Investing

Suddenly, a bear market in gold. On April 12, the precious metal settled at $1,501.40 on the COMEX – diving 4.1% in a single trading day and 20.5% under its all-time closing high of $1,888.70 on August 22, 2011. Statistically, that was the end of a lengthy bull market – one marked by 12 years…

Have you invested too much of your 401(k) in company stock? This can happen – and you may not be fully aware of it. Back when corporations offered traditional pension plans, the federal government watched out for this tendency. In 1974, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) made it illegal for pension plans to…

As there was no last-minute agreement between Congress and the White House to postpone federal budget cuts scheduled to take effect March 1, the ax now falls. Unless a bipartisan effort somehow undoes them, assorted federal government agencies will have their budgets reduced by $85 billion between now and October 1, as the initial step…

What happened to the weak buck? In recent years, stock market gains have been associated with a weak dollar (among other factors). This latest rally on Wall Street seems to be an exception: years of dollar weakness may be giving way to renewed foreign investment in U.S. currency, spurred by global belief that things are…

Next stop, 15,000? As the Dow Jones Industrial Average settled at a new all-time high of 14,253.77 on March 5, the psychological lift on Wall Street was undeniable – the market was finally back to where it was in 2007. Or was it? For many Americans, the Dow equals the stock market, and the stock…

On March 1, $85 billion in federal budget cuts are supposed to take place – and it doesn’t look like they will be delayed any longer. Congress went on recess last week, so there was no concerted legislative effort to stave them off (in the manner of the fiscal cliff deal). At this point, the…

How long can it last? The Federal Reserve has said that it will do what it can to keep interest rates low, but these efforts cannot stem the tide forever; it’s inevitable, at some point, that interest rates will rise and diminish bond prices. The only question is: when and how much? A fifth year…

Global investors watch America anxiously. In late December, the U.S. technically reached its debt ceiling of approximately $16.4 trillion, with the federal government taking what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called “extraordinary measures” to avert a default. Even as House GOP leaders announced plans Friday to approve a three-month increase in the federal debt limit, tension…

Stocks shrugged off numerous worries to log a very good year in 2012. The riskiest areas were the most profitable. The bond side also saw riskier asset classes outearning traditionally safer fixed-income market sectors. Emerging-markets local-currency bonds notably gained 17%. Domestically, high-yield bonds and leveraged loans returned 15% and nearly 10%, respectfully, while investment-grade bonds…

You may be amused by the efforts of some of your friends and neighbors as they try to “chase the return” in the stock market. We all seem to know a day trader or two: someone constantly hunting for the next hot stock, endlessly refreshing browser windows for breaking news and tips from assorted gurus.…