Dave Lindorff

With stocks bouncing around like they’re on a trampoline, it can be difficult for investors to find companies that offer any possibility of steady growth or protection against a further slump -- particularly with the economy looking increasingly weak. But a handful of consumer goods stocks might ease their pain.

Variable annuities continued to surge in the second quarter of this year, with total sales reaching $40.9 billion, an increase of 16% over the same period last year, according to LIMRA, the Windsor, CT-based financial services research firm.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services' $150 million purchase of Securities America, Ameriprise's independent broker-dealer unit, will greatly increase the size and reach of Ladenburg Thalmann, but isn't likely to shift the rankings of the largest independent firms in the financial advisory industry. At least not right away.

Is the sale by Ameriprise Financial of its Securities America advisory services unit to Ladenburg Thalmann a harbinger of yet another wave -- or wavelet -- of consolidation in the asset management industry?

Investors worried about the risks inherent in the market’s dramatic volatility over recent weeks and months might do well to pay attention to fund flows and to put their own money where the flows are going and staying.

Wall Street financial firms -- investment banks, banks, investment management firms, hedge funds -- have been fairly united in opposing and actively lobbying to weaken the new Consumer Financial Protection Board. But at least one leader in the industry, John C. Bogle, founder and former chairman of The Vanguard Group, make the case not only for a strong CFPB, but for the aggressive prosecution and even jailing of some of the bankers.

The last two weeks have been a heart-stopping roller coaster ride for investors. But don’t assume that the ride is necessarily over, said Michael Ryan, chief investment strategist at UBS.

Wells Fargo is buying up most of Citadel’s troubled investment bank operation, which the Chicago-based hedge fund recently decided to unload after concluding that’s its plan to convert the company into an investment bank was not working out.

There’s more bad news for the economy and the stock market after a report from Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan found that their Consumer Confidence Index in early August plunged to its lowest point since May of 1980.

Investors are rushing out of equities as markets grow increasingly volatile, but maybe there’s another alternative to just sitting on the sidelines and leaving stocks to the big institutional investors.

As U.S. companies increasingly try to cut costs by moving away from employer-funded benefits plans, many are turning to so-called “voluntary” programs which are sponsored by or offered through the employer but are funded by the employees themselves.

Investors are spooked by the increasing volatility of U.S equities markets and in July pulled out nearly $23 billion, an amount of money that is starting to approach the panicky pullback seen in the October 2008 when investors withdrew $27.9 billion from the market.

The Census Bureau's June wholesale inventory number shows that wholesalers increased their inventories by just 0.6% in June, well below the 1% increase that analysts and economists had been anticipating. The bureau also downwardly revised May’s wholesale inventory figure from 1.8% to 1.7%.

The stock market may be reeling, the U.S. sovereign debt rating may have taken a hit from Standard & Poor’s and the Eurozone debt crisis may be worsening, but high-quality corporate bonds are looking like a great deal.

Over a period of three turbulent days leading up to and immediately after Standard and Poor's downgrade of the country's sovereign debt rating, U.S. stocks plunged with a ferocity and velocity not seen the darkest days of the economic collapse of 2008. Not surprisingly, many financial advisors spent lots of time on the phone, alternating between cheerleader, confidante and psychiatrist in an effort to keep their clients from panicking and making matters worse.

The equities markets, which have fallen 12% since May's highs, may have just gone through a sell-off that meets the classic definition of a correction, but UBS Wealth Management Research is cautioning that it still might not be a great idea for investors to jump back into the market just yet.

Maybe the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. sovereign debt rating is roiling markets and causing China to double down on efforts to diversify its massive cash hoard away from U.S. dollar holdings, but last week's resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis has been good news for the money market fund industry.

The folks at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), which runs the financially strapped Philadelphia-area subway and commuter rail transportation system, are anxiously waiting to see what they will be getting out of a $590-million out-of-court settlement just reached with Wells Fargo Bank.

In another sign that the struggling U.S. economy is facing tough headwinds, the U.S. Census Bureau has just released a report showing that home ownership -- a key foundation of the “American Dream" -- has fallen to its lowest level since 1998.

2011 has not been a great year for international equity mutual funds, especially compared to domestic U.S. fund counterparts. But this situation could very well change and investors in the near future, according to analysts at Standard & Poor's Equity Research.