Securities

A suspicious surge in trading of Schering-Plough Corp. shares just before news of a merger deal with fellow drug maker Merck & Co. is being investigated by federal regulators, according to a published report. The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to see whether any trades were made by people with inside knowledge about the merger talks, unidentified people familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal. Spokesmen at the SEC and both companies declined to comment.

Federal regulators have frozen the assets of a Delaware company accused of swindling nearly 8,000 investors in a $485-million Ponzi scheme that falsely promised hefty returns on investments in the oil and gas business, officials said. Three businessmen in Dallas, where Provident Royalties has its main office, ran the nationwide operation involving fraudulent securities offerings between June 2006 and January 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it had obtained court orders freezing assets and halting an alleged securities fraud run by a San Diego promoter. The SEC said in a complaint filed in federal court that Mohit Khanna claimed to have raised as much as $70 million from 300 investors in Southern California and elsewhere through his company, MAK 1 Enterprises Group. Investors were solicited through word-of-mouth referrals and MAK 1's website, the agency said.

Sobering statistics to ponder: Measured from last year's peak in the Dow Jones industrial average, which was 8,259.31 on Aug. 6, through Wednesday's close of 8,552.96, the overall price gain in those 30 blue-chip stocks works out to 3.6%. Add in dividends, and your "total return" for the 12 months is about 5.3%. You took a lot of risk to earn that slim figure--while risk-free money market funds paid about the same in that period.

Analysts who follow market patterns are keeping a close eye on Japan's benchmark Nikkei-225 stock index. The Nikkei plunged 2.2% on Monday to close below 15,000 as more bad news hammered the world's second-largest economy and sent jitters through other Asian markets. The index traded briefly below 14,664--its lowest close this year, which it hit Jan. 12 as Indonesia's currency was collapsing--before ending at 14,794. Early today the Nikkei bounced back above 15,000.

Observers who follow technical patterns are keeping a close eye on Japan's benchmark Nikkei-225 stock index. The Nikkei plunged 2.2% on Monday to close below 15,000 points as more bad news plagued the world's second-largest economy and sent jitters through Asian markets. The index traded briefly below 14,664--its lowest close this year, which it hit Jan. 12 as Indonesia's currency was collapsing.

In the bull market of the 1990s, no strategy has worked better than buying stocks on dips. Everybody knows that. But here's something nobody knows: when a market slide will become so severe that stocks keep going down and early bargain hunters get badly burned. It's far too soon, of course, to sound the death knell for a tactic that's worked like a charm since 1990. Indeed, the current market pullback could very well turn out to be just another great buying opportunity.

In the bull market of the 1990s, no strategy has worked better than buying stocks on dips. Everybody knows that. But here's something nobody knows: when a market slide will become so severe that stocks keep going down and early bargain hunters get badly burned. It's far too soon, of course, to sound the death knell for a tactic that's worked like a charm since 1990. Indeed, the current market pullback could very well turn out to be just another great buying opportunity.