Weekly Roundup: MarketWatch's top 10 stories: Sept. 3-7

	Weekly Roundup SEPTEMBER 07, 2012 MarketWatch's top 10 stories: Sept. 3-7 By Christopher Noble, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — It was a busy week for wireless-gizmo news. A parade of heavyweights, including Google's (GOOG) Motorola Mobility, Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN), unveiled new devices for communicating, surfing the Web, shopping and playing games. The announcements all preceded next Wednesday's Apple (AAPL) event, at which the maker of the iPhone is expected to show off the latest version of its wildly popular smartphone. Millions watched this week's events, and millions will no doubt tune in when the iPhone 5 makes its anticipated debut. All Things DAmazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos unveils new Kindle models.Then, millions will line up to spend $200, plus $50 a month for years, so they can avoid speaking to strangers while standing in line at the post office or spending one single minute of their day with their own, undirected musings or daydreams. Plus, maybe, make the occasional phone call. Speaking of daydreams, another piece of technology news caught my attention, thanks to a report in the Economist. It turns out that last month the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded prizes in its "Reinventing the Toilet Challenge." The contest was an attempt to cut the number of children — about 1.5 million each year — who die from diarrhea caused by unsanitary toilet facilities. The winner, from the California Institute of Technology, was a toilet that uses solar power to turn waste into a sanitary fluid to flush the toilet, hydrogen that can be used as fuel, and fertilizer. The device, along with the second- and third-place finishers, will now be field tested and, perhaps, deployed in two years or so. Unlike this week's smartphone announcement, the Gates Foundation challenge didn't make the front page. It was a good week for U.S. stocks, with all three major indexes hitting multiyear highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) xxxx. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) xxxx. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index (SPX) xxxxx. Check out MarketWatch this weekend, where we'll have all the news you need to keep track of your life and your portfolio. We'll have breaking coverage of Chinese economic data on Sunday, too. To get ready for the coming week, please take a moment to watch our weekly videos:  U.S. Week Ahead: Get ready for iPhone 5.  Europe's Week Ahead: Fed QE3 question dominates. — Christopher Noble , assistant managing editor Are you better off? As the Democrats and Republicans attempt to spin data about jobs to their advantage, the truth looms uncomfortably for both: U.S. employment has made substantial progress in the last few years after a devastating recession, but there's still a long way to go. Read a story that digs into the August payrolls report . Over to you, Mariano Spanish and Italian borrowing costs could quickly rise again toward crisis levels unless Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy requests help soon from Europe's rescue fund — a prerequisite to receiving support from the European Central Bank's new, unlimited bond-buying plan. Read about political risk to the new bond-buying program . On fire Amazon.com unveiled a new lineup of Kindle tablets, including a redesigned version of its Kindle Fire with a larger screen that puts Amazon more squarely into competition with Apple, which currently rules the tablet market with its iPad. Read a story about the launch of the new Kindle lineup . Uphill battle The parade of new mobile devices unveiled by different companies this week had one thing in common — all face an uphill battle to challenge Apple and Samsung (KR:005930) (SSNLF) for dominance in the increasingly two-horse race known as the smartphone market. Read about the raft of smartphone announcements this week . Sell in May? The stock market's recent strong showing is making some investors want to kick themselves for "selling In May and going away." They're being too hard on themselves. There are nearly two months left in the infamous six-month unfavorable period that such investors tried to sidestep, and that's more than enough time for a lot of nastiness. Read Mark Hulbert's column on how September factors into the sell-in-May adage . Hit the books When it comes to understanding basic concepts about investing, Americans come up woefully short, according to many studies on the topic. U.S. retail investors lack basic financial literacy and don't understand elementary financial concepts, an SEC report concluded. Read full story on Americans' lack of financial knowledge . Silver's spotlight Silver, which has outperformed major metals this year, looks set to continue to steal the spotlight from gold, with investment and industrial demand for the white metal expected to rise. See Commodities Corner column about prospects for silver . Fool's gold standard We've just come through the worst recession since the 1930s. Should we reinstate the gold standard? It's healthy that we're challenging our monetary system, our fiat currency and the Federal Reserve system. But if anything, cyclical downturns only underscore what folly the idea is. See Writing on the Wall column about the gold standard . Stable value Many investors and money managers who include Europe in their global portfolios are drawn to beaten-down European stocks. Some of them seek a cushion against volatility and find it in shares of European companies that pay regular dividends. Read Weekend Investor: Dividend income is hidden value in European stocks . Not just for hobbyists Serious coin collectors regard their collections as investments in the same vein as antiques, fine art and wine. But they have to be sharp enough to navigate a hobby fraught with pitfalls, including counterfeiting, doctoring of coins, false claims of rarity, overpricing and theft. Read full story about the challenges of coin collecting . Get the latest news on our mobile site: http://www.marketwatch.com/m MarketWatch has sent you this newsletter because you signed up to receive it. To ensure you receive this newsletter in the future, please add marketwatchmail.com to your list of approved senders. Sent to: kumaresan.selva.blogger@gmail.com Unsubscribe | Subscribe Copyright 2012 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (updated 6/26/07). MarketWatch - Attn: Customer Service, 201 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111