The cost of doing business increased to a 26-year high while housing starts crumbled to a 17-year low.
Confidence among global institutional investors declined this month, led by a steep drop among North American investors.
Many of the country's largest companies expect corporate charitable giving to remain flat or decrease this year.
The repurchase of some $35 billion in ARS is not expected to have a material financial impact, banks say.
Fifty-eight percent of RIAs expected the S&P 500 to gain ground, compared with 46% who felt that way in January.
Although brokers have welcomed the billions in auction rate securities buybacks announced by the big Wall Street firms in the past two weeks, they are still angry that it took six months for their companies to begin dealing with the fiasco.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s probe into the industry's selling of auction rate securities has widened.
Products that combine equity exposure, income generation and volatility protection may grow more popular among advisers, according to a retirement product executive.
Younger workers are saving for retirement but fear that they aren't saving enough and that benefits such as Social Security will be cut before they are ready to retire, according to a new study.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will investigate Merrill's connection with the freezing of the ARS market.
The Reuters/University of Michigan survey fell to a reading of 61.7 in August, compared with 61.2 in June.
Missouri securities regulators spearheaded the investigation into the firm's role in the market's February collapse.
U.S. industrial production increased 0.2% in July following a 0.4% jump in June, according to the Fed.
The dollar continued its rise, gaining ground against the euro and rising to a nearly two-year high against the British pound.
The firm is accused of misleading an issuer of student loans in that state by urging it to buy auction rate securities.
Over the past 12 months, the annual inflation rate has risen 5.6%, marking the largest increase since January 1991.
The firms will buy back a total of about $7 billion of auction rate securities from retail investors.
H&R Block's more than 900 brokers and advisers will be added to Ameriprise's employee platform.
In an unexpected move, the nation's trade imbalance in June fell to $56.8 billion, a 4.1% decline.
ING Groep recorded a 25% decline in profits as it dealt with weak financial markets and write-downs from subprime mortgages.
