Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Roundup of Interesting Articles

Here are some articles I read from the past week that I thought were worth sharing:

Stock Market/Investing

From CNBC.com Market Cap Leaders: GE at Risk of Falling Out of Top 20. I found the chart (shown below) of the top 25 S&P 500 stocks by market capitalization very interesting. Only 8 companies are worth more than $100 billion. For reference, GE was worth over $400 billion in 2007.


From The Wall Street Journal print edition - A Week in the Life of the DJIA. As of the close on March 6, 2009, a $1000 investment is each of the 30 Dow components on December 31, 2008 would be down 30.83%. Specifically, the $30,000 investment would be worth $20,750, included reinvested dividends. Worst performer, Citigroup down 84.6%. Best performer and the only gainer, IBM up 2.5%. For reference, a $1 change in any component results in a 7.69 point change in the DJIA.

Buying Foreclosed Homes

From CNN.com, a foreclosure auction allows couple to buy their dream home.

From Associated Press, Outside buyers drawn to Detroit's foreclosed homes. Investors from the UK are buying homes in Detroit and then renting them.

From The Wall Street Journal Real Estate Archives, in 2007 this investor was making a million dollars a year buying and selling foreclosed homes. I wonder if he is still active in real estate.

Higher Interest Rates on Savings

Banks Offering Big Perks to Lure New Savers shares introductory rates and online bank rates that beat the 0.1 to 1.50% rates at banks in my area.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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