SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Warren Buffett’s plan to buy back Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shares isn’t only the safest route for deploying the conglomerate’s cash pile, it also helps pave the way for the Oracle of Omaha’s eventual exit, according to fund managers. “This is a piece of the unfolding introduction of life after Buffett,” said [...]

SymbolPriceChangeFDX67.30+0.72{“s” : “fdx”,”k” : “a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} NEW YORK (AP) — Someone is about to play the fool — Wall Street analysts or investors. For months, analysts who write reports praising or panning stocks have been saying they were cheap. Investors were unconvinced, buying one day, selling the next. Last week, they mostly [...]

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks during a news conference at IMF/ World Bank Annual Meetings at IMF headquarters in Washington, on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, as Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, second from left, looks on.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) WASHINGTON (AP) — Global finance officials pledged on Saturday to take bolder moves to confront [...]

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde arrives to speaks at IMF/ World Bank Annual Meetings Plenary in Washington, Friday, Sept. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) WASHINGTON (AP) — Under pressure from skeptical financial markets, the world’s economic powers are scrambling to keep Europe’s debt crisis from tumbling out of control. Finance ministers [...]

A specialist works at the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Sept. 23, 2011 in New York. Investors fear that a global recession may already be under way. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) SymbolPriceChangeCOG61.04-3.68MCO30.17-0.26NEM62.43-2.81RRC59.13-6.97{“s” : “cog,mco,nem,rrc”,”k” : “a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} U.S. stocks bounced between gains and declines Friday, but did little to wipe out heavy losses [...]

SymbolPriceChangeHPQ23.98+1.51ORCL29.54+1.19SAP50.20-0.39{“s” : “hpq,orcl,sap”,”k” : “a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As trial balloons go, Hewlett-Packard’s not-so-secret handwringing –over whether to dump CEO Leo Apotheker and replace him with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman– was a success. Investors like the idea. News that the company’s board is mulling a leadership change pushed the [...]

A specialist studies his screen as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) SymbolPriceChangeBK20.210.00{“s” : “bk”,”k” : “a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} PARIS (AP) — Global markets were in a largely wait-and-see mood Wednesday as they waited to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve [...]

President Obama has struggled to improve the economy. More than halfway through his first-term, unemployment remains stubbornly high, income equality is growing and the fallout from housing crash remains toxic. The Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task spoke to President Bill Clinton Monday from the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in New York City about why the [...]

President Barack Obama gestures while speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) WASHINGTON (AP) — Drawing clear battle lines for next year’s elections, a combative President Barack Obama on Monday demanded that the richest Americans pay higher taxes to help cut soaring U.S. deficits [...]

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks on his American Jobs Act legislation, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011, at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) WASHINGTON (AP) — Drawing a bright line with congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama is proposing $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue as part of his long-term [...]