Just when it looks like your retirement portfolio might recover after all, a day like today comes along. The financial markets are in turmoil today, responding to all sorts of news — mainly political news. In addition to disappointing housing market data, and the fact that Morgan Stanley’s profit failed to completely wow investors, a couple of unexpected events are shaping the market. And causing the bears to take firm control. With the way things are going, there is a reasonably good chance that the Dow will close down 200 points today.
China tightens monetary policy
Instead of preparing to lead the …read more

The stock market is heading higher today, as part of a wider global equity rally. Earlier, James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, and a member of the Fed board, mentioned that he thought that the economic stimulus measure of buying mortgage-backed securities should continue into next year — moving beyond the first quarter.
As one might imagine, investors latched onto this news and took it as a cue to sell the dollar. After seeing gains for the dollar last week, Bullard’s remarks prompted a round of profit taking. Additionally, the comments also helped stocks. Confident that the …read more

Looking at Wall Street right now, you would never know that we just came out of a recession. And it is worth noting that for most regular folks, the end of the recession is merely a technical economic detail. Individuals still face a number of financial challenges, and with the weak labor market, it is little surprise that things most of Main Street is still wonder whether things are going to pick up. For thousands of Wall Street folks, though, that is not much of an issue. They just found out that they will be enjoying record bonuses.
Wall Street firms …read more

The Federal Reserve should be announcing its interest rate decision later today, and stocks are heading higher on the assumption that the Fed is likely to keep interest rates near 0%, as well as the expectation that the Fed will keep stimulus help coming in. Indeed, what Ben Bernanke says about economic policy going forward is more likely to influence the stock market than just about anything else today, and expectations that he will play up the fact that we’re only at the beginning of the recovery, and that there will be a continued need for economic stimulus for some …read more

A sequel to the hugely successful movie, Wall Street (1987), is scheduled to hit theaters sometime in 2010 and it already sounds like it’s going to be great.  The original flick was directed by Oliver Stone and starred Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah.

Stone and Douglas (who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the film’s main charachter, Gordon Gecko) will return in the follow-up.  Shia LaBeouf (Transformers, Disturbia) is in talks to portray Douglas’ protégé (as was originally played by Sheen).
As you can probably guess from the title, Wall Street was about the sometimes shady dealings and corruption …read more