Investing

With the threat of a lawsuit looming, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank settle with regulators over the marketing of auction-rate securities, joining other major banks who have agreed to buy back more than $40 billion of the securities from investors.

Conglomerate IAC/Interactive completes its breakup into five publicly traded companies as each new entity begins trading under its own ticker symbol Thursday. The spinoffs includes many popular consumer brands like Ticketmaster, Home Shopping Network and Tree, formerly known as LendingTree.

Managing a portfolio in the current economic environment can be a challenge even for the most astute investor. And in a "stock-picker's market," some experts are encouraging investors to reconsider the traditional definitions of risk. Follow these tips from the pros on investing in sectors and individual stocks that could yield healthy returns.
Check Your Portfolio: Alerts, Charts, More

A growing number of online brokerages are taking tips from MySpace and Facebook and adding social networking functions that transcend the stock discussion boards of last century, in the pursuit of creating a greater community experience.

Growing speculation that another large bank will follow Bear Stearns into failure pushes financial stocks lower for a second day in row, dragging the market indexes down with them.

Research in Motion's latest BlackBerry will reach North American shelves for the first time on Thursday, as part of a gradual global rollout. BloggingStocks contributor Elizabeth Harrow says the lack of iPhone-esque hype -- and the lower risk of a high-profile gaffe -- can work out in RIM's favor. Quote: RIMM

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