Retirement Trends

A second major rating agency is downgrading Illinois' credit worthiness.

America as a whole has regained all the household wealth it lost to the Great Recession and then some, thanks to higher stock and home prices.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened its annual shareholders' meeting Friday with the typical fanfare, from singers to dancers, as it plans to make the case it is improving the way it does business overseas and outline new growth opportunities at its annual shareholder meeting Friday.

The stock market is rising in early trading after the government reported a pickup in hiring last month, a positive sign for the U.S. economy.

An encouraging drop in claims for unemployment benefits helped the stock market edge higher in late morning trading Thursday.

A debate is raging among investors and analysts: Has the Federal Reserve inflated a stock market bubble by driving interest rates to record lows?