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The article discusses the attraction of ultrashort-term bond funds to investors anticipating an increase in interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the benefit of ultrashort-term bond funds due to their offering of higher yields than money-market funds.

The article reports that the interest rate yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note government security fell below two percent in trading for the first time since the 1960s. The yield on the security is discussed as an indication that financiers are forecasting slow economic development which will lead to a low rate of return on most financial products.

The article discusses U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen's concerns over higher interest rates and decision to not increase interest rates as of July 2014, including her decision's effect on U.S. bond yields and her announcement that interest rates will depend on economic factors such as the labor market.

The article discusses research on the effects of early childhood education in the U.S., with information on expanded preschool programs, the return on investment for government-funded preschool education, and the economic aspects of universal public preschool programs.

The article reports on the recovery of the U.S. initial public offerings (IPO) market following the U.S. fiscal crisis in 2008. Topics include how the number of IPOs listed during the week of May 6, 2013 was the highest since December 2007, how IPOs in 2013 have yielded high dividends and returns on investment, and charts documenting the number of listed IPOs between 1995 and 2013 as well as their pricing relative to projected range.

Focuses on the price of gasoline at the pumps in the United States and its impact on gas stations' profit margins. Comments from Stan Sheetz, chief executive of the Sheetz convenience store chain, regarding his strategy to keep margins low on gas while keeping higher margins on products inside the store; Statistics indicating a reduction in margins for self-serve regular gasoline per gallon in the first quarter of 2005 relative to all of 2004, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the United States; Potential impact of the rising price of oil, which makes up more than half of the cost of gasoline, on mom-and-pop retailers of gas; Efforts of big oil companies to get out of the retail gasoline business, noting the sale of stations by Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group; Reduction the number of company-operated stations in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration; Comments from Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, a trade group that represents several thousand independent gasoline retailers, indicating the rate of return on gasoline is dropping; Difficulty in assessing the economics of selling gas.

The article discusses increasing transportation traffic on U.S. railways as of April 2013, with information on the rate of return for investments in railroads, first-quarter earnings for the CSX Corp. railway transportation operator, and statistics on the materials transported by rail.

The article states that construction of condominiums accounted for only 5.5 percent of all multi-family housing construction in the U.S. during the first financial quarter of 2015. According to the article, the U.S. agency the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) placed restrictions on condominium lending standards between 2008 and 2012. The article discusses preferences for condominium construction among real estate developers because of rates of return. The article presents comments from New York City real-estate consulting firm the Weitzman Group senior vice president Peter Bazeli.

The article discusses an increase in the interest of large institutions in purchasing U.S. junk bonds as prices decrease, following the sale of junk bonds by a large number of individual investors due to the small investors' concerns regarding conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine and the junk bonds' prices. Graphs are presented of U.S.- marketed high-yield corporate bonds, average yield premium to Treasurys on U.S. high-yield corporate bonds, and average yields on U.S. junk bonds.

The article discusses the relationship between geopolitical unrest and the U.S. stock market, focusing on the strength of stocks compared with bonds and other assets. Other topics include corporate earnings for the second quarter, yield rates on government bonds and junk bonds, and fluctuations in the stock market.

The article reports that yields on savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and money-market accounts are falling significantly in response to interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. Banks and other financial services companies are cutting rates on these low-risk investment products as the credit crunch hampers their ability to borrow funds.

The article discusses the potential safety of brokerage accounts, particularly in the wake of bankruptcy proceedings involving MF Global Holdings Inc. According to the article, MF Global Holdings Inc. customers are not confident that they will see returns on their investments. The article offers comments from Forester Value fund manager Tom Forester.