Stocks Climb As we moved into the heart of the third quarter earnings season, the majority of stocks headed northward as the earnings picture is apparently beginning to show signs of improvement. Although there were some disappointments, such as Apple’s first earnings ‘miss’ since 2003, as well as tepid results from IBM and eBay, the norm was better-than-expected tallies. One …
Stocks Advance as The Bulls Continue to Snort
Stocks Advance With the third quarter earnings season now underway, stocks took another opportunity to continue their upward ascent, which again was a welcome relief. Stocks advance thanks to some blowout earnings numbers from such tech stalwarts as Google, and the roll out of Apple’s newest iPhone, stocks jumped to their highest close since early August and pushed both the …
Reversal of Trends as Stocks Move Higher
Stocks Move Higher Stocks gain as apparent progress on resolving the European sovereign debt issues and improving economic data boosted equities this past week, and thankfully reversed the long running declines as of late. We had three-day winning streak which started on Tuesday thanks to some comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, but it was the big story in the Financial …
Good Riddance September, European Debt
Debt Burden Ongoing concerns over the financial state of the European Union, specifically the country of Greece, caused Wall Street to close out the week and the third quarter on a somber note. Whether it was the euro-zone sovereign debt problems, the possibility of another U.S. recession, a weak banking situation, a slowdown in China, or a crummy employment outlook, …
Economy Teeters as Global Stock Market Downturn
Worries that the U.S. economy may be slipping back into another recession along with continued fears of a possible Greek default, saw the U.S. equity markets experience their worst weekly decline since the fall of 2008. (Although the S&P 500 market have been this low in August already two times) Global investors dumped everything from stocks to corporate bonds to …
Markets Close Up with Five Straight Days of Gains
Just when you thought the equity world was about to fall apart, markets were greeted with five consecutive days of upswings during the second full week of trading in September. Worries that several countries in the European Central Bank region would default on their debt had caused stocks to begin the month with one of its worse performances on record. However, …
The Bipolar Markets Turn Depressive
Markets continued their bipolar tendencies this past week and actually turned depressive come last Friday as a global sell off occurred as to the troubles with the European Union, and the muted response to President Obama’s job creation program. It didn’t help to have one of Germany’s top representatives with the European Central Bank’s executive board resign over the tactics of …
Markets Still Shaky
With employment picture still dismal at best, the equity markets continued to struggle before the Labor Day holiday and as we enter the historical weak month of September. When it was reported that no new jobs were created in the month of August this past Friday, stocks took a tumble and finished the week out lower. Economists, which had been …
Thank You Ben Bernanke!
Stocks closed out last week considerably higher as investors were pleased with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments as to our struggling economy and his decision to leave the door open for additional accommodation measures. Stocks pared losses throughout last Friday and turned higher for much of the afternoon session. At one point, the Dow was up 177 points before …
Thinking of a Hardship Distribution
Are you thinking about taking a hardship distribution from your 401k? For many Americans facing uncertain economic times, loans and hardship withdrawals from retirement savings are on the rise according to a recent study done by Fidelity Investments. While this may be the only option for some facing foreclosure or bankruptcy, there are a few things that need to be …