Markets

New York, November 20 -- According to a recent report by the Mortgage Bankers Association Thursday, delinquencies and home repossessions are rising like never before, the chief reasons being job losses and easy money lending.

Washington -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Grand World infant pacifiers due to a choking hazard.

Seattle -- Amazon.com says Scottish singer Susan Boyle's upcoming album, "I Dreamed a Dream," is the largest global CD pre-order in the Web site's history.

New York -- U.S. markets were down at midday Thursday, despite leading indicators rising slightly in October.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims were unchanged in the week ending Nov. 14. After three consecutive weeks of declines, the department said 505,000 initial unemployment claims were filed, equal to the revised figure for the previous week.

As an investor, there are two parts to the returns you'll
see: changes in price, and dividends received. Of the two,
price changes get the most attention, blaring away in real
time on TV, radio, and financial web sites, whenever the
market is open.

The recent bear market has left many casualties, including
just about every individual investor with money in the stock
market. But the average Jane and Joe aren't the only ones who
have been beaten down -- the big fund shops are also
suffering from a lack of investor confidence.

I’ve been startled recently by many
news stories about the massive declines in endowments at
elite universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and
Princeton. Sure, many investors lost money over the past
year, but the performance at Harvard and Yale "badly trailed"
the results at the average college, as
The
Wall Street Journalso delicately put it. I'm
shocked, but not because of these endowments' lackluster
performance.

Actions speak louder than words, as the old saying goes.
So why does the media focus so much attention on what Wall
Street says about companies, instead of what it
doeswith them?

After seeing shares of its spinoff
Mead Johnson Nutrition (NYSE: MJN) nearly
double since its

IPO in February,
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) has decided
now's the time to sell the 83% of the baby formula producer
that it still owns.

Full disclosure, fellow investors: I'm as perplexed by the
health insurance reform "conversation" as the next sentient
citizen. Year in and year out, the cost of health care
out-inflates all comers, and yet the beat goes on. And on and
on and on ...