Are stocks spiraling into the abyss of a bear market? Or are they still on that upward spiral of unbridled greed and manic promotion that had way too many folks giddy over recent tops in the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average? Read More

The Personal Finance staff is taking advantage of the Internet to provide company updates through the day as warranted by news events or share-price movements. We hope to get out in front of issues that could affect you and your portfolio and encourage you to check in daily. We’ll also… Read More

With all this talk of a bearish market in sight, it’s no wonder investors are getting jittery. The market’s... Read More

The second quarter was clearly more respectable than the first in the US stock market, where the S&P 500 gained 6.3 percent. Read More

This is our second look at the defense industry in as many issues. No one likes war, but it has always been good for business. Read More

Inventories of natural gas in storage have been creeping higher, pressuring near-month gas futures and spot gas prices. The primary culprit... Read More

The Advantage Portfolio performed well in the second quarter, returning 8 percent against just 6.3 percent for the S&P 500. Read More

The Advantage Portfolio was up 8 percent in the second quarter, bringing the year-to-date return to 13.9 percent. Toshiba is negotiating a deal with... Read More

The second quarter wasn’t the Income Portfolio’s best. But despite an interest-rate spike that took the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield well past the 5 percent mark... Read More

Our closed-end bond funds—Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Fund and ING Prime Rate Trust—have slipped from premiums to discounts to net asset value for no fundamental reasons. Read More