S and P 500

This week, the S&P 500 hit the same level that it did exactly three years earlier -- down to the last two decimal places. What can this fact tell us about the last three years of market history, and what lessons might be gleaned for investors?

The final quarter of 2011 promises to be just as exciting -- and frustrating -- as the first nine months of the year have been for Wall Street. This analyst is unafraid to go out on a limb and make a few bold calls, so let's go over four of the biggest developments that will play out over the next three months.

A bruising session on Wall Street Thursday wiped more than 500 points off the Dow - its worst drop since October 2008. Driving the fear is growing concern about the possibility of another recession. Will the selloff continue Friday? It all depends on the Labor Department's employment report.

With all the grim economic news out of Europe and China and the disappointing U.S. jobs report, a stock market rally may seem counterintuitive. But several technical signals suggest that the market is ready for a modest rally in the next few weeks.

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...

It has been a volatile week on Wall Street. After the Dow Jones industrial average retreated below the 10,000 level on Wednesday, the benchmark index, buoyed by positive third-quarter earnings reports, roared back to life Thursday, gaining more than 130 pints to end at 10,081. On Friday morning,...

For the past year, silver linings have been in short supply. Even as financial markets claw their way back up, the wealth lost has been neither forgotten nor completely recovered. In the private equity sector, the good news is that, frankly, the situation could have been worse. Though returns...

It was a tale of two months, but the market advance that began in March rolled on through July, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) gaining 9.1 percent to close above 9,170 -- the best month for the index since October 2002, when markets bottomed following the bursting of the tech bubble....

Are you a bull or a bear? If you're someone who values analysts' sentiment, you're probably turning bearish, or at least looking at the market with increasing skepticism. That's because the rally that has driven the S&P 500 up 37 percent since hitting a 12-year low near 660 in March has raised...

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...