Economy & Markets
The important economic and stock market news that advisors need to know.
FINRA to Investors: Stay Away From Risky Junk Funds
By Joyce HansonFINRA issued an Investor Alert warning investors of the dangers of complex, risky products such as high-yield, or junk, bond funds; floating-rate loan funds; structured notes with principal protection; and leveraged products.
July 25, 2011
Moody's Downgrades Greece, Says Default Almost InevitableMoody's pushed Greece down to a single notch above default at Ca on Monday after the deal put together to rescue Athens from its debt woes proved unacceptable to the ratings agency.
July 25, 2011
Gold Soars on Threat of U.S. Debt DefaultDefault is in the air. Last week Greek woes threatened to scuttle the euro zone economy; this week, with the U.S. embroiled in a debt-ceiling-vs.-deficit standoff, investors are fleeing other holdings and sinking their funds in safe-haven gold.
July 25, 2011
If More Stimulus Is on the Way (QE3?), What’s an Advisor to Do?The wildcard effect on inflation, bank lending and consumer spending. Where we, and the markets, will go from here.
July 22, 2011
NASDAQ Tracks Liquidity With Four New Water IndexesNASDAQ will roll out for new indexes on July 27 to track water industry companies.
July 22, 2011
Muni Bonds Offer Safe Haven Despite Whitney's PredictionWhile Lipper, Morningstar, ICI and BondDesk report different muni fund flow numbers for June, all agree that municipal bond fund sales are thriving.
July 22, 2011
Krugman: Europe’s Greek Debt Deal Will Kill RecoveryThe Times' Paul Krugman on the Greek rescue: “The Serious People are determined to destroy all the advanced economies in the name of prudence.”
July 21, 2011
Top 3 Reasons Investors Avoid Emerging MarketsSome investors even think the U.S. is an emerging market, which is why advisors need to offer better assistance on diversifying, a survey by The Hartford finds.