'Bankrupt in Just Two Weeks'-Individual Investors Get Burned by Collapse of Complex Securities

Seeking high returns, they poured savings into leveraged exchange-traded notes. One adviser called it "investing on steroids." The coronavirus downturn made some of the securities nearly worthless. 


 
Buffett-Backed Italian Insurer Is Told to Boost Capital

Cattolica, a Berkshire Hathaway-backed Italian insurance company, was told by the local regulator to boost its capital, a sign authorities are prepared to press the industry to protect itself from the impact of the coronavirus. 


 
Dollar Slides as Investors Regain Confidence in Global Economy

Investors have sold the dollar and begun buying riskier currencies on optimism about an economic recovery as countries emerge from coronavirus lockdowns. 


 
Supreme Court Extends Hunt for $3 Billion in Offshore Madoff Cash

The justices extended the global hunt for tainted cash from Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, refusing to shield European banks and other foreign investors from having to return roughly $3 billion they collected before his 2008 arrest. 


 
Coronavirus Prods the U.K. to Consider the Once-Unthinkable: Negative Rates

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is whittling away the Bank of England's long-held aversion to subzero rates, in the latest example of how the scale of the Covid-19 crisis is pushing central banks and governments deep into new policy territory. 


 
Short the Target: The Specialist Funds Betting M&A Deals Won't Close

Funds that focus on deals are changing the way they typically position themselves, as coronavirus uncertainty hits the chances of M&A deals closing. 


 
Financial Services Roundup: Market Talk

The latest Market Talks covering Financial Services. Exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET. 


 
Tips to SEC Surge as Working From Home Emboldens Whistleblowers

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission received about 4,000 tips, complaints and referrals of possible corporate wrongdoings from mid-March to mid-May, 35% more than in the same period last year. Lawyers chalk up the increase to the fact that many would-be tipsters are working from the privacy of their home. 


 
Palladium's Leadership Changes Raise Concerns Over Effects on Funds

Leadership changes at Palladium Equity Partners raised concerns at a Los Angeles pension system about what effect the moves might have on the performance of the firm's funds. 


 
It's No Optical Illusion-U.S. Stocks Really Are Expensive

The headline price/earnings ratio can be misleading, but a plunge in earnings and a recovery that will take time really does make American stocks pricey.