Bullish Blog

Since 1999, Time magazine has ignorantly lauded the blunders of Fed chiefs and their clueless cohorts. No wonder it named Ben Bernanke its Person of the Year.

Reuters - Santa came early for Wall Street this year by delivering a 22 percent return for 2009, and with just a handful of trading days to go, stock investors aren’t expecting to find much more under the tree.

AP - The stock market broke a three-day slide Friday as stronger results at two big technology companies bolstered confidence about a comeback in the economy. Tech stocks pulled the market higher in choppy trading that brought record volume to the New York Stock Exchange. Software company Oracle Corp. and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. each posted earnings that topped expectations.

The discount-store chain is leveraging its brick-and-mortar operations as it takes aim at Amazon in the battle for online shoppers — and says the strategy is working.

AP - ICAP Securities USA, the U.S. division of a big British brokerage, agreed Friday to pay $25 million to settle federal regulators’ charges that it deceived customers by displaying thousands of phony trades in U.S. Treasury securities on its screens.

AP - A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Friday:

AFP - The London stock market ended the week down and is expected to experience muted trade next week as investors wind down ahead of the Christmas and New Year festivities.

AP - Pilots say a good landing is one you can walk away from. Airline shareholders who hung on while their shares scraped along this summer probably feel the same way.

U.S. News & World Report - As the decade draws to a close, it seems as if everyone wants to take a trip down memory lane. After all, at least for investors, healthy doses of nostalgia are the perfect sedative when thoughts of 2007 and 2008 intrude. With that in mind, U.S. News has organized a class reunion of sorts. It will be exactly like the high school and college reunions you’ve come to know and love–but without the cheap food, awkward conversation, and lingering feelings of inadequacy.

AP - First State Bancorporation of Albuquerque has been warned that it no longer meets the minimum $1 per share requirement to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.