Stock Market

Americans have poured record amounts of money into savings accounts even though interest rates are at historic lows, new federal data show, a sign that average people may be missing out on a booming stock market and recovering real estate sector. The total amount in those accounts climbed nearly 5 percent to $6.9 trillion in the spring, the highest level recorded since the Federal Reserve launched its regular reports on the flow of money in the economy in 1945. At the same time, other data show that...

RARE DROP: Signs of a slowing economy combined with comments from a Federal Reserve official helped pull the stock market down Thursday. It was only the third drop for the S&P 500 index this month. THE NEWS: Applications for unemployment benefits rose last week and manufacturing slowed in the mid-Atlantic region. Wal-Mart Stores sank after warning of weaker earnings ahead. FINAL SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 42.47 points to 15,233.22, a loss of 0.3 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index...

Where's the stock market going? Has a bull market started? Or are we on the cusp of a new bubble? As I argued in my last column — which noted that stocks have reached new highs — the answers matter beyond individual investment portfolios. Stock prices influence consumer and business confidence and spending. A strong market will bolster the recovery; a weak market will hinder it. Unfortunately, it's hard to predict the market. Legions of analysts try; few succeed. In reporting my last column, I stumbled across two fascinating...

GOOGLE THIS: Google's stock topped $900 as the tech giant unveiled a music streaming service and a new Google Maps. Google's stock is up 50 percent over the past year. APPLE: Apple's stock took a sudden turn lower after reports said that a hedge fund run by the billionaire David Tepper slashed its holdings in the tech company. FINAL SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 60.44 points to close at 15,275.69, an increase of 0.4 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 8.44 points to 1,658.78, up 0.4...

The Newtown tragedy took place amid a parade of homicidal images, stories and films so steady that it almost goes unnoticed. Kids obsess over video games in which they kill, shoot and rob their way to riches. Last season's finale of "The Walking Dead," AMC's zombie-killing flesh feast, was the most-watched television episode in cable history. At the cinema, "Hitchcock" spends two hours narrating how "Psycho," perhaps the godfather of the slasher film, came to be. On bookshelves, the big bestseller is " Gone Girl ," a...

NEW YORK — When the price of gold plunged $200 last month, many people thought they caught the sound of the gold bubble popping. What Peter Schiff, CEO of the brokerage Euro Pacific Precious Metals, believes he heard was a stampede of fair-weather speculators fleeing the precious metal. Schiff and other champions of gold weren't shaken by the plunge. To them, it was just a short breather in preparation for another long climb. All the reasons they give for buying gold haven't changed: gold...

Apple's been having a great week in the stock market and is now hovering at $495 per share as of noon Friday. The rally on the market also gave the Cupertino, Calif.-based company some additional bragging rights: As of Thursday morning, Apple's market cap was bigger than the values of Google and Microsoft combined. You read that right. Apple's market cap is around $462 billion as of mid-Friday. Microsoft's is about $257 billion and Google's weighs in at about $197 billion. Tech bloggers have been...

A wide range of financial markets tumbled Monday amid a stunning sell-off of gold and silver, new signs of global economic weakness and still deeper fears following the afternoon Boston Marathon attack . It was an unsettling day in many corners of the financial world. Gold futures fell more than $140 an ounce, to $1,360.60, on the second straight day of steep declines. Gold, which had experienced a sharp run-up over the past decade, has fallen about 15 percent in just two trading...

Watching the slipping economy and Congress's epic debate over the unprecedented $700 billion financial bailout, it is impossible not to wonder whether this is 1929 all over again. Even sophisticated observers invoke the comparison. Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator for the Financial Times, began a recent column : "It is just over three score years and ten since the [end of the] Great Depression. " What's frightening is not any one event but the prospect that things are slipping out of control.

Correction: A previous version of the graphic in this article included incorrect data, plotting the benchmark's movement over the two previous days instead of only the day in question. This version has been corrected. A fake tweet about an attack on the White House briefly roiled the financial markets on Tuesday afternoon, sending stocks tumbling within minutes and prompting the FBI and securities regulators to look into the hacking incident. A posting on the...

NEW YORK — The stock market is closing higher after shaking off a morning slump. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 60 points to close at 15,275 Wednesday, a gain of 0.4 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose eight points to 1,658, or 0.5 percent. Both the Dow and S&P are at record highs. The Nasdaq composite rose nine points to 3,471, or 0.3 percent. Macy's rose after beating Wall Street's profit expectations, and Google rose after announcing a several upgrades to...

NEW YORK — The stock market is back in record territory after an upturn in small-company stocks. A survey released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business found that small business owners were slightly more optimistic in April. That helped send the Russell 2000 index of small company stocks up 1.3 percent, more than other market indexes. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 123 points to close at 15,215 Tuesday, a gain of 0.8 percent. It was the...

Gold extended its slump Tuesday, as a stronger dollar and surging stock market helped tug the price of the precious metal lower. Gold for June delivery dropped $9.80 to settle at $1,424.50 an ounce on Tuesday. Gold prices have lost 3 percent this month. Until recently, many investors bought gold as a form of protection. They expected it to rise when stocks, bonds and the dollar fell. But this year, the stock market's rally and the dollar's climb this year have...

ROUND ROCK, Texas — Struggling personal computer maker Dell will report its latest quarterly earnings ahead of schedule in a move likely to spur speculation that the results will be dismal. The schedule change announced Tuesday means Dell Inc. will release its fiscal first-quarter earnings after the market close this Thursday. The Round Rock, Texas, company had planned to report the results on May 21. Dell spokesman David Frink declined to say why the company...

BOSTON — Mutual funds continued to attract cash in April, although the pace slowed from the record amount that flowed in during the first three months of the year. Investors also became more cautious, as bond funds attracted slightly more money than stock funds. A net $39 billion was deposited into stock funds and bond funds during April, industry consultant Strategic Insight said on Tuesday. The first quarter total was $193 billion, topping the previous record of $140...

NEW YORK — The stock market marched back into record territory Tuesday as investors seized on the latest encouraging news about the economy. This time, it was a report on the health of small businesses. Small business owners were slightly more optimistic in April, according to a survey released by the National Federation of Independent Business before the stock market opened. That helped push the Russell 2000, an index of small-company stocks, up 1.3 percent, ahead...

The stock market has roared back to record-high territory — and the number of U.S. millionaires is not far behind, according to a new report . The number of U.S. households worth $1 million or more, excluding the value of their homes, surged to nearly 9 million in 2012. That is just below its pre-recession peak of 9.2­ million, according to a report by the Spectrem Group, a Chicago area financial consultant firm. The economic downturn caused the stock market to tumble by more than half between October 2007 and...

Just as many of us were feeling the worst was over, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged again and again in the past week. "Until the market sees credible evidence of improved economic conditions, patient, long-term investors will continue to stay on the sidelines and stocks will continue to be subject to the vicissitudes of short-term trading gyrations," Kevin Caron , market strategist for the private client group at Stifel Nicolaus in...

LONDON — Stocks pushed higher Tuesday as investors remained optimistic that economic growth is picking up, but not so much that the U.S. Federal Reserve will start to wind down its stimulus program imminently. Over the past few weeks, investors have been picked up by a wave of optimism over a range of issues — including the prospects for the U.S. economy — following a run of forecast-busting jobs figures. That has pushed several indexes to record highs. The Dow Jones industrial average and the broader S&P...