Stories related to: stock market

Despite Alan Greenspan’s warning that the market was due for a correction, Shanghai’s stock market index topped 4000 today. So far this year the Chinese stock market has doubled. Since 2006 it has quadrupled. The main driving force behind the surge has been an odd form of democracy. More »

Iran's erratic president has set off a stock market scare by ordering banks to slash interest rates, despite high inflation and lots of expert advice to the contrary. The move sparked panicked selling and fears of a full-blown financial crisis, the Guardian reports. The new decreed rate is 12%, down from 14% at state banks and 17% to 28% at private ones. More »

For the first time in history, the SEC is being briefed on a different kind of security: homeland security. Barron's revealed that the CIA is filling in the SEC every month about terrorists and other criminals who might affect world stock markets. More »

The core consumer price index stayed steady last month, rising just 0.2% and cooling worries about inflation. The overall CPI, which responds to fluctuating food and energy costs, climbed 0.4%, still well within the comfort zone. That's good news for the Fed, which held interest rates steady last week in hopes of targeting inflation. More »

The Bancroft family's rejection of Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion offer for Dow Jones set the stage yesterday for a battle with other shareholders and the board of directors—as well as within the family itself. Without the family's controlling votes, the board would likely jump at the offer, a 67% premium over the company's closing price Monday. More »

Strong factory orders and media-buyout mania helped push the Dow to another record high, closing at 13,211. The index jumped 76 points, riding news of yesterday's News Corp. offer for Dow Jones and Co. and today's Cablevision deal, as well as a better-than-expected March bump in factory orders. More »

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has made an unsolicited $5 billion offer to buy Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Wall Street Journal . Dow Jones publicized the mogul's suit today to an immediate 58% spike in value. Murdoch owns the New York Post and TV giant Fox News. More »

Economists have long doubted the precept that cutting a company's payroll will lead to a spike in its stock price. But try telling that to CEOs, who are still trying to emulate the turnarounds achieved by G.E. and Proctor & Gamble. Now, a study reveals that markets actually have "a significantly negative" reaction to downsizing. More »

Police nabbed "The Bishop"—the bandit who's been sending unwired pipe bombs to Midwestern investment firms for the last two years—they announced yesterday. John P. Tomkins, a 42-year-old machinist in DuBuque, Iowa, was charged with one count each of mailing an extortion letter and possessing an unregistered explosive device. More »

The Dow Jones surged to a record close this afternoon, riding better-than-expected durable good orders in March and soaring profits from online bellweather Amazon to close just past 13,000. News that Alcoa was exploring plans to sell its packaging and consumer business also buoyed shareholders. More »

The good news: fantasy sports will soon be obsolete.  The bad news: the replacement is far more insidious.  Companies are currently designing stock markets in athletes that would allow fans (not to mention dispassionate investors) to buy and sell shares in individual stars and up-and-comers in the sporting world.  It's like gambling, but somehow more respectable. More »

The Dow closed at a record high of 12,961.98 today, gaining 153.35 points as it rode a wave of positive earnings reports that pushed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to six-year highs, too, CNN reports. The Dow reached an all-time high of 12,966.29 shortly before its third straight record close. More »

The Dow rose 30.80 points yesterday, closing above 12800 for the first time. The new record was powered was by JP Morgan Chase, Boeing and Caterpillar, while nearly two-thirds of the Dow components failed to make gains, the Wall Street Journal reports. Tech stocks continued to be weak; the Nasdaq negative. More »

Don't buy stock in a company whose CEO lives in a huge house, a new study says.  CEOs who move into regular-sized digs —5,600 square feet for the typical company head — see their company's stock jump an average 6% the following year. Those who go palatial — 10,000 square feet or more — watch stocks dip by an average of 1.7%. More »

The tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange is looking to expand into the options-trading market, and it's in talks with the Philadelphia Stock Exchange about a possible merger. Nasdaq's bid to buy the third-largest options trading exchange, valued at up to $300 million, comes as a number of bigger exchanges are on the hunt  for smaller aquisitions, reports the Wall Street Journal. More »

Tiger 21—the elite investment club whose members have at least $10 million each — is moving away from stocks and into alternatives like hedge funds and private equity instruments. Michael Sonnenfeldt, Tiger 21 founder, reports that assets in stocks are down 10 percent from last year, based on members' growing worries about instability in the global markets affecting U.S. performance. More »

U.S. stock prices rebounded yesterday, buoyed by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's forecast of moderate growth. But averages from Singapore to London continued to slide and there was widespread debate over whether the plunge was the market correcting for inflated highs or if it was the first sign of a recession. More »