INVESTMENT

vVllages have been demolished and thousands of residents have been forced out of their homes, while many others still face eviction.

Despite the S&P downgrade of the United States, Russia announced that it has no plans to make an immediate change to its U.S. dollar-denominated gold or foreign exchange reserves, a senior Russian bank official has confirmed.

All eyes are on Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) ahead of Tuesday's opening bell after the banking giant suffered a 20 percent loss on Monday's trading.

With U.S. and global stock markets reeling, investors have sought a traditional safe-haven, but it?s one that may surprise some: U.S. Government bonds. How is it possible that investors would want the debt of the nation they believe has a national debt that's too high?

In times of market volatility stemming from global economic and sovereign debt uncertainties, FBR Capital Markets believes investors are faced with increasingly difficult decisions about how best to position their portfolios to maximize alpha while carefully balancing portfolio risk.

BlackRock will use profits it is making in gold and bond markets to seek out bargains in falling global equity markets, James Holt, investment strategist at the world's largest money manager, said on Tuesday.

The latest market rout might serve as a warning to investors who have euphorically poured money into high-flying technology stocks.

The Dow Jones suffered its sixth-worse loss ever on Monday, dropping 634 points in the first trading day after S&P's downgrade of the United States.

The growth of Google+ since its launch a month ago has been breathtaking. Swallowing up 20 million users in 3 weeks from the launch, Google's new social media site has now reportedly reached 2 5 million.

Investors fled stocks on Monday in the first session since Standard & Poor's cut the United States' perfect AAA credit rating, reflecting growing discouragement about the economic outlook and Washington's ability to meet the challenges.

South Africa's ruling ANC put off discussions planned for Monday to bring its Youth League leader Julius Malema to heel after the populist politician angered the party by calling for nationalisation of mines and meddling in foreign affairs.

If, as a stock investor, you're a little jittery following Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. Government's credit rating, you're not the only one. The stock market has tumbled, and more declines may be ahead. Even so, keep in mind that a good portion of the money made in stocks stems from not panicking.

Toronto's main stock market index sank more than 3 percent to its lowest point in nearly a year on Monday as a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating shook investor confidence globally and drove commodity prices sharply lower.

Gold vaulted above $1,700 an ounce for the first time on Monday after pledges by the G7 and the European Central Bank to quell the turbulence in the financial markets did nothing to put investors at ease.

Global investors flock to precious metal as safe haven.

It is not clear that Moody's or Fitch will follow suit and cut the U.S. credit rating.

Global markets plummeted overnight night as news of the U.S. downgrade. Monday is the first day of trading in the U.S. and futures pointed sharply lower early by 6:30 a.m.

In the guessing game of which Asian sovereign credit will be downgraded next, after the United States this weekend, Japan is almost everyone's top pick, and not simply because its debt burden and messy politics are as bad if not worse than America's.

Jefferies & Co. upgraded its rating on shares of Logica Plc (London: LOG) to "hold" from "underperform", while lowering its price target to 90 pence from 105 pence.

Former Governor of New York, Hugh Carey who successfully tackled New York's financial crisis in the 1970's died on Sunday. He was 92.

U.S. stocks just had a horrendous week. The S&P 500 Index dropped 92.9 points, or 7.2 percent, which was its worst performance since November, 2008.