Investing
CEO's Corner: Prudential's Christine Marcks says no need to retire the 401(k)
If you've checked the balance on your 401(k) lately, you're likely breathing a mini sign of relief as the Dow's bounce back above 10,000 helps replenish some losses suffered during the recession.But as stocks remain volatile and the recession hampers retirement planning for millions, we sought advice from Christine Marcks, CEO of Prudential Retirement, the retirement arm of financial services giant Prudential Financial.
In our conversation, Marcks outlines a game plan for laid off workers and describes new tools available for today's pre-retirees. Despite what some published reports say, the 401(k) is still very relevant, Marcks adds.
The SEC can't let up in its newly invigorated battle against insider trading
Recent revelations about alleged insider trading at hedge funds make me wonder if the average investor has a fair shot at investing in stocks. The most recent story pertains to a $15 billion hedge fund that closed back in May. And last month, the $3.7 billion Galleon hedge fund was shuttered in the wake of the arrest of its founder and many others.
I think it's great that the SEC is starting to focus on this problem, and I hope that the fear of getting caught will stop the practice of insider trading by hedge funds altogether.
A lonely wiki on Wall Street
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Last month the Museum of American Finance on Wall Street, which collects all manner of physical financial artifacts ranging from ticker tape to board games like "Rich Uncle: The Stock Market Game," launched a wiki with hopes of gathering financial tales, too.But the site has attracted just one main contributor since it went live in October. The featured personal story was posted by "Ninja Dad," a finance executive who writes about the pre-credit crisis days of freewheeling loans to homebuyers like his daughter with no income, no job or assets, (aka the NINJA borrower).
Stocks end lower as investors grow skittish about the rising dollar
The stock market ended a losing week with light selling as investors grew uneasy about a rising dollar and spiking demand for the safest government debt. After two strong weeks, investors tried unsuccessfully to extend the market's rally after major stock indexes closed at 13-month highs on Tuesday. Disappointing reports on housing and worries about flagging demand at technology companies sapped strength from the market's eight-month rally.Stocks fell for the third straight day Friday as a disappointing earnings report from computer maker Dell (DELL) weighed on technology shares. The Nasdaq composite index, with a big representation of tech stocks, logged the weakest performance of the major indexes for...
With a name like Smucker, the stock's got to be good
Cash-strapped consumers are eating more meals at home and that's slathering J.M. Smucker's (SJM) bottom line in sweet, sticky profits. The packaged-food maker said Friday that fiscal second-quarter earnings boomed more than 170%, blowing past Wall Street's estimates by 18 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Even more impressive, revenue leaped by 52%.
Smucker may be best known for its eponymous jams and jellies -- other brands include Jif, Hungry Jack, Crisco and Pillsbury -- but it's the Folgers coffee business the company acquired from Procter & Gamble (PG)...
Is construction headed for a rebound? Autodesk numbers give a good clue
Several years ago, when I was doing research for hedge funds, I spent a month talking to Autodesk (ADSK) resellers. Autodesk's AutoCAD software suite is the standard tool used by designers and architects in the construction trade, and it dominates its market much like Adobe's Creative Suite dominates the print, graphic and interactive design fields. Its resellers are the hundreds of consulting organizations and systems integrators that sell Autodesk licenses to customers in the construction business. Like many big software companies, Autodesk relies on a huge reseller channel for the majority of its sales volume.What my favorite resellers all told me was that they like to play construction-related...
Mortgage delinquencies skyrocket, Obama's programs not helping much
The combined mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates hit 14.41% on a non-seasonally adjusted basis -- the highest ever on record, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Delinquency Survey released Thursday.
The MBA reported that in the third quarter of 2009, loans 90 days or more past due, loans in foreclosure and foreclosures started all set new records. Only the percentage of loans 30 days past due is still below the record set in the second quarter of 1985.
TARP saved the banking system, but failed at everything else
On the same day the Obama Administration floated a trial balloon to test the waters for extending TARP, the Congressional Oversight Panel heard from experts about TARP's effectiveness. While some of the experts did find aspects of TARP effective, they all testified to significant problems with TARP and the way it was implemented.Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren set the tone for the hearing, saying that while the Troubled Assets Relief Program had succeeded in preventing a "catastrophic collapse of the financial...
Keep this in mind if you're a Goldman shareholder
Nowhere are the rights of shareholders more disrespected than at publicly traded investment banks. Wall Street amply demonstrates that the interests of mutual funds and other institutional investors are hardly at the top of their list of concerns. These banks still think of themselves as private partnerships, and they see the public's role as providing liquidity to those partners.
This comes to mind in evaluating the complaints of Goldman Sachs Group's (GS) biggest shareholders who want it to pay out more in dividends and less in bonuses. The...
Stocks in the news: Dell, Goldman Sachs, D.R. Horton, J.M. Smucker
Dell (DELL) reported results late Thursday, saying its net income dropped 54% in the latest quarter amid signs the company isn't fully benefiting from the computer industry's fledgling recovery. Dell's results missed Wall Street's estimates. Shares fell over 6.5% ahead of the bell.
Goldman Sachs Group's (GS) shareholders finally found a voice. Some of the largest shareholders have asked the company to cut the size of its bonus pool and pass along more of its profits to investors, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation....
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