This week, the world's most powerful leaders — the Group of Eight — met in Italy to discuss how to handle the global recession. Meanwhile, oil prices plunged, ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya tried to regain power of his country and violent protests broke out in China. Those events aren't the only reasons why the international scene is getting its fair share of the spotlight. Indeed, just as attention-grabbing: fund performance. According to Lipper, the average domestic equity...

Ten days from now, Sioux City, Iowa, will reach a high of 83 degrees Fahrenheit. At least, that's what I'm estimating. I’m not a trained meteorologist. But then, according to accuracy-tracker ForecastWatch, predictions for more than nine days out tend to be less reliable than simply assuming that date’s weather will match its 30-year average, as I’ve done for Sioux City. Still, weather forecasters are vastly more reliable than Wall Street analysts when the latter are announcing...

Investors have returned to stocks in brave fashion. But while they're placing pricey bets on struggling sectors, they may be ignoring some prosperous and cheap companies whose products fill their kitchen pantry. Since the S&P 500 index closed at a humble 676 on March 9 it has rebounded 30%. Within the index, financials and “consumer discretionary” companies — the latter sell things we want but don’t need, like toys and restaurant meals — have soared 83% and 37%,...

Growth is scarce at the moment. The average of America’s 500 largest companies saw its sales shrink 8% in its last reported quarter. Yet investors seem willing to pay high prices for shares. The S&P 500 trades at 16 times forecast 2009 earnings (a projection which assumes earnings will rise 12% this year). How that compares with the long history of stocks, we can’t say, since consensus estimates and forward price/earnings ratios weren’t always available, but the index has...

Companies don't seem interested in buying rivals at the moment, despite the comparatively low prices they could pay for them. That bodes poorly for stocks in general, but investors can still use the math of takeover pros to find bargains. U.S. shares are 27% cheaper than a year ago, even after climbing 15% in the second quarter. During the first half, though, the value of announced acquisitions in the U.S. fell 45% from a year earlier, according to data provider Dealogic. TrimTabs, an investment...