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M&T, based in Buffalo, has always been more conservative than its national rivals. They went down in price during the financial crisis, but not so much as Citi or B of A, and unlike those two behemoths, M&T never reduced its cash dividend to shareholders. You'll see the stock up sharply today. Rumor...

In the 1920's the Hassenfeld brothers, Henry and Helal, started a textile remnant business in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. By 1952 they were making toys and brought out their first hit: Mr. Potato Head. Last year, Hasbro Inc produced $4 billion of toys and games (many of which have been optioned by Univ...

High yields are great - don't get me wrong - but when it comes to picking a high yielding stock, the most important thing to consider is the company's basic financial standing. When a company pays out more than it is taking in, there is obviously a problem - and the problem is usually reflected in...

Last night Alcoa topped expectations and sent the market higher to start today's trading. This earnings season, maybe more than others could have a big impact on how the market performs the second half of this year. Here is when the DOW 30 will tell us how the second quarter treated them: 3M July...

Good news today from JP Morgan, which reported a second-quarter profit of $4.8 billion. Morgan has been among the best-managed banks, keeping a cautious conservatism throughout the financial crisis. The giant bank sailed through it all a bit bruised but better positioned for having held to the kind...

This week kicked off with a better-than-expected earnings report from Alcoa, and yesterday saw the same thing from giant chip-maker Intel. There is of course feverish chatter within Wall Street's analyst community about what else to expect from 2nd quarter corporate earnings to be reported over the...

Last week US stocks had their best week in nearly a year, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 511 points (5.3%). Economic news has been generally positive, the US Congress has managed to go another week without wrecking the economy, and investors were upbeat about the coming spate of corpor...

BP announced that it may be able to contain the flow of oil from the Gulf of Mexico within the next four days. Thad Allen, the government's national incident coordinator, announced today that this will be accomplished by accelerating installation of a tight seal between a damaged wellhead and a surf...

I have blogged several times in the past few months about the importance of saving for retirement while in your 20's and 30's. In a perfect world everyone would save more than enough to live the lifestyle they have always dreamed of and more importantly, make it to that point. Unfortunately we know...

As we navigate our current economic malaise it is important to recognize the state of the labor market in the United States. According to the newest data out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) we lost 125,000 jobs in June, though some losses were expected due to Census worker layoffs. According...