Economy & Markets
The important economic and stock market news that advisors need to know.
S&P Moves Least in 41 Years
By Marlene Y. SatterThe S&P 500 has gained 0.6% for the year as 2011 winds down. A 3.7% increase last week helped that rate of change, the smallest for the index since 1970thanks to stock swings that reached twice the five-decade average.
December 27, 2011
Gloomy Christmas in the EurozoneAusterity measures have hit hard in the eurozone nations struggling under the burden of huge debts.
December 27, 2011
Holiday Sales Estimates Revised UpThanks to the happy circumstance of a legal holiday the day after Christmas, retailers are hoping that Monday will turn out to contribute to record holiday sales for 2011.
December 26, 2011
Careful Language Wins Clients; Wall Street Feels Political Heat: January Research—SlideshowThe January issue of Research magazine offers cutting-edge advice on communicating with clients and prospects, and assesses the election-year political climate facing the financial services industry. Topics covered in the issue range from helping clients deal with health care costs to how a medieval mathematician helped shape modern retirement planning....
December 26, 2011
A Warren Buffett ETF?We know that financial product developers have thought about introducing a Warren Buffett ETF, not because the investing public really needs it, but because theres no shortage of dubious ideas. Interestingly, though, financial marketers might not have to invent a Buffett ETF because one already exists.
December 26, 2011
An All-Season ApproachDepending on the latest European crisis report or economic signals from China, the U.S. markets have been gyrating between risk-on and risk-off days. If…
December 26, 2011
The Joy of WakefulnessWaking up in 2012 from the nightmare of the past years financial crisis is a bewildering experience. Like Egypts Pharaoh in the Book of Genesis, did seven emaciated cows really eat seven fat cows? Do we still have two and a half lean years to go? Sitting up in our...
December 26, 2011
The Debt Retirees Owe to FibonacciYou might have heard of Leonardo Pisano filius (family, in Latin) Bonacci, a.k.a. Fibonacci (1170-1250), probably the most famous mathematician of the Middle Ages.