Financial Market News

U.S. government bonds held at the Federal Reserve for foreign central banks and other overseas investors plunged by a record $104.5 billion in the latest week, a drop that rattled some investors and sparked speculation about who might be doing the selling or transferring.

After swinging between modest gains and losses Friday, stocks ended the week in negative territory.

Trader Steven Kaplan works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday. The U.S. stock market was down Friday, a day after suffering its biggest decline in six weeks.

The Fed released an annual audit of its financial operations for 2013, conducted by the giant accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.

In this Wednesday, March 12, 2014, photo, traders Jeffrey Vazquez, left, and James Denaro work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

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Russian stock indexes plunged to the lowest levels since 2009 on Friday, two days before a referendum in Crimea that is expected to provoke western sanctions against Russia.

Gold is back on the rise after dropping like lead last year. Although it has recovered just a portion of its steep loss from 2013, the shift in momentum has been enough to halt the stampede of investors from gold-related funds.

Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower Friday on lingering concerns about weakness in the Chinese economy and tensions in Ukraine.

The Securities and Exchange Commission levied a $7.5 million fine against movie studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. for failing to properly disclose its role in a complex debt-equity swap that helped it fend off a hostile takeover bid from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2010.

A slide in the stock market steepened Thursday as rhetoric between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine intensified.

Stocks remained under pressure Thursday as modestly stronger than anticipated U.S. retail sales figures failed to offset concerns over the Chinese economy.

Specialist Donald Civitanova work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, March 12, 2014.

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Specialist Donald Civitanova work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, March 12, 2014.

Stocks are opening higher as traders were encouraged by a pickup in retail sales and more signs of health in the U.S. job market.

Irish government bond yields hit new record lows on Thursday as Dublin's first regular debt auction since its 2010 international bailout found substantial demand and cemented the return of full access to borrowing markets.

The New York City fire department says it has received a report of an explosion and building collapse in East Harlem.

Art auctions sales were up 13% on the year to $12 billion in 2013. But even as investors are turning toward alternative assets, advisors are telling clients to rethink art purchases for their portfolio, reports Murray Coleman at the WSJ.

The 48-year-old owner of a die-casting factory in Mumbai is among a growing number of local investors returning to the $1.2 trillion equity market on speculation national elections in May will deliver a government with the mandate to revive economic growth from a decade low.