Author: Ken Sweet

NEW YORK – Stocks edged mostly lower Wednesday, breaking a six-day winning streak, as investors were disappointed by the latest round of earnings from U.S. companies. A surprise drop in new home sales also weighed on the broader market. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 4.16 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,875.39. The Dow…

NEW YORK – Once again, it was the Federal Reserve to the rescue for the stock market. Major U.S. indexes rose broadly Wednesday, helped by a report out of the nation’s central bank that showed Fed policymakers want to be absolutely certain the U.S. economy had recovered before starting to raise interest rates. Confident that…

NEW YORK – New signs of life in the U.S. manufacturing sector helped push the stock market to a record high Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 13.18 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 1,885.52. That’s above its previous record of 1,878.04, set on March 7. The gains were broad, with eight…

NEW YORK – If 2013 was a year where the stock market went straight up, 2014 has started off as a year where the stock market moves sideways. There was plenty for investors to worry about in the first three months of the year, from tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine and the…

NEW YORK – A positive report on U.S. consumer spending helped push stocks mostly higher Friday for the first time in three days. The gains were modest as investors continued to cut their holdings in biotechnology stocks, some of the best performing names of 2013. Instead, the stocks that advanced the most were mostly mature,…

NEW YORK – It was a bad day to be an investor in Citigroup or tech stocks. U.S. stock indexes edged lower for a second day Thursday as investors continued to retreat from technology stocks. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed at its lowest level in six weeks. Bank stocks were also in focus. Citigroup…

NEW YORK – Higher interest rates are coming. And they are coming sooner than you think. That’s the message investors took away from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. In response, they sent stocks and gold prices lower and bond yields sharply higher. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 114.02 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,222.17.…

NEW YORK – Investors were able to put aside the ongoing political turmoil in Ukraine on Monday to focus on a bit of good news on the U.S. economy. Stocks ended sharply higher, helped by a report that showed factory output rebounded last month. The Dow Jones industrial average added 181.55 points, or 1.1 percent,…

NEW YORK – One positive report on the economy was not enough to make investors more confident. The stock market ended mixed Friday after a day of muddled trading. Among the three main U.S. stock indexes, one edged higher, one closed little changed and the other closed lower. Investors focused on the tensions in Ukraine,…

(KOAA.com)