom to continue. It comes after lower courts said the project needs approval from Congress.

Two new pieces of economic data have come in softer than economists anticipated. One was US retail sales. They fell by 0.6% last month, according to the Commerce Department. That's short of the 0.1% increase that was expected. And it's the first time retail sales have fallen this year. But our economics reporter Matt Grossman says there are reasons to think it may have been a one-off.

Matt Grossman (3:05)

One of the weakest categories was online sales. That can probably be explained away because Amazon's Prime Day sales event came in June this year. So there was a big uptick in Amazon orders and that reversed in July, which pulled down the number.

Alex Ossola (3:21)

Other factors might have pulled down sales like hot weather and the end of the World Cup. But add that to the latest reading from the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Survey, which also fell more than expected. And Matt says the data paints a different picture of American consumers and the economy overall.

Matt Grossman (3:38)

We had that July jobs report last week that showed that the economy actually lost jobs last month. Now we're seeing these new numbers showing that retail sales fell last month.

And it's starting to look a little bit less like the economy has this unstoppable strength that we were getting in the April and May data.

Alex Ossola (3:59)

Matt says that any further evidence of a weaker consumer could factor into how Federal Reserve officials are thinking about interest rates.

US stocks closed lower today. The Nasdaq lost 0.3 percent and the Dow and the S&P 500 both fell 0.2 percent. But the S&P still ended the week near records. Oil prices rose more than 1 percent, extending a recent climb after reports that at least one tanker came under attack trying to leave the Persian Gulf.

Money managers have a problem. More individual investors are insisting on keeping more of their money in cash. According to the Investment Company Institute, there's over $3 trillion in retail money market funds near a record high. Miriam Gottfried covers investing and wealth management and is the co-host of WSJ's Take On The Week podcast, and she's here to tell us more. Miriam, I was looking at one really striking chart in your story, and it seemed like this ramped up in 2022 What changed?