Lured by ultralow interest rates and a recovering stock market, investors have rediscovered a risky investing tool: the margin loan. Margin accounts, which allow investors to borrow against the value of the securities in their brokerage ...
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Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has been one of the biggest real-estate players since the downturn, leading a $2.6 billion deal to take mall giant General Growth Properties Inc. out of bankruptcy, and diving into the apartment and ...
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SHANGHAI—China is considering setting up a new way for foreign pension funds to invest in its vast capital markets, according to people familiar with the matter, its latest effort to prop up the country's listless stock market.
Trading isn't something one can learn through reading books or research alone. Like riding a bicycle or jumping into the deep end of a pool, it's something you've got to engage in to actually understand. There's no substitute for on-the-job ...
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MUMBAI – Indian investment in gold exchange-traded funds picked up in April even as jewelry sales were flat, industry data showed Monday. Assets in gold exchange-traded funds grew 3.4% in April from a month earlier, data released by the ...
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Amir Hamzah, a property and real-estate investment trust analyst for Credit Suisse Securities Malaysia, a unit of Credit Suisse Group AG, says when picking property companies, the secret is to look for ones that have a triple force: They ...
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Well over a decade ago, I got a note from an investor who said he did not understand how average investors were supposed to keep up with “recommended behavior for fund investors.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating an $11 billion real-estate company for potential violations of federal securities laws, casting a shadow over the business of real estate investment trusts that aren't traded on ...
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A rental apartment-building company that owns properties in cities like Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, is pushing into the upscale Los Angeles market despite some investor concerns.
SL Green Realty Corp., the largest owner of Manhattan office buildings, has taken heat for its generous levels of executive compensation, but it isn't backing down. The company's total compensation in 2011 for its five top honchos inched up ...
Japan was last without nuclear power in 1970, when the country's then-two reactors were both offline for maintenance. A World News article Saturday incorrectly gave the date as 1966.
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Investors can buy stakes in malls, apartment towers, timber forests and even cellphone towers through real-estate investment trusts. Now, add to the list: single-family homes transformed into rental properties.
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Gold has been a store and a protector of wealth for millennia, which has prompted people all over the world to buy gold coins and bullion. Add to that the phenomenal success of the SPDR Gold Trust (known best by its ticker, GLD), which has ...
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(Editor's Note: This Q&A has been slightly updated to reflect some changes in the stock market since the interview was conducted.) Patrick Dunkerley, lead portfolio manager of the Scout Mid Cap Fund (ticker: UMBMX), is well-versed in the ...
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Facing a dearth of new-home construction, the U.K. real-estate industry and government are looking at ways to encourage the formation of new real-estate investment trusts that would focus on subsidized housing.
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In the aftermath of the worst housing crisis in a generation, more people are eschewing the American dream of homeownership and embracing apartment rentals in the still-fragile economy.
Rank Rank Cash-Flow Return Based on Investment 2012 2011 Company Ticker 3-Yr Median 2011 vs. Median Sales Growth 2011 GPA 1 N.R. CF Industries Holdings ...
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Wells Fargo Securities We expect Chesapeake Lodging Trust, Hersha Hospitality Trust and Strategic Hotels & Resorts to post among the strongest revenue per available room (RevPAR) gains in the first quarter.
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JMP Securities The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency which administers the two federal health-care programs, issued the fiscal-year 2013 proposed rule for Long Term Acute Care Hospitals (LTCH), which we ...
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New York City apartment landlords have been ratcheting up rents as the economy has slowly improved. But that doesn't mean that tenants will keep paying the increases.
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A recent all-time high saw the top insider at Crown Castle International cashing in a few shares. On April 30, President and Chief Executive W. Benjamin Moreland sold 100,000 shares of Crown Castle International (ticker: CCI) for $5,655,000, ...
Your emerging-markets stock fund might need more exposure to emerging markets. Many such funds have large exposure in markets that bear more economic resemblance to the U.S. than to China and India. They also tend to favor companies with ...
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Former city Finance Director Martha Stark agreed to pay $22,000 in fines Tuesday for violating conflict of interest rules stemming from her work for a real-estate company between 2005 and 2009.
In a move to unload some of its U.S. real-estate assets, German lender Eurohypo AG has reached an agreement to sell a commercial-property loan portfolio with a face value of about $560 million to a team of Wells Fargo & Co. and ...
Q: How can one invest in bank loans ? Are there mutual funds or ETFs that invest in the area? A: As the economy improves, investors have shifted to riskier investments, such as stocks and junk bonds. Lately, more have taken an interest in ...
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The pressure is rising in a standoff on Central Park South between two of the city's most powerful developers. Vornado Realty Trust is getting ready to start demolition on a 1950s-era apartment building at 220 Central Park South to get the ...
Markets aren't oil paintings. They're more like dynamic watercolors that never fully dry. Look at natural gas, which traded as high as $14/MMBtu in 2005 before dropping to $2 in 2012, or Netflix, which fell from $300 to $80 a share in less ...
What a difference an energy-stoked economy makes. In many parts of the U.S., prices of raw land, which typically has no roads or sewers, intended for housing have barely recovered from the depths of the downturn. Some of the land in remote ...
HILLSBOROUGH, N.J.—For years here amid the gentle hills of the Raritan River valley in suburban New Jersey, a 2,740-acre estate that once provided the setting for Doris Duke's ornamental gardens has largely been kept private.
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MUMBAI—Indian investments in gold exchange-traded funds surged 44% Tuesday on the auspicious buying occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, even as fewer customers walked into gold jewelry shops.
A controversial real-estate investment is getting a makeover—and while the critics still aren't sold, some advisers say it is worth considering for investors comfortable with the risks.
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NEW YORK—Gold futures ended nearly unchanged, after a large early-morning sell order roiled traders and slashed prices by almost $15. The CME Group Inc.'s Comex division recorded an unusually large transaction of 7,500 gold futures during ...
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The Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission are expected to approve Wednesday a rule to apply strict regulations to swaps dealers and firms that handle $8 billion of swaps derivatives, according to ...
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One relatively new insider at Apogee Enterprises made his enthusiasm for the company transparent by buying up shares. On April 18, Chief Executive Joseph F. Puishys bought 18,600 Apogee (ticker: APOG) shares for $249,559.92, or $13.42 each.
Transcontinental Realty Investors topped the list of Biggest Percentage Price Decliners among common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange at the close. See the full list .
Bulls say the capital markets are in a "risk rally," while cynics call it a "dash for trash." Whatever the label, assets that investors were too fearful to touch last year have lately been the market's top performers.
It's hard to imagine the public's view on precious metals back in the early 2000s, back when companies like Sun Microsystems, and InfoSpace still dominated investor attention, oil traded at $30 a barrel and gold wasn't only unfollowed by ...
Investors are caught between the fear of another stock market crash and the punishingly low yields on safe havens like Treasurys. "Long-short" mutual funds, which bet for and against stocks at the same time, offer ways to seek profits, ...
A March 10 essay in Review about organ donation by book author Dick Teresi included comments from an interview with Robert Truog, professor of medical ethics, anesthesia and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, about the possible pain felt ...
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Equity Residential, the apartment landlord controlled by investor Sam Zell, has struck a deal with Bank of America Corp. and Barclays PLC to extend its option to buy a stake in Archstone, a competing apartment company that is partly owned ...
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NEW DELHI – Gold demand in India has taken a hit as high global prices and a tax hike have kept many purchasers away, but consumers in the South Asian nation won't be able to resist buying the yellow metal for long and will soon return to ...
The track records of target-date mutual funds for retirement got a double boost lately. They benefited from the stock market's powerful start to 2012, with the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rising 12% in the three months through ...
For decades, New York City has considered designating the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as a landmark. But city landmark officials wanted to wait until the cathedral—under construction since 1892—was "finished."
Bad ideas can get investors into trouble. So can good ideas that morph into bad ones. Ever since they were introduced in the U.S. in 1993, exchange-traded funds—those bundles of stocks, bonds or other assets that offer the diversification of ...
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Silver's wild days may be behind it. The so-called devil's metal raced up a mere 33% in the first two months of 2012, before giving up almost half of the gains. But for silver, this is relatively smooth sailing. Last year, it chalked up a ...
Americans with pension envy increasingly are turning to a relatively new breed of annuity, known as "longevity" insurance, to restore some financial security to what are supposed to be their golden years.
An investment company known for its frugal approach to stock selection has seen its own shares reach lofty levels on Wall Street. WisdomTree Investments shares have gained 38% this year -- nearly four times the broad U.S. stock market's ...
Top-of-the-market real-estate deals helped bring Lehman Brothers to its knees. But even the bank's demise wasn't enough to shake its affection for the asset class.
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Time Warner on the Prowl Landlords with big blocks of space to fill should check their mailboxes in the next couple of weeks: Time Warner, which is searching for 4 million square feet of space, plans at last to send out its requests for ...
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The one thing that might have allowed convicted felon Bernie Madoff to run his phony hedge-fund business even longer in the face of an eroding stock market is successful advertising.
PALO ALTO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Nearly every retirement portfolio should contain real estate, but most investors can’t buy a building. Fortunately, it’s easy to own property without ever fixing a toilet, or worrying about a roof caving in ...
Earnings season kicks off next week amid high uncertainty on Wall Street--especially concerning the companies below. Analysts have spent more than seven months steadily lowering their first-quarter earnings forecasts for the broad market. ...
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The bond king might be making a comeback. After suffering one of his worst performances ever in 2011, over the past three months, Bill Gross, manager of Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Total Return Fund, rode an aggressive bet on ...
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JMP Securities We continue to believe that Marriott International is a great stock to own as the lodging sector recovers, with earnings and cash flow continuously surprising and this for a fee-based company rather than hotel owner.
Investors piled into the stocks of small real-estate companies during the first quarter, an indication that the improving economy is encouraging investors to take on more risk.
Another investor has filed a lawsuit against the Malkin family's plan to take public the Empire State Building and other properties, marking the third such effort attacking the initial public offering in two weeks.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The last decade has been a bonanza for investors smart or lucky enough to buy gold. From their April 2001 low of $256 an ounce, gold prices soared 640% to their September 2011 peak. While large U.S. stocks slogged ...
Investors who are worried that stocks have risen too far, too fast, should give utilities another look. Shares of electricity and gas companies typically offer generous dividend yields—dividend payments as a percentage of stock price—and ...
For a brief shining moment last summer, the path seemed utterly clear. President Obama and leaders in Congress were battling fiercely over the U.S. debt ceiling, policy makers in Europe were squabbling about how to deal with their own ...
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Last week, gold went from hero to goat as it plunged $77 per ounce in just one day. But despite the severe change in short-term conditions, the long-term bull market in gold is still very much intact.
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Dow Jones Global Indexes|Global Stock Markets Looking for an inflation hedge in this climate of quantitative easing? Try real-estate investment trust Hammerson.
Sometimes it pays to look beyond the obvious when it comes to investing. That means adding some exotic investments to a portfolio laden with blue-chip stocks and Treasury bonds. Think platinum and pipelines.
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SINGAPORE—Singapore Exchange Ltd. said Wednesday it will reorganize its business structure to better leverage growth opportunities in the Asia region, while putting the exchange's chief executive at the helm of its listings business.
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As the office-space market slogs along in a slow recovery, landlords face another hurdle: shrinking tenants. Companies looking for cost savings are increasingly packing more employees into less space, a trend that is helping cause U.S. ...
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The New York office market is about to face its toughest test since the downturn, as developers prepare to deliver more new space in 2013 than in any single year since the late 1980s.
Spooked by the stock market, more parents saving for college are putting their faith in something that could prove to be equally tenuous: the ability of state governments to manage money.
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On weekend mornings, the neighborhood around Zuccotti Park has been waking to an odd time warp: Occupy Wall Street has returned, only this time in 19th-century attire and performing German songs instead of "mic checks."
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Great day for gold, and the gold bugs think more is to come. Gold closed at a new high for the year Wednesday, as measured by the CME April gold contract — up $12.80 at $1,771.30. By the stock-market close, the metal ...
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'Avatar' Blues for Builder In James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi movie "Avatar," humans travel to a distant planet called Pandora in search of precious metals and nearly kill off an entire indigenous race of blue-skinned ...
Apple's dividend announcement this past week is good news for income investors, but bad news might be lurking around the corner. Unless Congress takes action, the top tax rate for the highest earners on most dividends, currently 15%, is ...
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Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. has purchased five upscale hotels for $393.1 million in a shift of its lodging portfolio closer to the high end.
The research reports excerpted here were issued recently by investment and research firms. Many may be obtained through Thomson Reuters at www.thomson.com/financial or 800-638-8241. Some are available in the company-research area of ...
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MKM Partners The real-estate-investment-trust sector has pulled back over the last two weeks after a prolonged upmove. We expect the pullback to persist for another week or two, based on the posture of the daily stochastics of iShares Dow ...
Cash poured into mutual funds during the first week of February at the fastest pace in nearly two years, according to data from the Investment Company Institute, a trade group.
Stocks and higher-yielding "junk" bonds have surged so much in recent months that bargains are getting difficult to find. At the same time, safer investments such as Treasury bonds and high-grade corporate issues have meager ...
With Apple shares having recently topped $500, how soon might they hit $1,000? That is an impatient thought for an investor, perhaps. But Apple shareholders have gotten used to fast gratification: The share price has doubled five times in ...
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The iShares Silver Trust appears to be tarnished after rising about 20% this year alone. Since shares of the exchange-traded fund hit its 2012 high on Feb. 28, the price has edged lower and recent trading activity suggests interest in the ...
In this column five years ago, I called currency markets "the new Wild West" and predicted that foreign exchange trading would "soon become the hottest game in town."
Boston Properties Inc., one of the nation's largest office landlords, is in negotiations to buy Drapers Gardens, a trophy office building in London's financial district for £285 million ($452.2 million), according to people ...
On a fall day in 2010, half a dozen wealthy investors and portfolio managers converged on an office in midtown Manhattan. These were serious Wall Street moneymen; in aggregate, they handled more than a billion dollars. They had access to ...
Financial advisers and their clients are starting to plan for, if not yet act on, a possible jump in taxes on dividends. Dividend-producing stocks have had a special attraction among investors in recent years, in part because of the ...
Sovereign bond investors recently had to pay Germany for the privilege of lending to it. Yields on the safest non-sovereigns, investment grade corporate bonds, are setting new records in parsimony. So income investors looking for decent, ...
The stock market was a happy place five years ago and heavenly in the 1990s. But after the financial crises of the past few years, investors could be forgiven for thinking that the market resembles the Iditarod sled-dog race in Alaska—a ...
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The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged a former MF Global Ltd. broker with attempted manipulation of palladium and platinum futures prices, the regulator said Wednesday.
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SINGAPORE—Real-estate fund manager ARA Asset Management Ltd., an affiliate of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd., is planning a yuan-denominated initial public offering of some of its Asian assets in Singapore, ...
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The Department of Energy has placed nearly one-third of its clean-energy loan portfolio on an internal "watch list" for possible violations of terms or other concerns, according to a copy of the list obtained by The Wall Street ...
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NEW YORK—Gold futures slumped on Wednesday on signs of weak physical demand for the metal and selling by traders who bet the market was due for a pullback a day after failing to top $1,700 a troy ounce.
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Developer Aby Rosen, who has been fighting headwinds to shore up his highly leveraged U.S. office buildings, faces a new threat, this one to his firm's large portfolio in Stamford, Conn.
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Back for More The investment manager of one of Canada's largest pension plans has teamed up once again with SL Green Realty Corp., this time to buy the office tower at 10 East 53rd St. for $252 million.
Emerging markets have started the year with a bang. From São Paulo to Singapore, stock and bond markets are booming and investors are jumping on board.
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Credit Suisse We are initiating coverage of the wireless-tower companies with an Overweight stance. We believe that investors are underestimating long-term growth prospects for the group in general.
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Long-term mutual funds had estimated net inflows of $7.76 billion in the latest week as bond and hybrid funds continued to receive a boost, according to the Investment Company Institute.
Law-enforcement officials arrested 74 Occupy Wall Street protesters over the weekend and erected barricades around Zuccotti Park, as the movement marked its six-month milestone.
Intuitive Surgical, a maker of medical robots, is expected to increase its earnings by 33% this year. That is tantalizing growth at a time when the broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is projected to see a 9% gain in operating ...
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Shares of Sabra Health Care REIT, one of the nation's largest publicly traded nursing-home landlords, were headed to intensive care last fall after being roughed up by investor concern over a steep cut in Medicare reimbursements.
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Blackstone Group LP has raised more than $10 billion in less than a year for its latest real-estate fund and is looking to raise an additional $2 billion by year's end, according to people familiar with the matter.
The stock market is surging, but many individual investors aren't getting swept up in the excitement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 6.2% this year, and closed above 13000 on Tuesday for the first time since May 2008. Dow ...
On March 9, 2009, the stock market hit its postcrash bottom. Today, after a three-year rally that's seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average rise 98%, from 6547 points to 12978, investors are trying to understand how to explain the good ...
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Long-term mutual funds had estimated net inflows of $11.9 billion in the latest week as investors again added money across the board, according to the Investment Company Institute.
Spooked by the stock market, more parents saving for their kids' colleges are putting their faith in something that could prove to be equally tenuous: the ability of state governments to manage money.

Ask the right questions before you hand over your money
A balanced portfolio can have a bigger impact on long-term performance than individual stock picking
Investing for retirement is more complicated than opening an IRA or maxing out your 401(k)
When choosing a stock mutual fund, consider performance, manager track record and cost before investing.
Even in times of interest rate uncertainty, a certificate of deposit (CD) can still be part of your cash strategy.
A new wedding trend trades "walking down the aisle" for a walk on the wild side.
Technology stocks have rebounded and are once again the darling of the market. Can the resurgence last?
Arends: That 60/40 portfolio of stocks and bonds your adviser is pushing might not work.
The defense contractor faces a tough enemy: potential cuts in defense.