Buyback

Don’t count on corporate stock buybacks to propel the equity market higher. Buyback activity among companies in the S&P 500 increased in the first three months of the year, the seventh straight quarterly rise, according to Standard & Poor’s....

With its stock price being hammered by investors in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closing of its News of the World tabloid, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. approved a stock repurchase program totaling $5 billion. The......

After the coffee. Before wondering if I'll remember who won the All-Star game two days from now. The Skinny: I always preferred Mary Ann to Ginger, but not Jan to Marsha. R.I.P. Sherwood Schwartz, who created two of the most......

The legal fallout from high-risk, boom-era mortgage lending never stops, it seems -- the latest example being Wells Fargo & Co.'s $590-million proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit centering on controversial "Pick-a-Pay" loans issued by Oakland'...

BofA shares drop again, while other banking stocks rise...

Knee-jerk sellers of Apple Inc. shares late Wednesday probably are wishing they hadn’t. The stock, which fell to about $356 in after-hours trading Wednesday on news that founder Steve Jobs was stepping down as chief executive, never got that low.......

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. announced that it will buy back stock simply because Buffett thinks it’s cheap....

NEW YORK — Corporate deals and strong earnings have propelled stocks higher in recent months, and more of each came on Tuesday. Microsoft Inc. said it would buy Internet telephone service Skype for $8.5 billion in cash. Companies have built up a...

Microsoft Corp. shares on Monday showed just how hungry equity investors are for good news -- and how willing they are to pounce on it as economic fears recede again. The software giant’s stock soared $1.26, or 5.3%, to close......

U.S. technology giants seem to be heeding Wall Street pressure to funnel some of their cash hoards to shareholders. Computer networking titan Cisco Systems said Tuesday it expects to start paying a dividend for the first time. Investors liked the......

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday boosted the dividend payment on its stock 23%, the first increase in two years, hoping to show its “commitment” to sharing its huge cash flow with stockholders. The software giant said its board raised the quarterly......

Waiting for jobs. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits went down more than expected last week, but many analysts are waiting for the big monthly payroll numbers that will arrive Friday. Stocks instead of jobs. What are companies......