Financial Market News

Sure, there are plenty of forces pushing stocks higher - record corporate earnings, small investors finally buying again, signs the U.S. economy may be strengthening, central banks flooding the financial system with money.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.4 percent to 15,352.84 as evidence of a steady economic recovery in the U.S. helped push Asian stock markets higher Monday.

A pair of corporate mergers failed to boost the broader market Monday as investors await comments from Federal Reserve officials later in the week.

The Russell 2000, an index of small-company stocks, rose above 1,000 for the first time.

The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks crossed 1,000 points for the first time Monday.

Silver hit a two-and-a-half-year low on Monday, prompted by heavy fund liquidation in Asian trade, while gold was on track for its longest run of losses since March 2009 weighed by speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve might rein in its economic stimulus programme.

Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Ben Bernanke attends the Treasury Department's Financial Stability Oversight Council in Washington April 25, 2013.

A gauge of future economic activity issued Friday rose more than expected, a sign that the world's biggest economy is improving.

Japanese stocks rallied to lead Asian markets higher Monday, tracking a positive global lead after U.S. indexes notched another record finish on Friday, although South Korean shares underperformed, weighed by geopolitical concerns.

With the world's biggest central banks driving yields on safe assets to near zero, some investors are tossing caution to the wind and rushing to buy illiquid and previously overlooked bonds sold by countries with no capital markets track record.

For the fourth week in a row, the stock market climbed to fresh record highs last week on signs of improvement in the U.S. economy.

That's a trick question. I started the "club" in a whimsical moment 14 years ago.

An Italian financial expert has urged European investors to buy sovereign bonds issued by Bulgaria , claiming they are safer even than Germany's and Japan's. "True, the yield on ten-year Bulgarian government debt used to stand at about 5% a year ago, while now it has a yield a bit over 3%. Still, paradoxically, I believe that Bulgaria 's ten-year ... (more)

Public pension plans in Michigan - hammered by stock market declines in the poor economy and mismanagement in some cases - are now seeing their investment portfolios growing at the best rate in years.

Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner has been arrested for extortion by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being held in Pulaski County Jail, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

Turkish bonds surged and the lira touched an 11-month low after a bigger-than-forecast cut to interest rates preceded a decision by Moody's Investors Service to raise the nation's credit rating to investment grade.

Keep track of the stocks that matter to you. Help yourself with the Fool's FREE and easy new watchlist service today.

When it comes to dividend-paying stocks, bigger isn't always better. Oftentimes, dividend investors excitedly uncover a company that pays a huge dividend, only to find it soon slashed.

"Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years," Warren Buffett has famously said.

Shares of General Motors reached an important milestone on Friday, closing above their initial public offering price of $33 for the first time in more than two years.