The Traderszone Network

Stocks rose Friday, with benchmarks at or near records, after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly expanded stimulus, sparking hopes for the global economy.

Wal-Mart joins the likes of Amazon, Office Depot and OfficeMax, which are also launching their first holiday deals over the weekend

ExxonMobil Corp. profits rose 3 percent in the third quarter as strong refining performance offset lower revenues from falling oil prices and production. The company said Friday it earned $8.07 billion …

Strong wage growth has been the missing piece of the recovery puzzle. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. The weak end to the third quarter suggested consumer spending could slow early in the October-December period, and chip at the economy’s momentum. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s index on consumer sentiment rose to 86.9 in October from 84.6 last month, a separate report showed.

The Employment Cost Index, the broadest measure of labor costs, increased 0.7 percent after advancing by the same margin Wages and salaries, which account for 70 percent of employment costs, rose 0.8 percent in the third quarter, the largest increase since the second quarter of 2008. Federal Reserve officials view the ECI as one of the better measures of labor market slack. In the 12 months through September, labor costs increased 2.2 percent, the largest increase since the second quarter of

Stocks extended their gains going into the lunch hour Friday. Major indexes came out of the blocks at full sprint, thanks to an unexpected overnight announcement by the Bank of Japan to increase asset purchases to shore up the country’s sagging growth. The Nasdaq gapped up and was trading 1.4% higher a little over two hours into the session. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.1%.

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Here’s why new versions of “GTA V” might not matter as much as some Take-Two investors believe.

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