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Stocks ticked up after Monday's global selloff, as a measure of home prices fell less than expected. The S&P 500 rose five points, or 0.4%, to 1319 in mid-afternoon trade. The index's consumer discretionary sector advanced 1.3%, on track for its steepest daily climb since June 14.

Investors yanked money out of stocks Thursday after new reports from the U.S. and China pointed to a sharp slowdown in manufacturing. The Dow Jones industrial plunged 251 points, the second-biggest drop this year. Losses in energy and materials companies led a widespread rout on the stock market. The Dow started sinking after 10 a.m., when the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve reported a sharp contraction in manufacturing in the Northeast. The losses accelerated throughout the day.

World stock markets rebounded Friday on anticipation that central banks will act to keep any political instability in Greece following weekend elections from destabilizing the global economy.

Investors could be excused for avoiding health insurance and hospital stocks as a U.S. Supreme Court decision nears on President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul law - an outcome that could send the companies' shares down 10 percent or more.

It’s been over three weeks since Facebook launched its $16 billion IPO, and as you’ve heard by now, it’s belly flopping on the NASDAQ. Wall Street and Silicon Valley VCs are in an uproar over the company's 30-percent stock decline and $25 share value, with some shareholders already looking to recoup their loses by suing CEO Mark Zuckerberg for withholding info on the company’s true value during its public outing.

UBS is sitting on losses that could be as high as $350 million stemming from its investment in the Facebook initial public offering, and is preparing legal action against Nasdaq as a result, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Stocks closed out its best week of the year Friday, as investors played things close to the vest before the weekend when Spain is expected to request aid for its troubled banks.

Nokia shares are trading higher Friday morning in a move that at least one report attributes to dubious rumors that the company could be a takeover target for Samsung. Honestly, the rumor seems ridiculous. Samsung has little reason to buy a struggling handset maker given its own success in dominating the market for Android-based smart ...

Although many investors had hoped for a big first-day pop, Facebook's stock opened on May 18 at $42.05 and fluctuated between $45 and $38 throughout the day. It closed barely above its IPO price, at $38.23. Since the IPO, the stock has been down on seven trading days and up on four. Facebook's stock price has gone as low as $26.44 since the IPO.

In an unlikely coincidence certainly unwelcome to China's communist rulers, the stock benchmark fell 64.89 points Monday, matching the numbers of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in the heart of Beijing. In China's lively microblog world, "Shanghai Composite Index" soon joined the many words blocked by censors. In another odd twist, the index opened Monday at 2,346.98. That is being interpreted as 23rd anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown when read from right to left.