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Sarbanes-Oxley Act – Protecting Investor Interests - 4 March 2010

Enacted as a United States federal law on July 30, 2002, in response to the much-publicized financial scandals of corporate public companies such as Enron, Adelphia, Tyco International, WorldCom and Peregrine Systems, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is named after US Senator Paul Sarbanes and US Representative Michael G. Oxley who initiated it. Known in the US Senate as the 'Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act' and in the House as the 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act', it is more commonly referred to simply as Sarbox, or SOX.

January Ends on Low Note Dragged Down by Techs - 1 February 2010

Ending a six-month winning streak, the Dow Jones industrial average closed nearly 4 percent down at the end of January, being its largest monthly point loss since February 2009. Despite data revealing that the economy had experienced encouraging growth in late 2009, jittery investors were concerned about the slow pace of recovery and indicated a loss of confidence in the technology sector with a sell-off of primarily Apple and Microsoft shares. Certainly January was a disappointment to many stock market players who were hopeful that 2010 would be somewhat rosier than the past 18 months or so.

Passive vs. Active Investing Management - 31 December 2009

With many situations in life where there are two directly opposing opinions, each side believes their way to be the best, and this is certainly true of passive and active management in stock market investing. Proponents of passive management, also referred to as index investing, generally believe that the market can’t be beaten and therefore portfolio managers don’t make the decision as to which securities to buy or sell. Instead they copy an index by buying the same securities that are included in a particular bond or stock market index. Active managers, on the other hand, attempt to beat the market as measured by a chosen index or benchmark, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 or the Russell 1000, that gauge the performance of blue chip stocks. The ultimate goal of active management is to outperform the index for a particular fund by taking into account prevailing market trends, political and other current events, the economy and factors such as earnings growth relating to individual companies.

Dollar Remains Near Two Month High - 17 December 2009

The US dollar fell back a bit Wednesday (December 16) morning as analysts believe the Fed is likely to leave its key interest rate at zero. New data on consumer prices show little change after 10 months of increases, suggesting inflation is not a big enough concern at this point to warrant an immediate rise in rates.

Auto and Gasoline Sales Help Boost November Retail Sales Growth - 14 December 2009

Despite initial reports from many retailers that the start to the holiday season has been relatively sluggish, the Commerce Department reported Friday (December 11) morning that retail sales climbed by 1.3 percent in November. This follows a 1.1 percent boost in retail performance during October.

$2,000 Gold is Coming - 5 December 2009

The price of an ounce of gold continues to remain above $1,200 after reaching a new all-time high at $1,218.25 to start the final month of 2009. In early Friday (December 4) morning trade, the spot rate for gold was $1,205.40.

Is US Economy Heading for a ‘Double Dip’? - 3 December 2009

With the majority of economic analysts in agreement that the US economy is moving out of the recession and is in a recovery phase, many are still dubious, biding their time to see if the recovery will be sustained, or go into decline again in what is being termed as a 'double dip'. The view that the US economy is in recovery is being based primarily on the 3.5 percent growth experienced in the third quarter, but the surge of optimism has not touched everyone, and some economists are calling for authorities to be prepared with economic stimulus plans to be put into action early next year, particularly with the aim of creating jobs in a struggling labor market where the ranks of the unemployed keep growing.

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