Economy & Markets
The important economic and stock market news that advisors need to know.
SEC Questions Mutual Fund Muni-Debt Prices
By John SullivanThe Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether some mutual funds have overstated the value of risky municipal bonds that are thinly traded, according to people familiar with the matter.
February 22, 2011
Oil, Metals ETFs Rise on Libya TurmoilThe S&P Energy Index is up 9% for the month, while the S&P TSX Canadian Gold Index has ticked up nearly 6%.
February 22, 2011
Wealthiest Investors Heading Back to Stocks: Spectrem ReportMore than half of America’s wealthiest investors are eyeing a return to equities in 2011, says a report from Spectrem Group, led by George H. Walper Jr.
February 22, 2011
Rescue Fund Divides Euro ZoneWhile Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero talked up his country’s progress in getting its debt under control, he also expressed faith that the euro zone would agree to take steps to strengthen the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone’s rescue fund.
February 22, 2011
Moody’s Cuts Japan Debt Outlook to NegativeMoody’s Investors Service on Tuesday cut its outlook on Japan’s sovereign debt to negative, warning that the nation must take substantive action to control its debt or it will be in for a ratings downgrade.
February 22, 2011
U.S. Oil Prices Hit 2½-Year High Over Libya WorriesThe domestic turmoil in Libya that saw the nation’s crude oil output cut by as much as 100,000 barrels per day has pushed up the price of U.S. crude futures to a 2½-year high on Tuesday.
February 22, 2011
Oil, Budgets, GDP: Advisor Briefing for the Week of Feb. 21, 2011U.S. markets are likely to be moved by the continuing unrest in Libya and the Persian Gulf and the continuing political arguments over not just the Federal budget for 2011 and 2012, but state budgets as well.
February 21, 2011
Spreading the PovertyI recently read and heard some awful bunkum about the need to slash the Federal deficit. It did not come, as it usually does, from conservatives.