WSJ.com: Heard on the Street

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Latest Articles in this Channel:

01/19/12--15:57: Sugar Rush for Euro-Zone Markets (chan 2205423)

Investors are increasingly putting idle cash to work. Risks abound but the growing optimism reflects justified hopes that the can has been firmly kicked down the road.


01/19/12--16:03: BofA Takes Capital Lessons to Heart (chan 2205423)

Brian Moynihan started 2011 thinking Bank of America was strong enough to return capital to shareholders. Nowadays, the chief executive is singing a cautious tune.


01/19/12--16:11: Apple Kindles Textbook War (chan 2205423)

Electronic textbooks may look cool on Apple's iPad, but they are likely to end up selling a lot more Amazon.com Kindles.


01/20/12--09:48: Europe Has Silver Lining for Morgan (chan 2205423)

European exposure recently seemed Morgan Stanley's Achilles' heel. But could Europe's pain also be an opportunity?


01/20/12--19:28: A Standard, and Poor, Way of Investing (chan 2205423)

The stock market has treated investors well recently. But taking a longer view, it has been downright abusive.


01/20/12--19:42: Euro Zone's Three-Year Bond Itch (chan 2205423)

The European Central Bank has dished out three years' worth of painkillers, but the euro zone still has a longer-term headache.


01/20/12--20:18: Google to Dial Up Slower Growth (chan 2205423)

If Google's investors can't stomach a strong dollar, will it be tougher to digest Motorola Mobility?


01/20/12--21:54: Vodafone's Foreign Cheer (chan 2205423)

Vodafone has dodged a bullet with the Indian Supreme Court's decision in its favor over a disputed tax bill of more than $2 billion.


01/23/12--01:17: Can Big Oil Repeat Its Big Year? (chan 2205423)

Some $1.67 trillion was wiped off the combined market capitalization of the top 50 energy companies between the end of 2007 and the end of 2011. Breaking it down offers big clues on Big Oil's prospects for 2012.


01/23/12--07:53: Japan TV Makers Aren't Such a Smart Bet (chan 2205423)

For Japan's electronics makers, the only "smart" television is one sold by a rival.


01/23/12--10:01: Monti Leaves Room for More on Eni (chan 2205423)

The Italian prime minister's plan to loosen oil major Eni's grip on gas distributor Snam, if implemented, might help spur competition and help raise Eni's value. But he left a thornier question—what to do with the government's 30% stake in Eni itself—for another day.


01/23/12--12:05: UniCredit Starts to Right the Ship (chan 2205423)

UniCredit should raise $9.7 billion of new capital. But don't expect its success to spark a wave of deals.


01/23/12--13:05: Wall Street Pay Even Trickier to Figure (chan 2205423)

The changing nature of compensation means today's payouts could yet haunt big firms if financial markets don't snap out of their funk.


01/23/12--14:00: Cushioning Blow From Hormuz Blockade (chan 2205423)

Alan Greenspan and the Strait of Hormuz: One is an ancient feature of the global landscape and the other is a bottleneck in the Persian Gulf. But there is a deeper link.


01/23/12--17:07: BlackBerry Revival Requires Sure Touch (chan 2205423)

Unfortunately for investors, the departure of Research In Motion's co-chief executives came with no obvious shift in the BlackBerry maker's strategy. Ultimately, to save the company, the new CEO may have to get more radical and exit from handsets completely.


01/23/12--19:20: Speeding Dragon, Hidden Debt Pile (chan 2205423)

China's nominal growth was 17.5% last year, a blistering pace which makes many of the problems of debt and credit that trouble investors and hang over valuations for Chinese stocks appear a little more manageable.


01/23/12--19:26: ECB May Hold Key to Greek Debt Labyrinth (chan 2205423)

The European Central Bank could help solve Greece's debt puzzle. A move to restructure the ECB's estimated €45 billion-€50 billion holding of Greek bonds could unlock the process.


01/24/12--00:12: A Long Inflation Battle in India (chan 2205423)

It's tough to envy India's central bank right now, but it's making the right calls in a very tough situation.


01/24/12--08:51: Cairn Pay Retreat a Sign of Things to Come (chan 2205423)

The timing of Cairn Energy's move to withdraw a big share award to its outgoing CEO suggests the U.K. government's pay proposals are in tune with investor sentiment.


01/24/12--15:15: Europe's Pain is America's Gain (chan 2205423)

Europe's crisis, as long as it does not tip into chaos, provides a silver lining across the Atlantic.


01/24/12--18:08: Credit Suisse's Elaborate Bonus Ritual (chan 2205423)

The announcement of the new Credit Suisse compensation plan has become an annual ritual. This year's effort contains all the traditional hallmarks.


01/24/12--19:36: Euro-Zone Growth Strikes Back (chan 2205423)

The IMF joined the chorus of gloom on the euro zone, slashing its 2012 economic forecast. But the latest survey data suggest the euro area is proving remarkably resilient.


01/24/12--20:28: Apple Message to Wall Street: iWin (chan 2205423)

With revenue up 73% in the quarter through December to $46 billion, the tech giant eclipsed analysts' expectations by an extraordinary $7 billion.


01/25/12--00:06: Small Miners Must Dig Deep in Australia (chan 2205423)

For Australia's smaller miners, how much they extract from the earth this year depends on how much they can extract from their banks. Unfortunately, sources of funding are getting tighter.


01/25/12--04:49: Japan's Robots Defy Trade Trend (chan 2205423)

Japan's grim trade data make it easy to miss the success stories—like export-dependent industrial-robot maker Fanuc, which does all its manufacturing at home and reported a 22% jump in profit and a 23% jump in sales.


01/25/12--11:57: Looking Past U.K.'s Gloomy Figures (chan 2205423)

The U.K. economy shrank 0.2% in the fourth quarter. But recent U.K. and European data have been more promising, meaning any downturn should be short and shallow.


01/25/12--12:00: Dublin's Successful Bond Swap (chan 2205423)

Now that's a bond swap. While investors watch Greece's debt woes, Ireland has taken another step that marks it as a success story among the euro-zone's troubled economies.


01/25/12--13:39: Obama Offers Damp Housing Squib (chan 2205423)

So much for a grand housing plan. Obama's vague promise of legislation to enable "every responsible homeowner" the chance to refinance at today's low mortgage rates isn't likely to amount to much.


01/25/12--15:57: Ericsson's Margin Call (chan 2205423)

Don't panic. That's the message from Ericsson, after a steep fall in its margins sent fourth-quarter earnings down 66% and shares in the telecommunications infrastructure giant down 14%.


01/25/12--16:10: Bernanke's Future-Proof Forecast (chan 2205423)

If forecasting what will happen in three months' time is challenging, forecasting what will happen three years from now seems foolhardy. And yet the Federal Reserve's rate-setting committee has done just that.


01/25/12--16:35: Roche Gets Personal With Illumina (chan 2205423)

Roche thinks the future lies in personalized medicine, and that is the logic behind its hostile bid to fully acquire Illumina. But that price looks high.


01/26/12--02:56: Too Early for Panic in Seoul (chan 2205423)

South Korea faces a triple whammy of slowing economic growth, falling exports and weakening consumer demand. But it's still too early for Seoul to hit the panic button.


01/26/12--05:47: The State of the Union's Gas Market (chan 2205423)

If his latest State of the Union address is anything to go by, President Obama has found religion on natural gas. Don't expect the gas industry or its investors to rejoice.


01/26/12--09:47: Old iPhones Ring Carriers' Bells (chan 2205423)

Used iPhones may be telecom carriers' new best friends. As the market for new Apple iPhones exploded last quarter, so too did the market for used iPhones.


01/26/12--09:51: One More Discount Needed at J.C. Penney (chan 2205423)

Ron Johnson traded Apple for a lemon. In his new role as chief executive of J.C. Penney, he wants to break one of the department store's worst habits: deep discounting.


01/26/12--12:14: Lumia Highlights Nokia's Old Scars (chan 2205423)

Nokia's launch of new "Lumia" Windows Phones is on track but taking on the behemoths will be tough.


01/26/12--12:23: Reality Could Bite Private-Equity Investors (chan 2205423)

Europe's private-equity investors may have their heads in the sand. Most expect net annual returns of 11%-15% from their portfolio in coming years. A wake-up call may be ahead.


01/26/12--15:45: Building a Case for Home Improvement (chan 2205423)

The only thing not to like about Home Depot and Lowe's may be the high price of their shares. And even that may not be a good reason for investors to avoid them.


01/26/12--16:55: Banks' Zero-Tolerance Tested by Fed (chan 2205423)

"Just wait until rates rise" has been the refrain from a host of financial firms. There is a cost to this so-far-fruitless vigil.


01/27/12--01:41: Dragon Breathes Life Into Li & Fung (chan 2205423)

According to Chinese tradition, the Year of the Dragon starts strong before tailing off into something more mediocre. Shares listed in Hong Kong are fulfilling the first part.


01/27/12--01:42: Australia's Wet Weather Woes (chan 2205423)

Australia's summer is taking a battering from La Niña again.


01/27/12--09:33: Beware of Turkish Delight (chan 2205423)

The Turkish lira is among the world's best-performing currencies and Turkey's government bonds rallied this week. Yet Turkey is attracting prominent skeptics who see its wide current account deficit as a risk.


01/27/12--18:19: Monster's Link to Economy Goes Missing (chan 2205423)

There is something frightening going on at Monster Worldwide. And what the online job-search firm reported seeing in the U.S. doesn't seem to jibe.


01/27/12--18:22: Facing Up to Venture Capital's Slow Future (chan 2205423)

Will Facebook help the venture-capital industry win some friends it can count on? VC fund raising has had a healthy bump in the last two years, but an outright venture-capital renaissance is a ways off.


01/27/12--18:24: Euro-Zone Volcano Dormant, Not Extinct (chan 2205423)

Is the worst of the euro-zone bond-market crisis over? It's tempting to think so with Italian and Spanish yields lower and January's bond auctions attracting heavy demand.