Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | June 25, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET Where have all the companies gone? The number of U.S. firms with publicly traded stock has dropped by half in the past decade. Ten years ago, around 9,100 companies filed annual proxy statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, roughly 6,450...
Read MoreSo That’s Why Investors Can’t Think for Themselves
Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | June 19, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET From February through May, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 1000 points in an almost uninterrupted daily march upward. Then came the “flash crash” of May 6 and day after day of losses through May. Now, in mid-June, the market has been up six of...
Read MoreThe 11-Year Itch: Still Stuck at Dow 10000
Image Credit: Willem van de Velde the Younger, “Ships Near the Coast During a Calm” (ca. 1660), Rijksmuseum By Jason Zweig | June 12, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET Will Dow 10000 turn out to be a long replay of Dow 1000? Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 10000—again. Since March 16, 1999, when it first touched 10000 in intraday...
Read MoreHey, Money Managers, Stop Putting the Squeeze on Investors
Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | June 5, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET With the markets serving up nothing but lemons, it is high time Wall Street started helping investors make lemonade. Stocks have gone nowhere for a decade, bond yields are near record lows and you couldn’t find the return on your money-market fund if you put it under an...
Read MoreBack to the Future: Lessons from the Forgotten ‘Flash Crash’ of 1962
By Jason Zweig | May 29, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET Image credit: Cover of LIFE Magazine (photo by John Dominis), June 8, 1962, collection of Jason Zweig On May 28, there was a “flash crash.” If you didn’t notice it, that is because it occurred not in 2010, but in 1962. Its aftermath offers some clues on what might happen in the wake of...
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