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Stocks kicked off the week with slight losses Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11.66 points to close at 12,708.82.

Fidelity Investments said it added five countries and five currencies in its online international investing service.

The SEC said it is instituting proceedings to determine whether a proposed rule change involving minimum quotation sizes for over-the-counter stocks should be disapproved.

Stocks capped a four-day rally with another sharp rally Friday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average stormed up 96.50 points to close at 12,720.48.

As tax time approaches, many clients are wondering what to do with their most highly appreciated assets. If they are charitably minded, those assets can be converted into reliable streams of income through charitable trusts.

Interactive Brokers Group, which considered buying part or all of Jon Corzine's MF Global Holdings as it began to collapse in October, said it has begun segregating customer funds from house funds “on a daily basis.”

U.S. stocks maintained their recent momentum Thursday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 45 points to 12,623.98 following a better-than-expected jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 30 component companies said they expect to pump up their annual dividend payouts by 12.3% in 2012 to almost $105 billion.

Knight Capital Group said its volume of trading in U.S. equities fell 19.3% in December, compared to November. Its volume also fell 3.5% from a year earlier.

The SEC has joined the U.S. Department of Justice in approving the merger of NYSE Euronext with Deutsche Boerse. Now the only remaining hurdle is obtaining approval from competition commissioners of the European Commission.

Investors opened their wallets Wednesday following an upbeat report from home builders and word that Greece is nearing a deal with its private creditors that would bring some much-needed stability to the region.

There has been no New Year’s bounce, says Raymond James Equity Research. Trading in stocks in the United States in the first half of January is down 18% versus a year ago.

Stocks moved higher Tuesday in light trading as the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 60 points to finish at 12,482.07 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq picked up 4.58 and 17.41 points, respectively.

After a gloomy 2011, this year the outlook for regional banks seems better, according to S&P Capital IQ.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 49 points to close at 12,422.06 Friday as investors reacted to news that S&P will downgrade both France and Austria’s credit rating and is mulling the same for other eurozone countries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 21.57 points to close at 12,471.02 while the Nasdaq recorded its sixth consecutive winning session, gaining 14 points to finish at 2,724.70.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average trimmed 13 points to finish at 12,449.45 while tech stocks continued their recent resurgence on the heels of a pair of encouraging economic reports.

With performance under par, hedge fund managers got smaller year-end bonuses for 2011, according to the Hedge Fund Compensation Report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 70 points to 12,462.47 Tuesday, the fourth positive session in six trading days so far this year. Tech stocks also perked up as the Nasdaq rallied up 26 points to finish at 2,702.50.

NYSE Euronext said it had not been notified by the European Commission of any “official decision” on its merger with Deutsche Boerse, after a pair of media reports that the nearly year-old deal will not be approved on anti-competition grounds.