ThinkstockThe Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications this morning, noting a drop of 4.6% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index, following a decline of 4.7% for the previous…
courtesy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.Walmart is the largest American employer, with a workforce of nearly 2.2 million people. However, because of its international reach, only 1.3 million of those were employed in the United…
Brian Solis, via Wikimedia CommonsFacebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) plans to solve one of the Internet’s most vexing problems — most people around the world have no access to it. The notion that Facebook can…
Courtesy of Tesla MotorsElon Musk, the most handsome and intelligent man in the world, faces an insurmountable task as he works to sharply increase sales of his Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) cars. The…
thinkstockPresident Obama cannot run for office again, at least not for the presidency. So, the effects of his approval ratings are academic. However, he may care about how he is considered in his second…
U.S. National Park ServiceThe recession was followed by a call from Meredith Whitney that there could be waves of municipal defaults in the years ahead. The bankruptcy of Detroit only brought that fear back…
Jon OggStocks closed mixed on Tuesday, making two weeks worth of losses seem like they do not have to continue. Investors may finally be getting used to the environment of higher interest rates, and…
Stocks have pulled back from new all-time highs and interest rates have risen more than 100 basis points on the longer-end of the yield curve. Investors are expecting a tapering effect of the $85…
ThinkstockIt appears that scam artists are now targeting medical marijuana and legalized marijuana schemes to part you from your money. As the business opportunities are rising around the new and controversial field of legalized…
courtesy of SamsungTo say that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has a stranglehold on the tablet market is probably no more than to state the obvious. Of all devices running Apple’s iOS operating system, 28%…
ThinkstockToday’s top analyst upgrades that we produce each morning was heavily dominated by oil and gas stocks. Truth be told, the reason was quite simply that Canaccord Genuity was initiating coverage on key exploration…
courtesy GameStop Corp.Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced on Tuesday at the Gamescom show the names of 23 titles that will available at the launch of its new Xbox One game controller now scheduled for…
Wikimedia CommonsBeing an executive at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) can be no easy job at the moment. This is one of only a few large institutions that could have survived without…
Wikimedia CommonsThe big question in the retail sector is whether any company can hold on against Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). Corner bookstores have all but disappeared, Borders is history and Barnes & Noble Inc.…
thinkstockUrban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) is truly a unique company, catering to a unique audience, and in recent years it frequently has not gotten the respect that perhaps it deserved. This was a meteoric wealth…