Stocks Gain Ground

The major indexes get a lift after Monday's rally. Consumer spending rose 0.4% in June, while personal income dropped 1.3%

Analyst Picks and Pans: Cognizant, Talbots, Atmel

What Wall Street analysts are saying about selected stocks in the news Tuesday

The SEC Slaps Bank of America's Hand

An SEC suit over bonuses to Merrill Lynch executives is settled as soon as it is filed, but questions remain over BofA CEO Kenneth Lewis' future

Marcial: 'An Excellent Deal' for Yahoo

Carl Icahn says Yahoo couldn't afford to keep competing against Microsoft and Google. But many analysts and investors are skeptical about the search agreement

Piqqem: Tapping the Investing Wisdom of Crowds

A new site collects individual investor sentiment about earnings predictions and stock price movements and sifts it for trading insights

Analyst Picks and Pans: Franklin Resources, Janus, Regions Financial, 3M

What Wall Street analysts are saying about selected stocks in the news Monday

Reassessing Investors' Risk Tolerance

Investment firms are reworking risk questionnaires to keep investors from losing money (and switching advisers)

The Beginning of the End of the Recession?

The second quarter saw a much slower real GDP decline, an indication that the economy has hit bottom and is ready to grow

The Stock Market's Coffee Craze

While Starbucks has staged a nice recovery, the real action has been in shares of smaller outfits such as Green Mountain, Caribou, and Diedrich. Credit the K-Cup

Vital Signs: Employment Still Looks Weak

On deck: ISM indexes, construction spending, car sales, personal income, pending home sales, factory orders, and the employment report

Bankruptcies: The Next Wave

Credit markets have already improved and the economy may be on the road to recovery, but that won't prevent a new run of corporate bankruptcies in the next year

The Experts Talk Beige Book, Stocks, and Deficit

What economists and strategists say about recent developments

Marcial: International Game: "A Show-Me Story"

IGT's stock has zoomed. But analysts warn the outlook for the maker of slot machines and gaming software isn't strong enough to justify its lofty share price

M&A's Long Road Back

Recent news from IBM, Amazon, and others suggests deals are being made, but conditions are still far from normal in the world of mergers and acquisitions

Credit Crisis: Don't Blame Accounting Rules

The Financial Crisis Advisory Group says "mark-to-market" accounting didn't cause the financial meltdown

Stocks: Who's Ramping Up Revenues in a Recession?

Some companies, such as FLIR Systems, Apollo Group, and Darden Restaurants, have found a way to grow their businesses while the economy is shrinking

Sizing Up Your Nest Egg

A researcher offers a simple formula, based on your income and assets at different ages, to calculate how prepared you are for retirement

Regulation: Behind the Bernanke-Geithner Dustup

Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke go head-to-head over who should have the job of the nation's top consumer watchdog

Reinventing the Target-Date Retirement Fund

Target-date retirement funds, the default in many 401(k) plans, left many hurting in the downturn. Can they be made smarter?

Can You Afford to Retire?

After watching their savings evaporate and their net worth plunge, many are giving up on retirement planning. But there are ways out of this mess without winning the lottery