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During the first trading session after Standard & Poor's downgraded its rating of U.S. debt from AAA to AA+, investors got out of stocks and parked their money in ... U.S. Treasury bonds.

It is ironic that Standard & Poor's, one of the three major credit rating agencies at the heart of the financial crisis, would downgrade the United States' credit rating from triple-A to AA+. After all, S&P should have properly assessed the asset-backed housing securities that led to the Great Recession not as investment-grade but what they actually were. Junk.

Effective Sept. 30,Michael Kiley will become chief executive officer of Security Benefit Corp. He replaces Howard Fricke, who has been serving as interim president and CEO since February 2010 and was previously president and CEO of the firm from 1988 to 2000 and chairman from 1996 to 2006.

Redemptions. Mutual fund companies experience them all the time. Typically, every day.

As the financial markets hit investors with gale-force gyrations last week, most advisers are telling their clients to drop anchor.

It is ironic that Standard & Poor’s, one of the three major credit rating agencies at the heart of the financial crisis, would downgrade the United States’ credit rating from triple-A to AA+. After all, S&P should have properly assessed the asset-backed housing securities that led to the Great Recession not as investment-grade but what they actually were. Junk.

Donald Johnson, 57, was sentenced for engaging in insider trading on multiple occasions based on material, non-public information he obtained in his capacity as a Nasdaq executive. Johnson also was ordered to forfeit $755,066.

As trading opens on another nervous week on Wall Street, mainstream investors are casting their votes on prospects by racing out of mutual funds that invest in stocks long-term.

For banks, the supervisory grade known as a "Camels" score is a critical and confidential yardstick of strength. But for many in the public, it is a riddle too tantalizing to ignore.

Lots of banks are under immense pressure to grow. None of them are expected to accomplish that with loans, interchange fees or much else anytime soon. Deal-minded Wall Streeters forcefully and repeatedly offer this answer: buy somebody else, or sell. But the Dodd-Frank Act makes that an especially painful option to consider for midsize banks like First Horizon National Corp., USAA Federal Savings, Rabobank and New York Community Bancorp.