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Japan's stock market is experiencing a rally unmatched since bulls ruled in the 1980s, as a weak yen and expectations of much bolder steps by the central bank draws investors into the long-dormant market.

Slumping personal computer maker Dell is bowing out of the stock market in a $24.4 billion buyout that represents the largest deal of its kind since the Great Recession dried…Click to Continue »

The Dow rose higher and briefly topped 14,000 Friday, hitting a milestone not seen since before the financial crisis rocked the world economy.

Stocks edged higher on Wall Street, pushing the Dow toward 14,000, as investors digested the latest round of earnings and economic reports... Stocks are approaching record levels after a January rally that has pushed the Dow 6.5 percent higher this month and the S&P 500 up 5.7 percent, to its highest level since December 2007. Demand was bolstered after lawmakers reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" at the start of the year and by reports that have added to evidence showing the U.S. housing market is recovering and the jobs market is slowly healing.

Stocks edged lower at the open on Monday as shares of Apple were weighed down by demand concerns, while investors faced a busy week for corporate earnings.

Stocks soared 2% Wednesday in the first trading of 2013, after Congress' last-minute passage of a plan to avert the brunt of the so-called fiscal cliff. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 234 points, or 1.8%, to 13,338 shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street. Wednesday morning's rally follows the Dow's 1.3% jump late in trading on New Year's Eve on signs of an emerging deal between President Obama and congressional leaders.

Investors, gradually coming to believe that policy makers will fail to reach a meaningful agreement to avert the so-called fiscal cliff before a year-end deadline, dumped stocks Friday in a selloff that put the blue-chip index into the red for the month.

The markets are already fretting over the "fiscal cliff": On Thursday, the Dow seemed to surge and fall with every bit of micro-news about a deal or lack thereof, as Joe Weisenthal documented.

Stocks are closing lower after a weak holiday shopping report sent shares of major retailers lower. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 24 points to close at 13,114 Wednesday. It was the third straight loss for the Dow.

...Today, as individual investors buy and sell common stocks less and less, the transaction symbolizes the rapidly advancing utilization of vehicles that are too esoteric for the general public to comprehend– futures contracts and options on the direction of interest rates, or oil and natural gas prices, or metals and agricultural products like wheat and corn, or precious metals like gold and silver, and especially credit instruments like mortgages and bank loans.