Investing

Is gold's rally over? Precious-metals mutual funds lost almost 9% in July as concerns about global economic woes eased, Money & Investing Editor Jonathan Burton reports in This Week in Mutual Funds.

Is there still a case for gold? Yes, but only if you believe that governments will have to pump more stimulus into the global economy at the expense of national currencies. Read about this and more in this week's Mutual Funds and ETF stories.

Nowadays, four emerging markets' ETFs have generated substantial upward momentum over the past couple of months: iShares MSCI Turkey and siblings dedicated to Chile, Malaysia and Thailand.

Bowing to competitive pressure from other mutual-fund firms, AARP, the membership group for people aged 50 and over, said it will liquidate its lineup of stock and bond funds.

SEOUL (MarketWatch) -- Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) said Friday its second-quarter net profit surged 83% from a year earlier to a record high as robust demand for chips and flat-screen displays offset the weak performance of its handsets business, which was weighed down by the weak euro.

(Updates with background on Google's operations in China beginning in fourth paragraph) Google Inc. GOOG said Thursday its Internet search engine and advertising platform had been fully blocked in China, while several other services were partially inaccessible. Google said its images and news services were partially blocked, but noted that Gmail was still fully or mostly accessible within the country.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- German government debt returns came in double the S&P Eurozone Government Bond Index total return of 2.67% in the first half of the year, Standard & Poor's said in a release Thursday. German bunds returned 6.99% in the first six months of the year, with debt of the Netherlands and Austria returning just slightly less. Greek bonds lost more than 18%, though the country's debt stabilized in June, gaining 1% that month. Spanish bonds fell 2.41% in the period. The weighings of countries in the index has also shifted in the period, with Portugal, Spain, Greek and Ireland making up a smaller portion, S&P said. For July, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's index of German federal debt has lost 1%. Spanish debt has returned 3.59%, according to BofA. Their pan-European government debt index has returned 0.24% so far in July, and is up 3.38% this year.

Exxon, Shell and Tesoro continue the energy companies' earnings parade; Barrick Gold puts in a stellar quarter. Paul Vigna, Madeleine Lim and Steve Wisnefski discuss the earnings and the outlook for the sectors.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index overcame resistance at 1100 and made a quick move to 1120. Now, for two days, it has been able to overcome that resistance at 1120, which was also the highest closing price of June.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index chart is probably the best guide as to the market's next move.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Long-term Treasury prices declined slightly and the dollar remained sharply lower on Thursday after the U.S. Labor Department said claims for first-time jobless benefits fell 11,000 to 457,000 in the latest week. Yields on 10-year notes which move inversely to prices, rose 2 basis points to 3%. The euro rose to $1.3074, from $1.3068 before the data and compared to $1.2985 in North American trade late Wednesday. The dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, declined to 81.680, down from 82.139 late Wednesday.

Investors fret about the outlook for the U.S. economy, pushing the dollar lower.

Gold futures end higher Thursday, amassing more gains as the stock market turn lower, the dollar remain weaker, and gold's lower prices entice bargain hunters and Asian buyers of physical metal.

Gold stages a muted comeback as the previous session's three-month low entices a few bottom fishers.