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With corporate earnings season in full swing -- watch for McDonalds, along with Catepillar, Amazon and other -- and with the Fed meeting on interest rates, the GDP estimate and housing numbers coming out -- the week ahead is expected to be quite busy.

When JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Bank of American (BAC) head Brian Moynihan flew today via corporate aircraft to Washington, D.C., to testify before a Congressional panel investigating the financial crisis, their mode of transport raised some eyebrows. But the furor over corporate jets, which are often the most efficient way to transport executives, distracts from the larger issues.

For most of the Bush era, defense stocks seemed pretty close to a sure thing. Those days are over and are not coming back any time soon, according to one defense analyst. The Obama administration is paring back spending on complicated weapons systems such as the Lockheed Martin Co. (LMT) F-22 and...

United Technologies Corp. (UTX) became the latest big company to buckle under pressure from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The maker of Pratt & Whitney engines and Otis elevators today announced that it would slash 11,600 jobs and reduce its earnings guidance. Shares of...

Capital One (COF) today joined the growing list of major corporations drastically cutting their dividends. In fact, since the start of 2009, $40.8 billion less in dividend income will flow to investors thanks to dividend cuts by 41 corporations so far. Dividend cuts in the first quarter of 2009...