Ah, the Christmas season. The hustle, the bustle, the inevitable familial strife over whether everyone can afford exchanging gifts this year.While most folks are preparing for the holidays by weighin

Stocks shrugged off a surprising decline in consumer confidence from the University of Michigan (or was it Ohio?) to finish higher Friday on light volume and end a second successive winning week. Dis

Deutsche Bank Gives the Nod on Dry Bulk Shipping Deutsche Bank upgraded select dry bulk shipping stocks this morning. In a research note this morning, the firm upped its target on Genco Shipping (GNK

Walmart Beats the Numbah Walmart (WMT) reported results for its fiscal third quarter. The world’s largest retailer said earnings came in at $0.84 a share, $0.03 better than Wall Street estimate

The market is currently caught in a battle for direction after continuous rejection of positive earnings and economic news for the past two and a half weeks. Rally volume continues to be dwarfed by s

Gold broke out to a new high yesterday of $1084, and the yellow metal is glittering again today.More impressively, strategists note, gold prices moved higher on Tuesday even as the S&P 500 ticked

Equities ended mixed in unusually tight trading. Buffett was a buffer against broader declines with his big railroad bet, but a downgrade of the semiconductor sector left Intel (INTC) (-2.68%) e

How is the consumer feeling?Not so great, it turns out.We learned this week that the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) slipped to 47.7 this month from 53.4 last month. Consumers’ perceptions of c

The S&P 500 fell for a fourth straight session -- its steepest drop since October 1st -- ensuring a close below the 50-day moving average as a 12% jump in the VIX had investors holding their

To say that I can’t wait for the 4 p.m. close today would be an understatement. What a long week! Honey, I’m sleeping in tomorrow. Asian stocks ended mixed. The Hang Seng was down 0.31% a