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Barack Obama promised universal health care and a mass conversion to green energy when he launched his presidential campaign. On that frigid February day in 2007, the economy was growing at a 2.8% clip. Obama stuck to the same promises a year later when he won Iowa, as the housing market was slumping into […]

If the key to happiness is low expectations, then stock investors must be over the moon.
Over a third of the S&P 500 index constituents have reported second-quarter earnings. Even though profits are down about a third from a year earlier, more than three-quarters of the firms have beaten analysts’ expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. […]

Sales of existing homes disappointed again in June, coming in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.89 million, up just 3.6% compared with May, according to a monthly report from the National Association of Realtors.
Home sales peaked in August 2005 at an annualized rate of more than 7.2 million, but sales have not […]

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. this week lowered its stake in credit ratings provider Moody’s Corp. to 16.98% from 20.4%, the first reported reduction since 2000.
Moody’s shares fell slid $2.57, or 9.7%, to $23.95 in after-hours trading after Berkshire disclosed the sale in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Berkshire said its National Indemnity […]

CIT Group was expected to announce a deal with key bondholders for $3 billion in funding that would stave off a bankruptcy filing for the cash-strapped lender, according to reports published Monday.
The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, said CIT’s board approved the deal Sunday […]

IBM’s improved outlook lifted the Dow industrials Friday, but the broader market struggled as investors showed fatigue after a strong week on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 32 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 (SPX) index ended just below unchanged and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) ended just above the breakeven point.
The […]

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, testifying before Congress for the first time since leaving office, defended his role Thursday in salvaging a controversial deal struck during the height of the banking panic last fall.
Lawmakers grilled Paulson about whether he overstepped his authority in pushing for Bank of America to follow through on its takeover […]

Cash-starved small business lender CIT Group said Wednesday evening that it has been told it won’t be getting a government bailout anytime soon.
There is "no appreciable likelihood of additional government support being provided over the near term," the company said in statement. The CIT board and executives are evaluating alternatives.
Trading of CIT’s shares was […]

Tech earnings season kicks off this week, with quarterly reports from industry giants Intel, Google and IBM, and investors will be hungering for signs that a turnaround is imminent.
"The second-quarter numbers, when they come out, are clearly going to be down for nearly every vendor [but] last quarter will be the last of the […]

Prices at the pump dropped more than a dime over the past two weeks, according to a survey published Sunday.
The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline is $2.55, the Lundberg Survey found — a decline of 10.4 cents from June 26.
The decline was the first two-week drop since March, […]