Retirement Trends

Stocks opened higher on Wall Street, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to new highs, after the government said unemployment claims fell last week.

An encouraging look at the job market helped send the stock market higher Wednesday, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average tore through its previous record high.

The Dow Jones industrial average, an index of 30 U.S. stocks and a gauge of financial markets, closed at a record high of 14,253 on Tuesday. The Dow has more than doubled since hitting a 12-year low in March 2009.

CommonWealth REIT's shares fell Tuesday after the real estate investment trust completed a stock offering, despite the objections of two major shareholders.

Something strange has happened to investors this year. Ever since the financial crisis in 2008, many had worried that the next big disaster was waiting around the corner, ready to clobber them.

Want to know your chances of dying in the next 10 years? Here are some bad signs: getting winded walking several blocks, smoking, and having trouble pushing a chair across the room.