KBW recommends buying these 11 financial stocks, including First Republic, following federal backstop for banks

On a Monday following high-profile bank failures on Friday and Sunday, it may seem to be a strange time to recommend buying stocks of banks and other financial services companies, but Keefe, Bruyette ...

Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker cashed out $2 million just before the collapse

The chief executive of Silicon Valley Bank SIVB, -60.41% cashed out stock and options for a $2.27 million net gain in the weeks before Friday’s collapse, public filings show. CEO Greg Becker exercised...

Opinion: The only market forecast that should matter to stock investors: When does the Fed decide that higher inflation is OK?

By this time last year, every stock market forecast made for 2022 was wrong. The U.S. stock market peaked on the first trading day of 2022 and went downhill from there. This year, every forecast made ...

Silicon Valley Bank collapse: What should you do if your bank closes down?

Silicon Valley Bank, which helps fund technology startups backed by venture-capital firms, has closed its doors. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation made the decision to c...

20 banks that are sitting on huge potential securities losses—as was SVB

Silicon Valley Bank has failed following a run on deposits, after its parent company’s share price crashed a record 60% on Thursday. Trading of SVB Financial Group’s SIVB, -60.41% stock was halted ear...

Opinion: The stock market is telling you loud and clear: Now is not the time to fight the Fed or stand up to the bears.

The S&P 500 Index SPX, -1.85% hit resistance this week when an oversold rally failed near the 4080 level. This continues to support the idea that the index’s rise above 4100 in early February was ...

10 banks that may face trouble in the wake of the SVB Financial Group debacle

As interest rates have risen, many banks have become more profitable because the spreads between what they earn on loans and investments and what they pay for funding has widened. But there are always...

This stock strategy is attracting lots of money. Here are its top 10 picks.

Following a year in which a rapid rise in interest rates caused stock and bond prices to tumble, investors are focusing on quality. One way to do this is to look at free cash flow — and doing so might...

‘I’m not at rock bottom yet’: I have a serious gambling addiction. I’ve maxed out my credit cards and racked up $100K in debt. Can you help?

I’ve gotten to a point where I need serious help for my gambling addiction, though I’m not at rock bottom yet. I am a journeyman-level employee with about 20 years’ experience at my current job. I am ...

Opinion: At last — somebody is trying to ‘save’ Social Security

Rude Europeans used to tell stories, possibly apocryphal, about American tourists who would ask for directions to a famous landmark while actually standing right in front of it. The Parisian would loo...

Opinion: Powell will have to push rates even higher for the Fed to get inflation to 2%

Inflation is proving tougher to curb than Federal Reserve Chairman Powell anticipated, and despite indicators that a recession could be coming, consumers and businesses apparently haven’t gotten the m...

20 income-building stocks that numbers say may become elite Dividend Aristocrats

Back in January, we took a deep look into three groups of Dividend Aristocrat stocks to show which ones had increased their payouts most significantly over the past five years. Now it is time for a fo...

Opinion: Marc Benioff’s Salesforce fairy tale is crumbling down around him

Salesforce Inc. has been a unique tech company, able to sell itself as a “family” that has higher ideals than just profit to its employees while generating near-universal praise from Wall Street as we...

The 20 worst U.S. stocks in February: the biggest loser dropped 35%

Updated with month-end prices. The euphoria of January reversed in February, with broad declines for stocks across the board as interest rates continued to rise. Bond interest rates are more attractiv...

Opinion: Ford’s pact with Chinese EV battery maker is a sucker punch to American taxpayers

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin made national headlines recently when he rejected a Ford Motor F, +1.30% factory in a struggling part of the state, owning to Ford’s partnership with Contemporary Ampe...

Opinion: Where’s the bull market? Stock-market investors aren’t buying it.

Have Joe and Joanna Q. Public been buying the stock-market rally of the past five months? Not according to our data. Instead, they show that ordinary investors have been bailing out of stock funds for...

Nearing retirement? Here’s how to shift your portfolio from growth to income.

Over the decades, perhaps you’ve been very good at saving your money and investing it for long-term growth. But when the time comes for you to stop working or to step back to a part-time job, you migh...

Opinion: No ‘soft landing’ is in the cards from Fed rate hikes. Look for recession and a buying opportunity once stock prices decline.

Is the bear market of 2022 over? Are we already in the early innings of the next great bull market? The S&P 500 SPX, -0.16% finished 2022 with a 19% decline (its biggest pullback since 2008). Mean...

Intel’s dividend cut shows the need for quality. Here are 20 dividend stocks screened by UBS.

Stocks that pay high dividends can provide comfort during times of market turmoil. It is much easier to be patient if money is rolling in, and a strategy of reinvesting dividends may outperform when t...

‘I don’t use cash’: I’m 70 and my home is paid off. I live off Social Security, and I use a credit card for all my spending. Is that risky?

I am now 70 years old and partially disabled. I am fully retired, living on Social Security and Supplemental Security Income. Obviously, I have limited income. I am financially stable. I have no debts...

Opinion: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren’s bold tax hike to shore up Social Security

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want to shore up Social Security by raising the top rate of income tax by a third, and the top rate of capital-gains tax by more than a half. The Democratic senator...

My fiancé and I are 60. His adult daughter is opposed to our marriage — and insists on inheriting her father’s $3.2 million estate. How should we handle her?

What advice would you give to a widow and widower considering marriage on how to manage finances — and deal with adult children? We are both 60 years old and plan to work a few more years, mostly for ...

These money and investing tips can hold up your portfolio if the market melts down

Don’t miss these top money and investing features: Sign up here to get MarketWatch’s best mutual funds and ETF stories emailed to you weekly! INVESTING NEWS & TRENDS Why the stock market’s pullbac...

14 dividend stocks that rose 100% or more in 5 years as the payouts doubled

In basketball, a double-double is a combination of at least 10 or more of the following in a game: points scored, rebounds, assists, blocked shots or steals. For dividend stocks, you might find a scre...

Here’s where the 60/40 could really fail you. But a better option may be under your nose.

Only once in the past 100 years have America’s long-term savers done worse than they did last year. Only in 1974 — the year of Watergate, OPEC embargoes, gas lines and recession — did the standard, be...

I’ll inherit $40,000 from my grandmother. Should my husband and I boost our kids’ college savings accounts, or pay off credit cards and student loans?

After a terrible battle with dementia, my grandmother died a few weeks ago. She did not leave much, but I will — along with my siblings — receive about $40,000 in life insurance. I am trying to figure...

‘I am trying to feverishly save for retirement’: My fiancé pays $1,700 a month to the IRS and owes student debt. We’re both 57. Should I marry him for his Social Security and pension?

Dear Quentin, My fiancé and I met at age 42 after being recently divorced. We have (now-grown) children from our previous marriages, but none together. We keep our finances separate. Neither one of us...

Here come the 5% CDs

Don’t touch that dial. If you’re looking for certificates of deposit, the interest rates on offer should be—here’s hoping—heading higher following the latest inflation numbers out Tuesday morning. Rea...

Will you regret that Roth conversion when you get a huge tax bill?

If you took advantage of the down market in 2022 to convert some of your IRA to a Roth, you’re about to get a reality check of how much that will cost you when you file your tax return. Tax-saving str...

The hunt for stocks with rising dividends: These fund managers have a strategy to keep your payouts growing

The broad stock-market rally so far in 2023 might make it easy to forget what a rough ride investors faced last year. It was a time when some active strategies focused on dividends, good cash-flow tre...

These money and investing tips can build your portfolio’s offense and defense

Don’t miss these top money and investing features: Sign up here to get MarketWatch’s best mutual funds and ETF stories emailed to you weekly! INVESTING NEWS & TRENDS 10 value stocks for today’s ma...

AI is dominating the action in the stock market right now

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is receiving billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.20%. The rollout of this new technology has been followed by similar efforts by Alphabet Inc...