The annual global awareness event, World Water Day, was March 22. We’ve all heard about plenty of other pseudo-holidays organized with the sole bent of getting many of us annoyed, but often we just ignore them. Read More

US stocks built on last week’s gains, bolstered by news that J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) had increased the price of its bailout offer to Bear Stearns (BSC). The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes unexpectedly went up in February—the first increase seven months—further buoying investor sentiment. Read More

One of our Nibblers has again been giving up ground despite having reached a tentative agreement with five of its lenders (Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS) to prevent further margin calls. Read More

A March 11 Financial Post story labeled Jerry Antoniuk, owner of Edmonton, Alberta-based Polar Ice, a “self-described thorn in the side of the package ice industry.” He certainly brought the heat to Arctic Glacier Income Fund (TSX: AG-U, OTC: AGUNF) in Canada and seems to have sparked a US Dept of Justice (DoJ) investigation as well as a lawsuit filed in a Minneapolis federal court. Read More

US stocks seesawed back into the green for the week, with all three of the major indexes posting sizable gains today. Key players in the much-maligned financial sector turned in a solid performance, along with sneaker manufacturer Nike (NKE), which just did it and announced better-than-expected profits. Read More

After yesterday’s impressive gains, US stocks tumbled once again, with shares of commodities producers beating a hasty retreat. Neither Visa’s (V) record IPO nor the government’s reduction of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s excess capital requirements was enough to prevent the three major indexes from sinking back into the red. Read More

US stocks skyrocketed today after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 of a percentage point to 2.25 percent. Lehman Brothers (LEH) and Goldman Sachs (GS) stoked investor sentiment further, as the beleaguered investment banks reported earnings that beat analysts’ grim predictions. Read More

We can debate all we want about whether the US stock market is in jeopardy and whether the US dollar is doomed. We can also argue over why gold is still the last investment I’d be buying right now--agriculture, energy and industrial commodities have so much more going for them. Read More

US stocks fell precipitously this morning as investors remained in shellshock over the fate of embattled securities firm, Bear Stearns (BSC). By close, however, markets rallied to finish mixed, heartened by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive efforts to improve liquidity in the battered credit markets. Read More

US stocks plunged today, as more bad news from the financial sector wrecked investor confidence. Shares in Bear Stearns (BSC) dropped a record 47 percent after the securities firm announced that only a bailout from the Federal Reserve and J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) had rescued the strapped company from an increasingly untenable capital situation. Read More