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The earnings crunch continues this week. Among the highlights will be scheduled quarterly reports from Exxon Mobil and Chevron, from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck, from Time Warner and Viacom, and also from Twitter. Early Thursday, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is expected to say that it had earnings...

U.S. stocks rose as investors felt that earnings season is positive enough so far to reverse weakness the markets have seen in recent weeks. "Investors were braced for poor results, and at least so far, the numbers have been better than feared. We'll have a little more information to act on...

U.S. stocks rebounded from a two-day losing streak as investors found plenty of positives in consumer confidence data which hit a six-year high in March. According to the Fed's Philadelphia chief Charles Plosser the Fed sees its bond purchasing program ending in October or November with rate...

The Fed announced that it will increase its tapering by a further $10 billion in addition to dropping the 6.5 percent unemployment rate threshold which has been the target rate to hike the Fund Funds rate. Thirteen of 16 Fed officials expect the Fed Funds rate to rise by the end of 2015. The...

U.S. stocks finished the day near session lows as investors found little reason to be bullish. Housing data came in poor and failed to rally the bulls. Several Fed members raised the idea of a rate hike but “participants agreed that, with the unemployment rate approaching 6.5 percent, it would...

As detailed in another article on Benzinga, long-term investors should applaud the falling price of oil. The main exchange traded fund for oil, United States Oil (NYSE: USO), is down in recent market action. So are the stock prices for Big Oil Stocks such as Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Royal...

Even though growth is still not robust, the recent Chinese purchase of Novus Energy in Canada will hardly be the last investment in the oil and gas sector of that country. That comes from Zhang Kaiyong, chairman of Yanchang Petroleum International, who stated that, “Overall the Yanchang group is...

The earnings crunch is on this week. Highlights will include reports from Amazon.com, Apple, Boeing, Comcast, Facebook, Google and Yahoo! All of them are expected to report year-over-year growth in per-share earnings. But analysts are looking for declining profits from the likes of Caterpillar,...

This weekend in Barron's online: the best and worst income investments for the year ahead, and the prospects for Cisco Systems, Magna International, Titan International and more. Cover Story "Where to Find Yield" by Andrew Bary. This week's cover story in Barron's takes a look at some of the...

Major indices finished Wednesday's trading session relatively flat as the Fed's minutes released had no impact on the markets. Minutes released from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting re-affirmed that many members on the committee wanted to proceed with caution in trimming the $85 billion...

Brent crude oil was helped by disruptions in Libya and pushed above $110 on Monday morning. The commodity traded at $110.14 at 5:25 GMT. CNBC reported that more than 40 people were killed in southern Libya last week due to an explosion at an army depot. The blast was the latest in an ongoing...

Dow Jones Industrial Average companies Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) are about due to boost their payouts, according to a report on CNBC. These blue chips have significant cash hoards, buy back shares and are doing well now, as...

This weekend in Barron's online: stock picks for 2013, speculation about who will be the next Treasury chief and the prospects for Men's Wearhouse, Crosstex Energy and big pharma. Cover Story "Our 10 Favorite Stocks for 2013" by Andrew Bary. Barron's takes a look at where to invest in 2013. The...

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) announced that it has reached an agreement to sell gas fieilds in the Permian basin and other assets for $6.9 billion. The Oklahoma City company needs to sell some of its oil and gas interests to fill a funding gap that analysts estimate at $4 billion in 2013. The...

This weekend, Barron's online discussed the prospects for the oil and gas sector, the case for Activision, a look at Baltimore, profiles, interviews, book reviews and more. Cover Story "How to Play Energy Now" by Andrew Bary. The oil sector bull case has long been that demand from emerging...