Private-credit firms delivered eye-popping returns to investors in recent years. That hot streak is over.
The latest earnings results across the industry show returns that appear to be entering a more modest chapter, just as investors have grown worried about other aspects of private-credit funds that lend to riskier companies.
Chris Wright, the energy secretary, said on Sunday that the Trump administration would be open to pausing the federal gas tax to give Americans some relief at the pump.
“All measures that can be taken to lower the price of at the pump and lower the prices for Americans, this administration is in support of,” Mr. Wright said on the NBC program “Meet the Press” in response to a question about temporarily suspending the federal gas tax.
As of Sunday, the average national gas price was $4.52 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. Americans pay a little over 18 cents a gallon for gasoline and about 24 cents a gallon for diesel in federal taxes. If the taxes were paused today, the average price for gasoline would be $4.34 a gallon, still well above the average price of $2.98 a gallon two days before President