| | Weekly Roundup APRIL 13, 2012 MarketWatch top 10 stories April 9 - 13 By MarketWatch U.S. stocks fell Friday, capping their worst week of the year. Still, it wasn't a straight line down. Hopes for additional central bank easing and enthusiasm for Alcoa Inc.'s (AA) earnings report helped the S&P 500 (SPX) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) to their best two-day gain of the week, midweek. Read more on stocks. For what's ahead, watch our week ahead videos and see these earnings outooks: U.S. week ahead: IBM, Citi, B. of. A. Europe week ahead: euro-zone crisis, Texco Read preview of IBM earnings. Read preview of Intel earnings. Read earnings preview of banks. Google profit jumps 61% Google Inc. (GOOG) posted a 61% higher first-quarter profit on slightly higher-than-expected sales, and announced a surprise special dividend that would act as a stock split for company shareholders. In a note, Google Inc. on Thursday reported a 61% jump in first-quarter profit on slightly higher-than-expected sales, and announced a surprise special dividend that would act as a stock split for company shareholders. In a note, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said, "All in, we view Google's results as fundamentally improving," noting how "margins seem to be stabilizing after the 2011 investment trough." Read more on Google. J.P. Morgan profit slips but tops target J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s(JPM) first-quarter earnings fell 3.1% as legal expenses and debt-related charges weighed, masking a surprise increase in revenue.The banking giant's results kick off the reporting season for U.S. banks, delivering investors the first look at a quarter expected to show improvements at the nation's largest financial institutions after a bleak end to 2011. Read more on J.P. Morgan. Is bull market getting long in the tooth? Bull markets -- unlike wine -- don't tend to get better with age. And that could be bad news for the current stock market. Depending on who is doing the counting, the bull market we're in right now began in March 2009, more than three years ago. If so, that would mean that it's getting rather long in the tooth. After all, most bull markets don't even make it to their third birthday, and those that make it into their fourth year tend to be unusually susceptible to serious corrections. Read more on Mark Hulbert's analysis of whether we're in an aging bull market. The retirement perils of living to 100 Researchers will debate ad infinitum whether it's better to use mortality data or a fixed time period when studying the subject of retirement planning. But there's no debate about what you should use when planning for retirement in real life. In fact, most researchers and financial advisers say you should only use a fixed period of time when planning your retirement. And in a world where many people — at least according to various surveys — are worried about outliving their money, this is an important point that should not get lost in the retirement-planning fray. Playing the odds that you won't live past a certain age because of numbers in a mortality table is the wrong way to plan for retirement, say researchers. Read Robert Powell's column on retirement planning. Cooling China growth stirs anxiety China's first-quarter economic growth cooled to its slowest pace in 11 quarters amid weak export growth and sluggish construction activity, though analysts viewed the figures as pointing to a gradual slowing rather than a replay of downturn during the global crisis. Gross domestic product grew 8.1% in the January to March period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, below analysts' expectations of an 8.3% expansion. "The current slowdown looks more and more like a slow consolidation, rather than a precipitous downturn like we saw in 2008-2009," IHS Global analyst Xianfang Ren said in a note following the data release. Read more on China GDP. Bye bye Best Buy boss As Best Buy Co. (BBY) moves on without its 28-year veteran and Chief Executive Brian Dunn, the search for a new boss in the midst of company restructuring has left investors with more concerns about the struggling retailer.In another twist, Best Buy's board confirmed late Tuesday an audit committee investigation into his personal conduct was initiated and Dunn chose to resign before the investigation was completed."Certain issues were brought to the board's attention regarding Mr. Dunn's personal conduct, unrelated to the company's operations or financial controls, and an audit committee investigation was initiated," said Claire Koeneman of H+K Strategies, a spokeswoman for the Best Buy board of directors, in an emailed statement. Read more on Best Buy. Facebook stuns market with $1 billion Instagram buy Facebook Inc. said Monday that it will buy Instagram, the maker of a popular photo-sharing mobile app and service, for about $1 billion in cash and stock, in a deal that underscores how quickly the demand for sharing via social networks continues to grow. Facebook (FB) elaborated on the announcement via Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's own Facebook page. In his Timeline posting, Zuckerberg wrote that the deal would help Facebook offer better experiences for Instagram users who use the No. 1 social network and other platforms when sharing photos. Read more on Facebook and Instagram. How much does it really cost to lose a smartphone? Say you just lost your wallet with $40 cash in it. You'd feel bad, right? There's the inconvenience of canceling cards, getting a new driver's license, etc. But what if you lost your wallet with $900 in cash in it, plus your address book and your bank passwords. That's what it's like when you lose your smartphone.Now that really hurts. How much does it cost to lose a smartphone? One of our readers found out the hard way. Her iPhone was stolen while she was on public transit. She didn't have phone insurance, her renter's insurance didn't cover the loss and she was told if she canceled her phone contract, she would be liable for a hefty early termination fee. In the end, she paid a small fortune and learned a big lesson. Read Jeanette Pavini on what it really costs to lose your smartphone. Mutual fund investors face new filing rules Between finishing your tax return for 2011 and forgetting about taxes until the paperwork arrives for 2012, mutual-fund investors have one more tax chore to do. New tax rules that started last year but which really hit fund investors starting in 2012 mean that investors should be thinking about tax issues now, so that they don't face consequences later that come from doing nothing. Here's the situation: The Internal Revenue Service rolled out new rules regarding cost basis — what you paid for your shares — that began kicking in last year and that go into full effect in 2013. Read Chuck Jaffe on taxes and mutual-fund investing. West ignores China economic liberalization at its own peril When I ponder the impact on the West of China's slow but steady progress in liberalizing its financial markets, Napoleon's oft-cited description of the Middle Kingdom comes to mind. "A sleeping giant. Let him sleep! If he awakes, he will shake the world." The message from around a dozen recent exchanges with top Chinese financial decision-makers and advisers is very clear. China's financial market liberalization is now more or less unstoppable. This is being expanded now in many fields, with consequences for many sectors of Western business and finance. Much of this has yet fully to be acknowledged by the West, let alone understood. Read David Marsh on China's financial markets awakening. 
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