sp500

Stocks are underperforming so far in 2010, and Treasury bond yields are low, too. So how can you get good returns without excessive volatility? Standard & Poor's Equity Research suggests mixed-asset mutual funds, which capture the strengths of both stocks and bonds.

Stocks held on to gains as the Fed left its key lending rate unchanged and on better-than-expected news from economic reports on housing starts and import prices. The S&P500 continued its climb, finishing at a 17-month high set in October 2008, at 1,159.46, up 8.95 points.

Good news, average investors: You too can now afford a share of Warren Buffett's coveted Berkshire Hathaway stock, thanks to a 50-to-1 stock split that cut the price of shares from $3,500 to around $76. Of course, that's Warren's B shares. Most of us can still only fantasize about owning...

It's an old stock investing yarn -- buy stocks in companies that make things people actually use, even in downturns. Everybody buys toilet paper, for example. So durable goods companies are often more solid than, say, the company that makes trendy footwear or peddles hard-to-define credit vehicles....