Gold traders are bullish for a fourth consecutive week, betting that the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates low until late 2014 will extend the metal’s best start to a year in more than three decades. Read More

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Stock investors no longer have doubts about dividends, and that’s reason for some doubt.

Shares of high-quality, cash-rich, large-cap companies that yield more than the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index /quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX -1.07% are the new favorites in many portfolios. But many of these success stories have been discovered, boosting share prices and trimming yields. Read More

Investors are turning increasingly bullish on U.S. markets as they declare its economy in better health than major rivals from Europe to Asia, according to the Bloomberg Global Poll. Read More

BOSTON (MarketWatch) — President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union speech, didn’t really touch on the subject near and dear to the hearts of millions of Americans — the State of Retirement in the U.S.

No doubt he had other pressing matters to address. So allow us the pleasure of issuing — thanks in large part to a many experts on the topic — our State of Retirement column. Read More

At a time when investors are clamoring for income, U.S. corporations remain too stingy with dividends.

The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index has a dividend yield of just 2%, one of the lowest of any major global market. European stocks yield an average of nearly 5%, and even the historically low-yielding Japanese stock market pays 2.5%. Read More

Chinese consumers are loading up on gold ahead of the Lunar New Year. The WSJ’s Deborah Kan speaks to Ken Brown in Hong Kong. Read More

Understandably, people are more wary than usual about where to invest this year. As you review your portfolio, think about how 2012 might be different from 2011 and ways it could bring more of the same. Read More

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — It may seem like Monopoly money to outsiders, but a growing number of communities across the U.S. are using homegrown local currencies to stimulate their economies and protect themselves from the nation’s broader economic woes. Read More

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Consumers whacked down credit card debt by 11% last year, and average debt loads dropped in every state.

The average credit card balance for 2011 was $6,576, down from $7,404 the previous year, according to a report from credit tracking and financialeducation website CreditKarma.com, based on data from more than 300,000 of its users.  Read More

WASHINGTON — As the housing bubble entered its waning hours in 2006, top Federal Reserveofficials marveled at the desperate antics of home builders seeking to lure buyers.        Read More