This weekend Barron’s declared the existence of a Treasury bubble encouraging its readers to consider high yield municipal and corporate bonds as an alternative. Everywhere I turn I find another market pundit suggesting the equity market has bottomed or the commodity bust is over. And -- for a short-term trade -- I don’t necessarily disagree. But for one to believe we have truly bottomed at this point you have to believe in a V-shaped recovery. Put simply I don’t. In fact I am somewhere between a U-  and an L-shaped recovery - certainly nowhere near a “V.” But rather than beat old ...

Several major banks, including J.P. Morgan, UBS and Deutsche Bank, could be facing legal action from Italian authorities over deals they struck to manage bond investments, according to a published report Monday.

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=4269742 for the full story.

U.K. shares rise early Friday amid broad gains for most sectors, with banks posting a strong start to the new year, following a miserable performance in 2008.

These were some of the biggest dividend stock performers on the upside and the downside in today's stock market action.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Wall Street bounced back on Tuesday with gains across all three major U.S. indices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.69%, and ended with 9,015 points. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 1.50%, and ended at 1,652. The S&P 500 rose by 0.78%, and finishing with 934 points. The Russell 2000 index was also higher by 1.01% and closed the day at 514 points. Markets were higher even despite several bits of negative news. Home sales for the month of November were down 4% to 82.3[More...]

Barclays: Japan 4Q GDP Will Shrink 12.1%; Holiday Sales Worst Since 1970; American Greetings Buys Recycled Paper Greetings; Consumer Confidence Hits Record Low; China Eastern Gets Additional Funds; Gazprom Gets Paid

• An economist for Barclays Capital (ADR:BCS) estimates Japan’s economy will shrink…

Barclays: Japan 4Q GDP Will Shrink 12.1%; Holiday Sales Worst Since 1970; American Greetings Buys Recycled Paper Greetings; Consumer Confidence Hits Record Low; China Eastern Gets Additional Funds; Gazprom Gets Paid An economist for Barclays Capital (BCS) estimates Japan’s economy will shrink at an annual pace of 12.1% this quarter, nearly a ...

Joining a chorus of ailing U.S. automakers, Toyota Motor Co. (TM) yesterday (Monday) forecast its first operating loss in 71 years on plummeting demand and sharp appreciation of the Japanese yen. The announcement prompted Moody’s Investors Service to consider downgrading the company’s top-rated credit. But the news may have bigger implications for Japan’s ...

Colleen S. King takes a look at news on the Street before the market open.

Schaeffer's Colleen King takes a look at activity on the Street ahead of the market open

Schaeffer's Andrea Kramer takes a look at activity on the Street ahead of the market open

Andrea Kramer takes a look at the market before the open

Andrea Kramer takes a look at the market before the open