Stock Investing

). There’s no better time to revisit it than at a month end. Let me update that chart for you; I think it’s truly amazing (click on image to enlarge):

Since 1939, the stock market has risen at an average annual rate of 7.5% irrespective of recessions, wars, crashes, crises of one sort or another and rising or falling interest and inflation rates. Given this 7.5% average annual growth rate, the market has fluctuate within a fairly broad channel that is bounded 44% above and below that average growth rate.

Even though the market has undauntedly risen over this 72-year history, it has suffered through two “secular bear” (circled) during which time it attempted by failed to cross above two different resistance levels for more than 14-15 years.

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American Superconductor (AMSC) CEO Greg Yurek was planning to retire for several months according to the company, but the recent lack of transparency, pending lawsuits and a plummeting stock price has no doubt led to a bit earlier than expected retirement for CEO and founder Greg Yurek. Current President and COO Daniel McGahn will take over as CEO while Yurek will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board for a few more months, then as an advisor for two years. Full Post…

It seems 424K Americans are heading into Memorial Day weekend with at least some cash in their pockets. Perhaps it’s just enough for the casino bus to Atlantic City, where they hope they might turn a government handout into a jackpot to set them up for life.

The Department of Labor reported Weekly Initial Jobless Claims rose again last week, to 424K; that’s 10K more than the prior week’s revised count. It’s not a good sign after plenty other bad signs throughout the month of May, a dark period that saw tornadoes run wild and unemployment insurance claims re-establish themselves above the 400K mark. The fou

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Mumbai: The non-competitive bidding amount in 91-day treasury bills, in an unusual case, rose sharply on Wednesday as some state governments stepped up investments in these bills, given the higher yields, sources with direct knowledge told Reuters.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been getting non-competitive bids worth Rs1100-1200 crore in its weekly 91-day T-bill auctions since the last one month.

However, on Wednesday, the RBI accepted Rs7,250 crore from 4 non-competitive bidders under 91-day T-bills and one such bid worth Rs500 crore of 182-day T-bills.

The RBI also accepted the entire Rs8,000 crore of the notified amount under 91-day T-bills under competitive bids and Rs3,000 crore of 182-day bills.

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06-Jul-11 15:00 ET Dow +56.04 at 12625.91, Nasdaq +5.81 at 2831.58, S&P +0.89 at 1338.77

The S&P 500 remains mired near the neutral line as it plods into the final hour of today’s trade. Although they are off of their session low, financials (-0.6%) continue to be a source of weakness. Energy stocks (-0.5%) have hampered action, too. In contrast, tech stocks (+0.4%) and industrials (+0.7%) have provided support.

The Dow has managed to hold on to a solid gain, however. Its relative strength comes as 3M (MMM 97.43, +1.29), Caterpillar (CAT 109.74, +1.31), and Boeing (BA 74.97, +0.82) put together the best gains among blue chips.