As some of the uncertainties surrounding the economy lift over the course of the year, attention is bound to turn back to the fundamentals of the private sector, says Katherine Nixon, chief investment officer for the Northeast region at Northern Trust.
For years Northern Trust watched other banks load up on risk. Lending standards disappeared, conservative balance sheets became a liability, and exotic investments were in vogue. Northern's approach was old school.
Ten leading banks won approval to repay money from the government's controversial TARP program, regulators said Tuesday, which could represent approximately $68 billion in bailout funds returned to taxpayers.
CNNMoney: TARP: End of an errorupdated: Tue Jun 09 2009 15:25:00
Good riddance, TARP. It was nice knowing you.
I've made my career whacking big business. Magazine covers with titles like "Corporate Killers" and "How Wall Street Sold Out America" hang in my office, and my files are filled with pieces I've written about corporate tax dodging, questionable accounting and toxic waste being peddled as spring water to unsuspecting investors. Since joining FORTUNE in mid-2007, I've been complaining about the price we prudent people are paying to bail out the imprudent.
Iberiabank Corp. became the first bank to pull out of the government's bailout program Friday, saying it would be returning the $90 million it received from the government in early December under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Northern Trust has quickly learned that you can't conduct business as usual when you're on the government dole.
A bank that received $1.6 billion dollars of the government's bailout money sponsored what reports are calling a lavish series of events in Los Angeles, California, last weekend.
CNN's Ted Rowlands looks at parties thrown by Northern Trust, which has received bailout money.
Investors have stopped fleeing money-market funds, a week after the federal government said it would insure fund shares don't lose their value.
Following Citigroup's takeover of Wachovia, the collapse of Washington Mutual and the House's rejection of the bank bailout bill, Wall Street is wondering who's next.
The percentage of vacant homes available for sale remained relatively flat in the second quarter, but still hovered in record territory.
New filings for unemployment claims surged in the latest week to the highest level since September 2005, according to a government report released Thursday.
A record plunge in prices of existing homes produced only a modest increase in sales in February, according to the latest reading on the battered housing market by an industry trade group released Monday.
The new year picked up where 2007 left off, as sales of existing homes fell in January to the lowest level in nearly a decade, according to a reading by an industry trade group released Monday.
The sputtering U.S. economy has gotten everyone from the financial markets to the Federal Reserve to Congress in a panic.
As recessions go, the most recent downturns have been relatively short and painless. But the recovery was what hurt.
It's undeniable: Bank stocks are cheap.
Sales of existing homes fell to a record low in October, as even the largest drop in home prices ever wasn't enough to revive moribund sales, according to the latest reading on the battered housing market by an industry trade group released Wednesday.
Could the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut on Wednesday be the trick that treats tapped-out consumers to more spending money during the critical holiday shopping season?
Housing price declines. Slowing job creation. Profit warnings from the country's biggest retailers. To an Econ 101 student, those are telltale signs of an imminent recession. Not surprisingly, the R-word has dominated talk among bankers for weeks.
Long-term Treasury prices turned lower at midday Friday, undermined by rebounding stocks, as the latest retail sales report reinforced the view that the Federal Reserve will need to cut rates to stimulate the economy.
The Dollar falls to new lows against the Euro
The slump in home sales and prices will be deeper and last longer than previously expected, according to the latest forecast Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors.
A big drop in the price of the typical new home sold in April spurred much better-than-expected sales, according to the latest government reading on the battered real estate and home building market released Thursday.
Sales of new homes sank to the slowest pace in more than six years in February, with the government's latest reading on the battered real estate market showing the glut of homes on the market reached a 16-year high.
Is the housing slump really that bad? After all, the S&P 500 last week fell more in a single day (3.5 percent) than home prices have fallen in the past year nationally (3.1 percent).
Lending to homeowners and buyers without good credit has suddenly become a very bad business - and possibly a very big problem for the U.S. economy as a whole.
Some CNNMoney readers were surprised by a Northern Trust survey that said the richest Americans do not heavily rely on high-risk investment vehicles like hedge funds to make money, but are moderate risk takers who put more than half of their asset allocation into U.S. stocks and cash.
There's no question that hedge funds and private equity investments have dominated the business headlines for the last year. But does that mean that individuals are actually flocking to these high-risk, high-return funds?
The economy is stumbling at the end of 2006, setting off alarm bells that growth might not just slow next year but that the nation could tumble into a recession.
Homebuilding activity rebounded from a six-year low in November, but builders' applications for future projects fell to the lowest level in nine years, the government said Tuesday in a report suggesting the worst is not over for the housing market.
More alarm bells for the stumbling housing market rang Thursday, as a government report on new home sales showed a bigger-than-expected drop in sales, along with a continued rise in unsold homes and a further weakening of prices in the closely watched sector.
Feeling sluggish lately? Don't just blame the heat wave.
No matter when you were born, you march to the beat of the baby boom. The high birth rate after World War II created a generation of 76 million whose sheer size has shaped U.S. consumption and inve...
CNNMoney: Follow the wealthupdated: Fri Mar 25 2005 15:26:00
When Jimi Hendrix sang, "You better save it, babe. Save it for your rainy day," from his hit "Fire," he probably wasn't trying to dispense lasting financial advice to the throngs at Woodstock.
Forget book clubs and poker nights. America's property craze has spawned a new social network: the real estate investment club. Across the country, dentists, retirees, janitors and even teenagers g...
CNNMoney: Bubble troubleupdated: Thu Sep 23 2004 14:34:00
Forget book clubs and poker nights. America's property craze has spawned a new social network: the real estate investment club.
If you believe Alan Greenspan when he tells you the economy's recent "soft patch" is over, then you might think the bond market has lost its mind.
CNNMoney: Pop goes the bubble?updated: Thu Aug 26 2004 09:30:00
The nation's housing boom has experienced more deaths and shocking resurrections than Friday the 13th monster Jason Voorhees.
CNNMoney: Fed gone wild?updated: Wed Jun 30 2004 09:37:00
Almost nobody was shocked by the Fed's modest quarter-percentage-point interest-rate hike Wednesday afternoon, and most observers believe the Fed will be just as timid with policy the rest of the year.
Fed officials have put on their inflation-hawk suits, consumers are digging out their 'Whip Inflation Now' buttons from the '70s and U.S. markets are shuddering at the prospect of higher interest rates.
CNNMoney: Fed loses 'patience'updated: Tue May 04 2004 13:20:00
Federal Reserve policy-makers held a key interest rate at the lowest level in more than 40 years Tuesday, but dropped a long-held pledge to be "patient" before raising rates, setting the stage for future increases.
CNNMoney: All eyes on Japanupdated: Wed Mar 31 2004 10:34:00
A Herculean effort by Japan to support the U.S. dollar is apparently over, at least for now, but there seems to be little risk of a sudden plunge in the greenback or a jump in U.S. interest rates, analysts said Wednesday.
Strong automobile sales pushed total retail sales higher in February, the government said Thursday, but sales aside from autos came in much weaker than Wall Street forecasts.
CNNMoney: Player pianoupdated: Thu Jan 22 2004 08:38:00
Companies keep playing safe when it comes to hiring new workers. But when it comes to shelling out cash on new equipment? That is a different story.
CNNMoney: Buying the stairwayupdated: Tue Jan 06 2004 14:29:00
Gold's recent rise to $420 an ounce can only mean one thing: Investors are very, very afraid right now.
The performance of our 2003 selections in many ways mirrored the roller-coaster ride investors took this year. They fell when the stock market plummeted in the spring and took off when the market s...
First the bad news: The portfolio of seven stocks we chose as best investments for 2003 are down 5% from Dec. 2 (when we wrote about them) through April 22. Now the really bad news: The S&P 500 is ...
[For the complete FORTUNE 500 list please visit www.fortune500.com]
Money Magazine: Best Stocks 2003updated: Thu Mar 13 2003 11:31:00
As we close out the third consecutive down year for the stock market, conventional wisdom has never been more worthless -- which is why a conventional recovery seems so unlikely.
As bear markets go, this one is rewriting the rule book. Large-cap stocks have been mauled worse than small-caps, and corporations are running scared while consumers keep the economy afloat--both t...
NEWCOMERS TO LIST 500 1,000 2000 RANK RANK REVENUES 2000 1999 $millions
George W. Bush, one of the richest presidential candidates in history, is described by his closest friends as a cheapskate. Albert Gore, who's cultivated a reputation as someone uninterested in the...
With the euro sliding to a near all-time low against the greenback, you might think that all the bargain hunting these days is being done by Visa-toting tourists on the Ponte Vecchio. But in fact s...
Ever since Goldman Sachs offered its shares to the public, Wall Street has wondered what the bank would gobble up with its new currency. So far it has only nibbled. But Charles Schwab's recent deal...
Are banks back? After a dismal second half of 1998, the industry posted impressive first-quarter results as the global economy appeared to be on the mend: BankAmerica, for example, reported a 44% i...
STOCKS More than 25 stocks, almost all large-caps. Favorites include Abbott Laboratories, American International Group, Coca-Cola, General Electric, IBM, Intel, Medtronic, Microsoft, Northern Trust...
Howard Ward was raised to believe that a businessman's life was an easy one. That view was drilled into him by his father, who had grown up on a farm in Champaign, Ill. "The way he described it, wo...
It was a great beginning. After nearly eight years as market wallflowers, small stocks went on a tear in 1991, returning 44% to investors. But the rally soon stalled: The Russell 2000 index, a good...
Stock picker Harvey Bundy continues to favor three of the five issues that increased 116% since he recommended them to MONEY readers in our November 1990 issue. The three are led by Concord EFS (up...
If you could have one wish, what would it be? To attain fabulous wealth? If you can't have that -- sorry, we've got to be real -- would you accept working for the rich? Would you be willing to watc...
Like a drill sergeant at boot camp, investment director Larry Keblusek of Northern Investment Counselors, a unit of Northern Trust Co. in Chicago, subjects stocks to rigorous tests before they qual...
If you believe the rich are indeed different, you'll love this novel strategy for trouncing the market: bet on the publicly traded companies the rich still control. That's the winning approach of t...
Nobody has a stronger commitment to growth stocks than William Blair & Co., a small but tony brokerage house that has operated from Chicago's LaSalle Street financial district since 1934. ''We've a...
Several commercial banks have recently introduced CDs that promise the thrill of speculation but without the chill. Northern Trust Co. in Chicago (800-562-5200) and Chase Manhattan Bank in New York...
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