You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass. Read more…

Jared Cummans: As we enter the latter half of earnings season, it is time for a number of the world’s biggest and most significant commodity-based firms to report their results from their most recent fiscal quarter. The figures they post as well as the guidance they provide Read more…

Joseph Hogue: Chinese search engine giant Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is scheduled to report earnings on October 29^th, with expectations for a net of $1.29 per share on $1.0 billion in revenue. Read more…

John Rubino: The Eurozone meltdown has sent capital pouring into (temporarily) safe haven currencies like the US dollar (NYSEARCA:UUP), which rose by nearly 12% between October 2011 and August 2012. Read more…

Andy Crowder: If you’re like most investors, you probably missed the recent growth in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Today, a lot of people are buying shares of Apple, hoping that the company will continue to see huge growth. Read more…

Jeff Uscher: When Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) reported earnings Tuesday, it beat estimates for both revenue and earnings per share – but the stock still slumped 12% yesterday.  Read more…

Jim Trippon: Nestled in among the earnings reports, sometimes along with them, are announcements of dividend increases. As we’ve written about consistently, this has been a year where dividend increases have consistently appeared, as many companies continue Read more…

Dan Steinhart: The US has too much debt. This is no longer a controversial statement. Some may believe other problems are more urgent, or that we need to grow our way out rather than slash spending. But even the most spendthrift pundits acknowledge that the debt-to-GDP Read more…

Diane Alter: The snail’s pace recovery from the Great Recession just claimed thousands more victims, with more to come.  Read more…

David Zeiler: Even though Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) earnings for Q4 aren’t yet out – they’ll be announced after Thursday’s market close – the company is much more concerned with beating last year’s spectacular December quarter, the company’s fiscal first quarter.  Read more…

Diane Alter: Facebook Inc. stock (NASDAQ:FB) was up almost 10% in the first 30 minutes of after-hours trading today (Tuesday) after the release of its third-quarter earnings report, its second as a public company.  Read more…

Mac Slavo: When global freight transportation collapsed to record lows in July of this year most analysts wrote it off as an anomaly. In September, when one of the largest retail shipping companies in the world warned of weakening global economic conditions and announced Read more…

Mac Slavo: Following the trend of shipping company Fedex, the largest advertising venue in the world is showing signs of strain in a weakening global economy. Read more…

Mike Burnick: Earnings season always adds an extra dose of volatility to the markets. But as third-quarter profit reports begin coming in fast and furious this week there is a lot more riding on results than usual. Read more…