Even in times of interest rate uncertainty, a certificate of deposit (CD) can still be part of your cash strategy.
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.
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Armand Baughman, 71, a retired Continental Airlines pilot of Valley View, Texas, has always viewed annuities as too complex, illiquid, and expensive to warrant his consideration. But last year, he socked $200,000 into a tax-deferred ...
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Launching a new hedge fund has always been difficult, and even more so since the financial crisis. More funds are closing down than starting up these days, and most of the failures are small operations with short histories, says Daniel ...
April Hedge Funds: Best, Worst, BiggestWong Kok Hoi prefers to brave the occasionally steep waves in Asia's turbulent stock markets, in part because so many of them are caused by faraway events that have little long-term import for the ...
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Bausch & Lomb Inc. is nearing a deal to sell itself to drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. for about $9 billion, according to people familiar with the matter—a surprise move that highlights a resurgence in ...
Yahoo Inc. submitted a bid on Friday to acquire Hulu, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the Internet company tries to add more high-quality online video that can appeal to advertisers.
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SEOUL- ING Groep N.V. received bids from a Korean life insurer and two Seoul-based private-equity firms for its Korean life insurance unit Friday, just months after a previous attempt to sell the operations for $2.1 billion fell through.
The abrupt switch at the Procter & Gamble helm got Wall Street excited Friday morning, lifting the stock and earning the consumer-products giant an upgrade to buy from UBS analysts.
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Rue21 Inc. said it has agreed to be acquired by private-equity firm Apax Partners for $1.1 billion, as the teen-apparel retailer also issued a downbeat report on its latest quarter.
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Four of the biggest stock-options trading firms in the U.S. on Thursday sued exchanges over fees that the firms said were improperly collected for 7 1/2 years.
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A new website named Grove popped up earlier this year to help entrepreneurs find potential recruits, talk to other startups and track rivals' growth.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Energy stocks lost steam Wednesday, ending lower alongside the broader U.S. equity market as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled Fed may begin tapering its bond buying in coming months.
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Saks Inc. and Neiman Marcus Group Inc. are each on a shopping trip—to sell themselves. And in one financier's eye, they could end up in the same bag.
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The government issued subpoenas to four senior executives of SAC Capital Advisors LP who are part of Steven A. Cohen's inner circle, including the firm's president and chief compliance officer, according to people familiar with the matter.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Three senior executives at SAC Capital Advisors LP, including the firm’s president and chief compliance officer, received subpoenas as part of the government’s insider-trading investigation, according to people ...
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Cerberus Capital Management LP is eyeing about a half-dozen grocery chains for potential bids, as the buyout shop weighs whether to further expand its grocery business three months after acquiring several chains from Supervalu Inc., ...
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A last-minute options trade Tuesday stands to bring in huge profits following news the company may be exploring a sale.Just seconds before the close of options trading Tuesday, a large bet was placed that Saks shares would extend a run that ...
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STOCKHOLM—It doesn't take long to rattle off a list of startups or tech companies here that are either in or heading toward the billion dollar valuation club: music streaming site Spotify AB, payment service Klarna AB, games maker Mojang ...
Leon Cooperman has never been afraid to blow his stack. In fact, his volcanic tendencies are so well known on Wall Street that almost no one was fooled when the late Barton Biggs, Morgan Stanley's longtime market strategist, introduced a ...
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New York's top financial regulator subpoenaed a handful of Wall Street investment firms about their entries into a corner of the insurance industry that guarantees steady payments to hundreds of thousands of retirees and other consumers.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Wall Street is an enormous pressure cooker. Even in good times, such as the recent bull run of the stock market, the compulsion to squeeze every last nickel from every deal or trade is relentless.
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China's currency-reserves manager has set up a New York operation to invest in private equity, real estate and other U.S. assets, according to people with knowledge of the move.
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A consortium led by U.S. private-equity firm Blackstone Inc. has proposed to acquire U.S.-listed Chinese technology outsourcing firm Pactera Technology International Ltd., in a deal that values the company at more than $660 million.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Energy stocks rose on Monday, the top gainer in the S&P 500 Index, soaring above other sectors and up 1.3% on the day.
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A lawsuit brought by auto dealers has put a chill on the potential sale of R.L. Polk & Co., owner of the used-car shopping tool Carfax, according to people familiar with the matter.
U.S. prosecutors are considering possible criminal charges against SAC Capital Advisors LP as a result of the government’s insider-trading investigation of the hedge-fund firm, according to people familiar with the matter.
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TOKYO—Struggling Japanese conglomerate Sony Corp. said its board of directors has started preliminary discussions on what to do about a proposal from activist hedge-fund investor Daniel Loeb to take part of the company's entertainment ...
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Rajat Gupta was convicted on insider-trading charges in part due to phone records that showed he finished a conference call with the board of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and called a friend who was a hedge-fund manager, who moments later ...
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Be bullish.That's the overarching message from the options market as it fills with talk of two major developments that suggest the stock market will keep rallying to new record highs.
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SHANGHAI—Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. is raising a $1 billion private-equity fund that will invest in Europe and international companies seeking to expand in China, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Breaking News From WSJ.com's Developments BlogThe competition is intensifying for 650 Madison Ave., a 27-story, green-glass office building near the southeast corner of New York's Central Park, with some bids coming in for more than $1.3 ...
Starwood Capital Group is in talks to buy seven U.S. shopping malls from Westfield Group for more than $1 billion, a deal that would mark the latest in a flurry of big-ticket acquisitions of retail property.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Energy stocks ended lower Tuesday, losing steam a day after a rally.Energy stocks jumped on Monday, ending the day as the top gainer among sectors in the S&P 500 Index.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Saks Inc. shares jumped in heavy volume late Tuesday following a report the upscale luxury retailer has hired advisers for a possible sale.
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A special committee of Dell Inc. board members sent another letter to activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc. seeking more information about their takeover proposal, reiterating that the committee can't engage in ...
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U.S. prosecutors are considering possible criminal charges against SAC Capital Advisors LP as a result of the government's insider-trading investigation of the hedge-fund firm, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Satellite mogul Charlie Ergen bid $2 billion for certain spectrum from LightSquared Inc., the wireless venture spearheaded by financier Philip Falcone that is currently navigating bankruptcy proceedings, said people familiar with the offer.
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Mutual-fund firms are joining activist investors in getting more aggressive over demands for change in how board members are paid at U.S. companies.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Energy stocks traded lower Thursday, with Hess Corp. among the top decliners as it ended a proxy fight with activist shareholder Elliott Management.
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BUJAGALI, Uganda—A new dam at the headwaters of the White Nile, nearly 20 years in the making, generates almost half of this East African country's electricity.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. scored a victory in a New York state appeals court on Tuesday, winning the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against it by a bond insurer over a financial product that went sour during the ...
Hedge-fund manager Christian Zugel has made a mint in mortgage-backed securities, and he has also been wheeling and dealing in a lot of real estate. He has had to figure out how to fit a growing staff of 73 into a renovated garment factory, ...
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SAC Capital Advisors LP told clients it will no longer provide "unconditional" cooperation with a criminal insider-trading probe of the hedge-fund firm, marking an abrupt turn for a company that has spent months reassuring investors.
With venture-capital funds drying up, young tech companies are getting desperate for new sources of cash.Last week, Donald Trump announced — with characteristic flair — his involvement with a crowdfunding startup named FundAnything. The ...
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In yet another twist in its convoluted proxy battle with Hess Corp., Elliott Management Corp. on Tuesday proposed refashioning the company's board to include both its slate of five board nominees and their Hess-backed rivals.
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Kate Endress is mired in a type of legal quagmire that is afflicting an increasing number of Silicon Valley startup entrepreneurs, but which few typically want to openly discuss.
European stock markets turned higher Tuesday, taking inspiration from the U.S., where markets climbed after a top hedge-fund manager said he remains bullish.
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NEW YORK--An arbitration panel has ordered Goldman Sachs & Co. to pay roughly $2.5 million to a client who said she was sold an inappropriate investment in a private-equity fund.
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Blackstone Group LP is selling its interest in 30 shopping centers to real-estate investment trust DDR Corp. for $1.46 billion, resulting in a quick profit for the private-equity giant.
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TOKYO—In his push to reconfigure Sony Corp., U.S. hedge-fund manager Daniel Loeb is following a long line of foreign investors who charged into Japan hoping to shake things up. Nearly all have failed.
The good old Standard & Poor's 500 is turning in a strong performance this year. But judging by asset flows, it isn't enough for many stock investors. Money is flooding into unconventional index exchange-traded funds at more than twice ...
Billionaire hedge-fund manager William Ackman and a group of real-estate investors are in contract to buy a penthouse condo in Manhattan for more than $90 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — After these numbers, perhaps going private is not such a bad thing.That’s what many investors may be thinking Thursday afternoon after Dell Inc.s fiscal first quarter results came in way below Wall Street ...
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HOUSTON—Hess Corp. replaced more than half of its board with new directors, including three backed by a dissident shareholder, in the most dramatic leadership shake-up in the oil company's 80-year history.
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For decades, bond investors have been stuck in their own version of "Waiting for Godot."Year after year, some analysts and economists wait anxiously for yields to rise and prices to drop. Year after year, they have been stood up.
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Dell Inc. pushed up the timing for releasing its quarterly profits, which the company expects to be far worse than Wall Street had expected, according to a person briefed on the results.
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. obtained a victory in New York state appeals court in a case involving a complex mortgage security, moving the firm further from a crisis-era cloud.
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At Sony Pictures Entertainment's lot near Hollywood, executives both love and hate what activist investor Daniel Loeb has said about their company this week.
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Some of the hedge funds that made fortunes in the housing-market crash are now betting on the recovery of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage giants.
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SHANGHAI—Private-equity company Baring Asia will pay $265 million for a minority stake in the India arm of French cement producer Lafarge SA.
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Ally Financial Inc. moved a step closer to getting out from government ownership on Tuesday after striking a settlement with its troubled mortgage subsidiary Residential Capital and the unit's influential creditors.
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TOKYO—For years Sony Corp. steadfastly defended the synergies of owning both an entertainment and an electronics operation. But the conglomerate's vision is being challenged by activist hedge-fund billionaire Daniel Loeb, who is proposing a ...
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Investors are returning to Greece, lured by receding fears that the troubled country will leave the euro and the high returns offered by many of its battered assets.
New York landlords Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs have taken full ownership of the classic Seagram Building in Manhattan after paying off various other stakeholders.
Sometimes private-equity firms do little more than suck up money like a vacuum cleaner and leave someone else holding a big, ol' dusty bag full of debt.
Leveraged buyout firms, now called private-equity firms, sprang up to break up inefficient conglomerates and unlock shareholder value ("Private-Equity Firms Build Instead of Buy," page one, May 15). But if they actually build and run ...
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Online education provider Coursera is just over a year old and hasn't yet turned a profit. But it does have centuries-old colleges nervous.Daphne Koller, co-founder and co-chief executive of the Mountain View, Calif., company, insists ...
It has always been difficult for investors to consistently beat index funds. It has been nearly impossible lately.And there's a double whammy: The small number of advisers who outperform the market rarely can keep doing so.
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Foreign-exchange funds suffered their worst performance in 10 months in April, as currency managers struggled with a market frequently swayed by central-bank policies.
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Southeastern Asset Management Inc. and investor Carl Icahn are talking about teaming up to nominate directors to the Dell Inc. board as part of an effort to derail the computer maker's $24.4 billion leveraged buyout, people familiar with ...
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Veteran stock picker Jeffrey Vinik plans to close his hedge fund after a run of poor performance that coincided with a string of changes at his firm.
A fresh proposal from Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, unveiled Friday, appears to offer Dell shareholders more value than the $13.65-a-share buyout bid from CEO and founder Michael Dell that the company's board approved in ...
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What makes a good fund manager?The answer to that question is arguably the most important decision an investor has to make. To many, the answer is easy: Just look at the returns. But recent research points to a different way of sorting out ...
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SAC Capital Advisors LP extended its deadline for investors to request to withdraw their money from its hedge funds until June 3, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.
The 15th-floor penthouse at the Residences at W Hollywood in Los Angeles is on the market for $45 million. The 25,000-square-foot penthouse has four bedrooms, eight bathrooms and 340-degree views of the Hollywood Hills, downtown Los ...
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Recent shaky U.S. economic data may not derail the stronger U.S. dollar story just yet.The Federal Reserve is likely monitoring economic data to see whether recent soft data is only a temporary soft patch, said Vassilis Dagioglu, head of ...
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The private-equity firms buying BMC Software Inc. have also discussed buying Compuware Corp. and combining the two software companies, according to people familiar with the matter
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JOHANNESBURG—A club of wealthy families led by brewing scion John K. Coors is setting up a new private-equity fund that plans to invest $300 million in Africa and go toe-to-toe with other funds in the continent's frontier markets.
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Carl Icahn's missives ain't what they used to be.Dell's stock rose less than 1% Friday after the activist investor released an alternative proposal for the personal-computer maker to return a ton of cash to shareholders and remain a public ...
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A heavily indebted retailer with growing exposure to Europe wouldn't be an obvious choice for an IPO.But that hasn't stopped private-equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC from filing to take Claire's Inc. public. Having tapped out its ...
MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGEAmerican Century, the Kansas City-based investment firm, recently announced that it will be re-naming its target-date funds effective May 31, dropping the name Livestrong from its popular and successful line of funds.
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Bryan Elliott likes to take a contrarian view when it comes to evaluating restaurant companies. Rather than looking at same-store-sales growth and price/earnings ratios, he thinks cash flow and sales per square foot are better measures by ...
Now that the wave of investment in social media companies that produced IPOs for Facebook, LinkedIn and Yelp has fully washed through Silicon Valley into the public markets, venture capitalists are onto the Internet’s next new thing.
Business & Finance***China's yuan fell sharply against the U.S. dollar after Beijing unexpectedly introduced new rules intended to curb the flow of foreign currency into the country.
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Coach Inc. is looking to bag an acquisition.The handbag and accessory maker's style has been to expand organically. But amid increasing competition, Coach is weighing the purchase of an accessories brand, according to people familiar with ...
In 1977, a band of Los Angeles-based traders led by Michael Milken helped Texas International, an oil company, raise the first "junk" bond. The small issue—$30 million—opened a chapter in the history of finance. From then on, companies with ...
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-market futures were mildly higher on Monday following the S&P 500 index’s record run above 1,600 and the April jobs report, which exceeded expectations.
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SAC Capital Advisors, the giant hedge-fund firm under pressure from investors and investigators, took the unusual step of disclosing plans to shore up its compliance efforts.
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The Internal Revenue Service is examining the propriety of a tax practice used in some parts of the private-equity industry, in which firms convert management fees into investments that receive more favorable tax treatment, a senior IRS ...
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China Mengniu Dairy Co. increased its stake in China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. to 28%, bringing two of China's largest dairy companies closer as the domestic industry works to restore confidence in the safety of its products.
Last August, Alex Mandl was hosting dinner guests in his Great Falls, Va., home when Michael Dell's number popped up on his cellphone. Mr. Mandl, Dell Inc.'s lead director, excused himself for what he expected would be a routine check-in ...
MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGEAmerican Century, the Kansas City-based investment firm, recently announced that it will be re-naming its target-date funds effective May 31, dropping the name Livestrong from its popular and successful line of funds.
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Business & Finance***The BOE held off from injecting more stimulus into the U.K.'s fragile economy, but incoming governor Mark Carney is expected to take action to shore up a fledgling recovery within months.
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Some Clearwire Corp. shareholders have formed a group with the aim of getting a higher buyout price for the mobile broadband provider than the one currently in place from Sprint Nextel Corp.
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A proxy advisory firm is recommending that J.C. Penney Co. shareholders oppose the re-election of director Steven Roth at the company's May 17 annual meeting as the fallout from former Chief Executive Ron Johnson's disastrous tenure at the ...
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Canada looks like a tempting target for short sellers.The country's commodity-and-debt-fueled boom has slowed, and consumer debt is at records. There are concerns about a housing bubble after residential-property prices surged nearly 90% ...
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The battle over the future of Dell Inc. heated up Friday after the company received an alternative proposal from Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management that may compete with a privatization offer by ...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has passed the 15,000 mark. But is that really reason to celebrate?The sentiment on Wall Street may be that our long national fiscal nightmare is finally over, but the stock market is just one barometer of ...
Tesla MotorsAside from posting the first quarterly profit in its 10-year history, the luxury electric-car maker scored a top rating from Consumer Reports.
Neiman Marcus Group Inc. is planning overtures to a handful of sovereign-wealth funds about a possible buyout of the luxury retailer, said people familiar with the deliberations.

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.