Morningstar

This week on Wall Street, everyone will be watching Netflix; mutual funds will talk assets under management; we'll see earnings from some stock freshmen; NFL teams will pick their own fresh stock; and a few companies are likely to issue deja vu quarterly reports.

What's the secret to good worker attendance, retention, productivity, and the ability to attract top-notch recruits? Employee benefits. Which companies thrive and grow their businesses faster than their peers? Same answer: Those that offer better benefits to their workers.

There's no such thing as a summertime lull when earnings season is upon us. Even if you don't feel like alerting the "sell in May and go away" camp of investors, there are plenty of headlines to be written about. Here are five things that will shape the way the market acts in the week ahead.

Higher gas prices and a demand for smaller used cars -- like the Ford Focus, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla -- has driven up the price that dealerships are willing to pay for trade-ins to the highest they've been in at least 16 years, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association's used...

New disclosure rules don't go into effect until next January, but in the meantime you could be paying far too much in savings-sapping fees. The two challenges for individuals are figuring just what your plan's fees are, and are they fair? Here's how to get that info.

The investment world's love affair with ETFs continued in 2010, as more than 1,000 funds managed assets of $940 billion. Here's a review of the best and the worst performers, and a few reminders about how to use these investment vehicles safely.

After its near-miraculous emergence so quickly from bankruptcy, the new GM will certainly make big bucks for investors if it fulfills its potential to beat sales forecasts and earnings expectations. And, no, it wouldn't take another miracle.

Morningstar's $52 million purchase of Realpoint, which provides ratings on commercial mortgage-backed securities, could give Morningstar solid enough footing to compete with established credit-rating leaders Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

After the worst calendar year loss in history, hedge funds came back strongly in 2009, as three separate indexes that track industry performance recorded gains of 18% or more. That didn't stop hedge funds from losing $131 billion through redemptions, but the money that remained was put to good use.

After surviving the Dow Jones Industrial average's bone-jarring drop below 7,000 and its whipsaw recovery to levels above 10,000, many investors' portfolios may no longer be positioned to meet retirement and other life goals. And as we begin a new year, now may be the time for investors to reassess...