CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - As the economy shows signs of stabilizing, major retail brokers are increasingly comfortable with leaving the largest brokerage houses and setting out on their own, according to a company that provides services to the brokers.

News Web sites are starting to look a lot less like newspapers and a lot more like television, says the New York Times.

The Managing Editor of CNBC TV goes to the same investor conference ... one year later ... and finds a world of difference.

Next to a Chinese restaurant in Burlington, Vt., lurks a quiet guardian of Wall Street — an obscure insurance company that is supposed to protect big-money investors in the event of a catastrophic failure of a major brokerage firm. A failure, for instance, like the one that brought down Lehman Brothers nearly 11 months ago. Now, after years in the shadows, the insurer, the Customer Asset Protection Company, could finally be put to the test, and questions are starting to swirl.

TD Ameritrade  has agreed to buy back $456 million in auction-rate securities from investors in New York and across the US, New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday.

Stocks closed higher after a staging a late rally triggered partly by positive comments from the economist known as "Doctor Doom."

Stocks edged lower at the open as the market gave back some of its gains from this week's rally.

Wall Street was heading for a mixed open, after a steep drop in jobless claims help offset some negative news on earnings.

Active traders have renewed faith in the market despite continued volatility, according to new survey data from Charles Schwab.

About two months ago, I wrote a column about how Matthew Weitzman, our family’s financial planner, was under investigation for reportedly siphoning money from clients’ accounts. Well, the ax finally fell on Wednesday.