Taco bell

As earnings reports for the first quarter roll in, U.S. companies are beating the estimates of analysts at a rate not seen in more than a decade. Yet stocks have languished. The S&P 500 has fallen about 2% in April. So why aren't investors impressed?

Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Taco is an important part of Yum! Brands' strategy to turn the chain's fortunes around in the U.S. It's also a crazy idea, and one of the strangest menu items you can find at America's fast food chains.

Taco Bell's new Doritos Locos Taco hit restaurants last week, and it's already getting plenty of publicity -- and mockery. But whether it's a hit or a flop, expect more fast food mash-ups and bold blunders from the big chains.

While many fast-food restaurants have added healthier options, most still focus on cheap, high-calorie, high-fat fare. But who provides the most calories per dollar? To find out where you can get the biggest bulge for your buck, we compared McDonald's, KFC and Taco Bell.

The market wasn't overly impressed with Yum! Brands' quarterly report on Tuesday night. The company that watches over Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut has seen domestic business fall by 2% to 3% at each of its three chains. But Yum! fared substantially better in China, with its popular KFC scoring a whopping 19% spike in comps.

Announcements made late Wednesday and early Thursday revealed that three large companies -- Wendy's, Costco, and Bank of New York Mellon -- are losing their CEOs. And while the first two cases sound like they'll result in smooth transitions, the third comes as something of a shock.

America's poor, who are more likely to be plagued with poor nutrition and stricken with obesity than higher income groups, statistics show, are also more likely to get their meals from fast food restaurants. Where else can you get a days' worth of calories for $5, no preparation required? And this...

America is getting heavier and less healthy every year, and our increasing consumption of fast food is at least partially to blame. 24/7 Wall St. examined the menus of the top 10 quick service restaurants to find the items that were the highest in calories, carbohydrates, sodium and saturated fat. Here's what they found:

The Taco Bell controversy over whether its meat really is "ground beef," as the company claims, or some mysterious concoction of fillers and additives has dominated consumer news since word got out that the Mexican-style food franchise was slapped with a class action lawsuit last week. In a new...

Fast-food restaurants appear to have put the worst of the downturn behind them, but new industrywide challenges have emerged for 2011. That got us wondering if there's fast money to be made in fast-food stocks -- or if shares are too hard to swallow at current levels. [Video]