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• Job Creation Boosts Dow - 7 March 2013

Tuesday on Wall Street saw the Dow Jones industrial average closing at 14,253.77 - a record high since the influential stock market index closed at 14,164.53 in October 2007. While the response to the increase was one of restrained optimism, Wednesday saw the Dow breaking its previous day's record by hitting an intraday level of 14,320.65 before closing at 14,296.24, providing investors with a reason to have a bit more confidence in a market that has been battered about since 2008. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed at 1,541.46 on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq Composite index closing at 3,222.36. Up to 53 percent of stocks traded on the NYSE and Nasdaq closed the day higher on Wednesday, with the average trading volume being 3.6 billion shares.

• HP Results and Outlook Disappoint Investors - 4 October 2012

Wednesday on Wall Street saw the three major US stock indexes – the Dow Jones industrial average, Standard and Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite – lift initially, buoyed up by stronger-than-expected data from ADP and the economy's service sector. But the significant gains were cut by sharp drops in Hewlett-Packard's shares following the report on company earnings and earnings outlook by CEO Meg Whitman, and Wall Street ended the day only modestly higher. Friday's employment numbers are the next big market mover investors will be waiting for, while the economic situation in Spain is also causing waves in global markets, with Wall Street not being immune to its effects.

• Wall Street Indexes, Auto Industry, Housing Market at Year End - 29 December 2011

As 2011 draws to a close, Europe's debt problems remain in the spotlight for anxious Wall Street investors, resulting in stocks being down by more than one percent at close of business Wednesday. Trading volumes have been light in this last week of the year, and with few economic and corporate reports due it is doubtful that this light trading trend will change until the New Year. Analysts have noted that recent market movement is likely to have been influenced by investors taking stock of their investment portfolios and taking action to balance these in preparation for 2012.

• US Job Market, Europe Crisis, Earnings of Interest in Week Ahead - 31 October 2011

With analysts warning that the current climate of market uncertainty is far from over, it appears that Wall Street is set to end the month of October on a high, with the Dow recording the greatest October gain ever. Despite the fact that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been reported as saying that Greece should never have been permitted entrance to the Eurozone in 2001, European authorities have reached an agreement and mapped out a plan to rescue ailing European countries, including Greece, Italy and Spain. This has done much to boost confidence among Wall Street investors who will continue to keep an alert eye on Europe as leaders of nations forming the G-20 gather in Cannes, with the debt crisis a highlight on the agenda for discussion.

• Is the "Kodak Moment" Fading? - 29 September 2011

The brand name Kodak is synonymous with occasions we want memorialized, and the term "Kodak moment" is readily understood to describe a moment in time that either has been, or should have been, captured on film. Used as a promotional gimmick back in 2008, the "Kodak moment" concept has become part of our vocabulary. But the digital world has eclipsed the traditional world of photography, and it is becoming quite rare for photographers to use film that needs to be developed and printed. While the majority of photographers may still make use of a professional service to print their memories, home printing is becoming more popular and using a computer or mobile device and social media sites as a photo album is now commonplace.

• Wall Street Rocked by Disappointing May Jobs Report - 6 June 2011

Analysts are anticipating volatility on Wall Street in the upcoming week, as investors come to grips with Friday's dismal jobs report which noted that only 54,000 jobs were created in the month of May as compared to April's figure of 232,000. This came as a huge disappointment to economists who have estimated that the economy needs to add around 150,000 jobs each month purely to keep up with population growth. Jobs over and above that figure would be addressing the problem of job losses. While economists were not expecting to repeat April's figure and were aiming for 170,000 jobs in May, the figure of 54,000 came as a shock to all, sending stocks plunging, and causing economists to make major adjustments in their growth projections.

• Moral Hazard – Part 1 - 27 December 2010

Renowned in financial circles for his work on incentives relating to asymmetric information, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Bengt Robert Holmström defines the term 'moral hazard' in the 1979 Bell Journal of Economics as follows: "It has long been recognized that a problem of moral hazard may arise when individuals engage in risk sharing under conditions such that their privately taken actions affect the probability distribution of the outcome." Economist Professor Paul Krugman put it in a nutshell by describing moral hazard as being "any situation in which one person makes the decision about how much risk to take, while someone else bears the cost if things go badly."