SAN FRANCISCO - Sports fans already invest considerable emotion and angst in professional athletes. Now they can take that obsession a step further, trading on the pros' performance in an online electronic market.

SAN FRANCISCO - Sports fans already invest considerable emotion and angst in professional athletes. Now they can take that obsession a step further, trading on the pros' performance in an online electronic market.

NEW YORK - A burst of optimism about second-quarter earnings propelled stocks sharply higher Monday, lifting the Dow Jones industrials more than 140 points. The Nasdaq composite index shot above 1,700 for the first time in 14 months.

NEW YORK - Wall Street got the economic and earnings news it's been so desperate to hear Monday, and stocks responded by barreling higher, lifting the Dow Jones industrials more than 160 points.

More than 400 high school students from nearly 20 Arizona schools, including several from the East Valley, will take part Thursday in the sixth annual Junior Achievement of Arizona’s Student Stock Market Challenge. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton will ring the closing bell.

News that more Americans are poised to buy homes and hopes that the job market is primed for growth sent stocks higher Thursday.

Wall Street has turned the clock back to 1997.

NEW YORK - Wall Street resumed its sell-off Wednesday after oil hit a record high and a bearish analyst report renewed concerns that General Motors Corp. could run out of cash.

SAN FRANCISCO - Catapulted by the biggest IPO in U.S. history, Visa shares soared 28 percent in their stock market debut Wednesday as investors bet an accelerating shift to electronic payments will enrich the world’s largest processor of credit and debit cards.

NEW YORK - Stocks are seen opening lower Monday after the Dow Jones industrial average eased last week, including a slight gain Friday, as oil prices rose on supply concerns in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 416-point tumble pushed nearly all Arizona stocks down during Tuesday trading.

The top two prizes in this year's Junior Achievement of Arizona's Student Stock Market Challenge went to team Thunder from Desert Vista High School in Ahwatukee Foothills. Nearly 400 high school students from the Valley challenged each other this month in the fifth annual competition, where teams competed to see who could grow their $500,000 mock-stock portfolio and create the highest net worth.

On the day the stock market tumbled nearly 1,000 points in a matter of minutes, Doug Lennick sent the following e-mail to the financial advisers he teaches about behavioral finance:

HONG KONG - Asian stock markets recovered modestly Wednesday as hopes China would expand measures to revive its economy countered growing signs of economic decay in the U.S. and other major countries.

 NEW YORK - The financial markets saw some relative calm Wednesday as investors uneasily awaited a Senate vote on the banking bailout plan, with Wall Street falling only moderately and the credit markets still showing signs of strain.

NEW YORK - The upheaval in the American financial system sent shock waves through the stock market Monday, producing the worst day on Wall Street in seven years as investors digested the failure of one of its most venerable banks and wondered which domino would be next to fall.

NEW YORK - Amid the turbulence of the plunging stock market, there is a great opportunity for small-business owners - if they set up retirement plans now, they will position themselves and their employees for big gains when Wall Street finally recovers.

Investing in a college degree has a better return than playing the stock market and it results in higher wages for everyone in a community, an Arizona State University study found.

If we're to believe the AARP's advertising blitz against partial privatization of Social Security, the U.S. economy is just one big casino. “If we feel like gambling,” declares one full-page newspaper ad, “we'll play the slots.”

December 16, 2004