News at a GlanceStutter Step: Major indexes fall flat.Profits Recalculated: Texas Instruments brightens outlook.Payback Time: Ten banks expected to be allowed to repay TARP.Employment Stabilizing: Manpower survey suggests labor steady.The LowdownWall Street picked up where it left off Monday: stuck

For all the recent fretting about rising interest rates, you'd think at least one group would be celebrating: risk-averse investors in short-term bank certificates of deposit and money-market funds. Interest rates are indeed rising, topping 3.7% last week for 10-year

Market Wrap-UpStocks remained range-bound Tuesday, as traders' trepidations exposed further broad uncertainty. Only the Nasdaq showed some improvement, finishing at its highest level since October. The tech sector, buoyed by Texas Instruments' () improved guidance and smartphone launches from Apple

The credit crunch might be easing, but credit card companies are still cutting back—even on those prized rewards. Some cards used to award bonus points after the first purchase but don't anymore. Others are imposing stricter rules and fees upon

Texas Instruments Ups Its GuidanceInvestors rekindled their enthusiasm for Texas Instruments () during early trading Tuesday after the company raised its earnings estimate during a Monday evening conference call. The news pushed the company's shares up over 5% and bolstered

Market Wrap-UpStocks rallied at the end of Monday's trading session to finish flat after sinking as much as 126 points. Tech names weighed on trading, especially Apple () and Palm (). Palm recently unveiled its new Pre smartphone to critical

Pre Launch Can't Help Palm SharesPalm () unveiled its Pre smartphone last week, and while consumers gave the potential iPhone killer a high five, shares fell around 8% during early trading Monday over concerns about supply and a slim selection

A longtime friend of mine spends the majority of the year living in rural Costa Rica, where he raises crops, bathes in a river and exists completely "off the grid" with no electricity. To me, that doesn't sound like paradise.

Affording college these days can seem almost as tough as gaining admission to your dream school. Over the past year, the credit crunch has forced dozens of private student loan lenders to abandon the marketplace and has made it much

DAVID KELLY, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST FOR JPMORGAN FUNDS, is fairly upbeat about the likelihood of an economic recovery. He thinks a bottom has been reached, and a strong rebound will ensue. Yet Kelly, 46 years old, readily admits forecasting can

1. "It's my world; you're just drinking in it."Back in the day, bartending was all about consistency and service. From the humblest watering hole to the fanciest hotel bar, bartenders knew how to mix a repertoire of classic cocktails just

SK&A Information Services has released findings from its Physician Office Credit-Card Acceptance Survey - concluding that "33% of U.S. physician offices do not accept credit cards as a form of payment. This represents a 5% increase since last year's survey,

One of the new TV ads for Apple's iPhone 3GS features the Credit Card Terminal application - available in the iTunes App Store - showing how a card accepting merchant can use the application to process credit card transactions right

Javelin Strategy & Research has released a new report that shows how it believes that financial institutions must create a Customer-Driven Architecture (CDA) that gives customers what research shows they want most: financial control. According to Javelin, "with many consumers'

First Data has announced that Wells Fargo has expanded its agreement for card processing services and will move its newly-acquired Wachovia credit card portfolios to First Data for card processing services. First Data already provides data processing services, statement/letter production

The U. S. government's response to the worst financial crisis since the great depression with a massive, more than $13.5 trillion in pledged or potential outlays is taking a toll on the U. S. dollar. Learn to protect your wealth

At a time when India Inc is tackling the global downturn and the job market is gloomy, experts believe some companies may be squeezing more work out of employees for lesser pay.

The demise of GM had been expected for so long that when it finally died there was barely a whimper. Wall Street was unmoved. Congress did not draw breath. America shrugged. Yet the indifference with which the news was received

President Barack Obama, trying to bolster an economy he says still has a "long way to go," announced 10 projects aimed at creating or saving more than 6,00,000 jobs, according to the administration.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Monday projected further slowing down of the country's economy, even while indicating that China has hit the bottom and is likely to show improvement in the next six months.