Author: Paul Toscano

Corporations hold large amounts of cash for a variety of reasons, including speculation on the price of assets, corporate acquisitions, future investments or even as a precaution against market uncertainty.

They're concentrated in a few hot spots and outperforming the broader market.

The wealthiest Americans have been in the spotlight over the past several years, for reasons ranging from public outrage over lavish lifestyles during the recession to executive bonuses in the midst of the financial crisis. The Occupy Wall Street movement was perhaps the most visible culmination of these concerns, broadly protesting against the divide between the majority of the U.S. population and the ultra-rich, referred to by the protesters as the “one percent.”

Just a month before the company’s highly anticipated S-1 filing, Facebook was moving its employees from its old offices in Palo Alto, Calif., to a new 57-acre campus in Menlo Park, Calif., a building formerly owned by Sun Microsystems.

Throughout the financial crisis, large debt loads weighed on company balance sheets and had serious implications for the firms that let their borrowing get out of control. Other companies, however, have a history of operating with low debt levels, and many choose to issue no debt at all. Instead of debt, these companies hold cash and liquid investments in order to make acquisitions and fund other investments.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “10 Most Wanted List” has included some of the world’s most notorious criminals, including Osama Bin Laden, Ted Bundy, Warren Jeffs, totaling 494 since the list’s creation in 1950. With the success of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list, the bureau in 1996 began putting wanted criminals on its website and notes that more than 50 fugitives have been arrested as a result of their images and information appearing on the site. Here are the top 12.

Investors are reassured – and companies consider it a point of pride – when executives note an uninterrupted track record for raising dividends. Dividend payments also offer investors a cushion on their investment, increasing the overall returns of the stock. Historically, dividend payments have accounted for more than 40 percent of the S&P 500’s total returns.

Last year's Super Bowl matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers was memorable for many reasons, but one key aspect missing from last year's championship game was a squad of professional cheerleaders. This year, a team with cheerleaders is guaranteed to make the Super Bowl, after Pittsburgh, the only AFC playoff team this year without cheerleaders, was eliminated.

It's the basic question when investing in a stock: is it on the way up or will it go down? To answer this question,  Wall Street has developed numerous ways of attempting to predict what will happen, estimating various attributes tied to stock performance in order to determine what the future holds for a company's valuation.

With over 500 cars and trucks on display at the 2012 North American International Auto Show, this is the American consumer’s first glimpse at what the next year will look like for the automotive industry. Forty new models are expected to be unveiled, from concept cars to vehicles that will hit the market this year.

From the entire S&P 500, which stocks are analysts expecting to have the biggest pops?

This year, there is a plethora of popular tech products and perennial gifts to give, but for the shopper looking for something different, these products may not be the first thing that comes to mind.

No matter what kind of economic environment homebuyers find themselves in, one thing always holds true: They’ll be looking for a deal. Although there are many aspects of a home that can increase or decrease its value — such as climate, school district, landscaping, or the age of the home itself — usually buyers expect that the bigger the house, the bigger the price tag.

The word “like” has taken a whole new meaning in the age of social media, with Facebook’s ubiquitous “like” functionality allowing users to quickly share content across the social network. When users click a button to show they “like” a Facebook page, they are effectively signing up for continued interactions with that page and the entity behind it. Corporations have increasingly made social media connectivity an important aspect of their marketing campaigns, allowing them to communicate with their customers, develop their brand, and even offer special promotions.

For those testing their fortitude through eating challenges, clearing a plate of outrageously large or spicy meals will often win them a T-shirt, their photo on the wall and their dinner on the house. However, the following food offerings are pushing the envelope for gastronomic challenges: No individual has yet to cross the finish line. These are the ones to beat. So, which eating challenges currently remain undefeated? Click ahead to find out.