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 Stocks slipped Wednesday after U.S. retail sales fell for the first time in seven months in September, offsetting a good star to the third quarter corporate earnings reporting season.
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Gold prices climb Wednesday as investors watch global political news surrounding trade and Brexit and reacted to a weaker-than-expected reading of U.S. retail sales, which has spurred some haven buying.
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 President Donald Trump on Wednesday hit back at Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized his Syria policy anew. Graham said on Twitter that if Trump continued to make statements calling Turkey's incursion into Syria "not our problem," it will be "worse than President Obama's decision to leave Iraq." Graham also said Trump's statements on Turkey "undercut" Vice President Mike Pence's and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's ability to end the Turkey-Syria conflict. "Lindsey Graham would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years," Trump said at a news conference with Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Pence and Pompeo plan to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has rejected U.S. calls for a cease-fire.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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 U.S. stocks were flat on Wednesday as a raft of upbeat earnings reports underlined a solid start to third-quarter results, while concerns over an escalation in the U.S.-China trade war and weak economic indicators lingered.
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Tesla Inc. stock on Wednesday vied for its highest close since July 24 and an eighth straight session higher, which would be its longest winning streak since January 2013. The stock rose 1%, bringing the eight-day run to a gain of nearly 13%. It is up nearly 9% in October, which would follow a 7% increase in September. Tesla is scheduled to report third-quarter results next Wednesday, with Wall Street keeping an eye of profit margins and signs of progress on the company's stated sales and profitability goals. Tesla stock has lost 22% this year, contrasting with gains of around 19% for the S&P 500 index. .
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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 Sterling came off five-month
highs and stocks traded sideways on Wednesday as the European
Union and Britain sought to avert a disorderly
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American Funds is the third-largest fund family in the country, with $1.6 trillion in mutual fund assets. Many of its mutual funds are among the biggest in the land, too. So it should come as no surprise that fund company's portfolios are popular in 401(k) plans.
In fact, eight actively managed American Funds portfolios and five of the firm's target-date funds rank among the top 100 funds with the most 401(k) assets - a list prepared by financial data company BrightScope.
You don't read much about American Funds on Kiplinger.com or in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine because until recently the firm's funds were sold only through advisers, and with a hefty sales charge, too. At Kiplinger, we favor funds you can buy for no transaction fee. But American Funds recently launched a no-load F1-share class that do-it-yourself investors can buy through a handful of online brokers, including Fidelity and Schwab. (In your 401(k) plan, of course, you don't pay a sales charge to buy shares in any American Funds portfolio.)
American Funds runs its portfolios in a unique way called the Capital System. Managers are encouraged to invest their own money in the funds they run, and most do. Every fund is run by multiple managers - each gets a slice of the fund's assets and applies his or her own style and investment philosophy to choose stocks or bonds. The thinking is, a multimanager approach can enhance diversification, lower overall volatility and drive returns. But as assets have grown, the impact each manager is able to make appears to have diminished, at least in recent years.
Here is our look at the best American Funds options for your 401(k), as well as its other popular offerings that don't quite hit the mark. We analyzed the eight American Funds portfolios, as well as its target-date series, that rank among the top 100 401(k) funds, rating each Buy, Sell or Hold.
SEE ALSO: The 25 Best Low-Fee Mutual Fund
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* Indexes off: Dow 0.05%, S&P 500 0.08%, Nasdaq 0.24%
(Updates market action)
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Fed funds futures markets on Wednesday indicated a 90.3% probability that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates for a third consecutive meeting when the central bank's interest-rate setting committee gathers Oct. 30 and 31, up from a 73.8% chance Tuesday, according to CME Group data. The move follows a Commerce Department estimate that U.S. retail sales fell in September for the first time in seven months. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 2.7 basis points to 1.742%, that on the 2-year note fell 3.7 basis points to 1.577%, while the 30-year Treasury Bond yield retreated 0.6 basis point to 2.226%. A monthlong strike at General Motors may have contributed to weaker sales, after it has idled tens of thousands of workers in the Midwest.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Which of these big tech stocks is the better investment for the long term?
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Shares of Bank of America Corp. rallied 2.3% toward a sixth straight gain in morning trading Wednesday, after the bank beat third-quarter earnings expectations and provided an upbeat outlook on the U.S. economy. That would match the 6-day win streak ending Jan. 18. Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on the post-earnings conference call with analysts that despite repeated discussions around a potential recession and concerns over the impact of the U.S.-China trade war, the bank's activities suggests the U.S. economy is in "solid shape" and the consumer continues to benefit by strong employment prospects." Moynihan said he should know, since BofA's annual customer outgoing payments of nearly $3 trillion represents about 15% of the U.S. economy. He said consumer payments are up 6% year to date from the same period a year ago. In addition, Moynihan said commercial loans grew 6%, including 6% growth in the small-business segment. "These are tangible examples that the U.S. economy is in solid shape despite the worries about trade wars, capital investment slowdowns and other global macro conditions," Moynihan said, according to a FactSet transcript. Moynihan did say, however, the bank managed to generate operations savings despite a lower interest rate environment and "other revenue challenges with a slowing economy." The stock has gained 6.6% over the past 12 months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has advanced 4.7%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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These stocks are very different, but they do have one thing in common: All three look like great buys.
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Shares of McKesson Corp. rallied 5.7% in midday trading Wednesday, enough to pace all of its larger-capitalization health care peers, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the drug distributor, and two others, were in talks to pay $18 billion to settle all litigation brought by state and local governments blaming the companies for fueling the opioid crisis. Of the other two drug distributors, shares of AmerisourceBergen Corp. climbed 4.7% and Cardinal Health Inc. hiked up 3.7%. Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose 2.4% after the WSJ report out late Tuesday, citing people familiar with the situation, said the company was also involved in the discussions to contribute additional money. The four companies' stocks topped the list of gainers in the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF , which inched up 0.1%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.2%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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U.S. stocks opened lower Wednesday, as legislation targeting the Hong Kong protests stoked fears of more friction with China, even as another batch of positive earnings reports underscored a solid start to third-quarter results.
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Oil prices fell on Tuesday, as investors worried that the unrelenting U.S.-China trade war would keep squeezing the global economy, and that swelling U.S. crude inventories would further pressure prices.
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