Dow Jones Industrial

The Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday reclaimed the last of the ground it held before the carnage of the Great Recession %u2014 bailouts, bank failures, layoffs by the million and a stock market plunge that cut retirement savings in half. The Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 19, 2008, almost four months before the fall of the Lehman Brothers investment bank triggered the worst of the financial crisis.

Taking note of the Dow's progress, The Wall Street Journal recently called its performance "eerie ... calm ... too quiet." Indeed, if things keep going at the rate they have been going so far, we're on track for the stock markets to gain more than 50% this year. Dow 18,000, anyone?

Slipping consumer confidence sent U.S. stocks tumbling Friday, nearly ending a six-month-long sprint that saw major indexes climb steadily and dramatically in the face of recession. The drop, on the last trading day of a wildly volatile October, capped a month of stock-price swings that whipsawed...

Those investors expecting a quick turnaround in corporate earnings may be in for a rude awakening, if a new survey is any gauge. S&P 500 firms will end their slump, but not until the fourth quarter of this year, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The survey expects the earnings...

The recent eye-popping gains in the stock market offered a rare bit of sunshine in the middle of a worldwide economic tsunami. But institutional money managers are cautioning investors into reading too much into the rally. "We are still in a long-term bear market . . . not the beginning of a...

Stocks started the day up. By late morning, they'd fallen. Then, around lunchtime, they rose again. But as soon as they returned to positive territory, they dropped. In mid-afternoon, they surged before reversing once more to close slightly lower. With both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury...