Bernanke dares you to buy stocks; Commentary: But most retail investors aren’t biting

Higher Yields in a Low-Interest World

The pickings are growing increasingly slim for retirees looking to boost the income generated by their savings.To earn yields of 5% or more, investors—who once would have relied on the relative safety of bank certificates of deposit or ...

Will iPhones still exist when Apple bonds mature? What the company might be selling when its 30-year bonds mature

Should you buy Apple bonds? Despite the brand’s appeal, they may not make sense for most

The Wall Street cicada index; These bugs may get better returns than Warren Buffett

As billions of cicadas descend on the northeast, only two types of people are smiling: entomologists and, perhaps, stock investors.The large insects — which emerge every 17 years — turn out to be great news for the market. During years when ...

When ‘loser’ ETFs close, investors can lose too; Tax bills and ‘survivorship bias’ can trip up the unwary

Next month, iShares, the largest exchange-traded fund provider by assets, will do something it hasn’t done in more than a decade: close one of its 290 ETFs.

This week’s Mutual Funds and ETF stories

Exchange-Traded Funds; Companies Add to Lineups of 'Free' ETFs; Still, trading commissions are only one cost, so other funds may be more attractive on balance

Yahoo! Shells Out $1.1 Billion in Must-Buy Deal for Tumblr

Investors' jaws dropped when they heard last week that a 26-year-old high school dropout from New York was getting a $1 billion payday from Yahoo! for Tumblr, a company with de minimis revenue and no profit.