The financial markets spent a listless holiday-shortened week digesting some unsettling news, including ...

As they say in the world of sports, “it ain’t over till it’s over”. For the past several months, economists and many vocal pundits have been ...

The Federal Reserve took center stage this week, delivering a three-pronged attack on the unfolding credit crisis that threatens to ...

The much-anticipated mortgage-relief program was finally unveiled this week, cloaked with a warning by Treasury Secretary Paulson that ...

The ever-so-fickle financial markets digested the latest batch of economic data in time-honored fashion --deciding that there was both ...

Stock prices staged a modest rally in an abbreviated Friday session, but still lost ground for the week as a whole. Investors and traders remain jittery about ...

Has the consumer reached a tipping point? For a record 61 consecutive quarters, households have stepped up outlays both in good times and bad, even avoiding ...

You got to hand it to Ben S. Bernanke; the Fed chairman stands his ground. Beseeched by anguished congressional members, tumultuous financial markets and overleveraged households to lower interest rates again – and soon ...

This was one of those weeks that had something for everyone – and hardly anyone wound up satisfied. First the good news. On Wednesday...

The housing market is trumping Halloween, generating more nightmares than any witch or werewolf can conjure up. Clearly...

At the risk of overusing a time-worn cliché, it does appear that the Fed is caught between a rock and a hard place. Clearly, the housing meltdown is...

The healing process in the financial markets continues to evolve, although the wound is deep and...

Although many respected economists still believe that the worst is yet to come for the economy, the financial markets are behaving as if ...

By the standards of recent months, developments over the past week have to be considered downright boring. We hesitate to use the phrase “normal” because ...

With the bold 50 basis points interest-rate cut this week, the first chapter of the great policy debate is over, and the second one is ...

It’s hard to find a good word written about the economy these days. Pundits are lamenting the toll that ...

Is it time to banish the word “contained” from discussions of the troubled subprime mortgage market? For months now, the Federal Reserve has insisted that ...

What ever happened to the dog days of August? This is supposed to be a month of blahs, when Wall Street turns its attention to ...

What ever happened to the dog days of August? This is supposed to be a month of blahs, when Wall Street turns its attention to...

We hope you had your seat belts fastened and returned your tray tables and seat backs to their locked upright positions because it was another perilous ride on the flight called the stock market last week. Thankfully,...

It’s often said that the financial markets like to climb a wall of worry. Well, last week provided more than enough angst to satisfy the most die-hard nervous Nellie. Not surprisingly, ...

With an upsurge in volatility hammering the financial environment, it’s a real challenge to separate the sizzle from the ...

Whether or not the stock market’s dreadful nosedive last week is a portent of severe economic hardship remains to be seen...

In deference to the long-departed E.F. Hutton commercial, when Ben S. Bernanke talks, investors listen...

It’s always difficult to pinpoint the reason why stock prices gyrate widely on any given day – or days for that matter – and last week’s astonishing run-up on Thursday is no exception. That doesn’t mean there is ...

Once again, it seems that the Federal Reserve’s somewhat unpopular perspective on the economy is being vindicated by incoming data. Recall that the statement accompanied last week’s policy-setting meeting ...

As is customary when a policy-setting meeting is held, the Federal Reserve garnered the lion’s share of attention in the financial markets last week. Since the central bank, as expected...

Just as it seemed that the turbulence in the bond market was subsiding, the wild ride resumed last week. Recall that the bellwether 10-year Treasury yield spiked up sharply over the first two weeks of the month...

One reason that former Fed Chairman Greenspan received accolades during his years at the helm was the way he handled the economy during the 1990s. Recall that during the latter half of that decade...

Will success spoil the stock market? After all, the sharp slowdown in economic growth during the first quarter did little to impede the remarkable gain in stock prices in recent months. Now amidst strong signs that the economy has turned the corner ...

When it comes to economic data, it is often best to ignore the headlines and focus on the details. That principle readily applies to last week’s batch of key numbers, starting with ...

The stock market hit a bump in the road last week, as the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average slipped after setting a seemingly endless string of record-setting highs this year. Oddly enough, the setback occurred despite some promising economic news ..

Are we there yet? For anyone taking a long trip with children in the back seat, that may sound like a familiar, if annoying, refrain. But children aren’t the only ones repeatedly asking that question.

If, as they say in sports, timing is everything, the Federal Reserve may seem a bit out of sync with the economy. To be sure, it’s decision last Wednesday to keep the federal funds rate unchanged at 5.25 percent ...

It was one of those good news/bad news weeks for the financial markets, although the good seemed to trump the bad, at least in the minds of investors.

Amid all the gloom and doom concerning the economy, highlighted by another subpar growth performance in the first quarter, the stock market just keeps rolling along seemingly without a care in the world. Last week ...

Waiting for the housing slump to take a toll on consumers is getting more and more like waiting for Godot – that elusive character in Samuel Beckett’s play who never showed up. For the past year, economic doomsayers have been proclaiming ...

We hate to write economic commentaries on Friday the thirteenth. It’s hard enough dealing with bad luck on an ordinary day, but when the cosmic ill winds are also blowing in, the odds of not getting things right are greater than ever.

Depending on your perspective, the downshifting of economic growth over the past year represents either a welcome transition that will wring out inflationary pressures, or the late innings of an expansion that is poised to meet a painful end.

We don’t mean to sound repetitive, but with each passing week the downside risks to the economy are becoming more and more apparent. Last week’s reports on new home sales and capital goods orders simply reinforce that perception.

The Federal Reserve sparked a major stock market rally last week, although there is some question as to whether its actions justified the heightened euphoria. What ignited the rally was the Fed’s policy-setting meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday ...

With the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting meeting scheduled for this week, all eyes will be on the post-meeting statement.

There’s no doubt that the financial markets are in the cross hairs of conflicting developments. Wild swings in foreign stock prices are shaking.....

Last week’s tumultuous performance of the financial markets brought to life the old cliché "be careful what you wish for."

Statistical fireworks will light up the economic sky over the next two weeks, beginning with new data on housing, personal incomes, capital spending and a look back at fourth quarter activity contained in the revised GDP report next week.

Although he didn’t say anything particularly new or unexpected, the financial markets clearly liked Ben Bernanke’s semiannual Congressional testimony this week.