Carl Icahn has successfully tormented several tech companies in the last decade — from Motorola to Yahoo to eBay — but usually demands value extraction that isn’t always the best route for a company’s health or long-term investors. Icahn’s new battle with computer executive Michael Dell and his eponymous company, now entering a bruising second → Read More

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has dominant positions in search, advertising and mobile devices, but the company has had to play from behind when it comes to mobile payments. Google is very much still interested in enabling financial transactions, however, and the company’s payments general manager Caesar Sengupta said Tuesday that partnerships have helped it achieve early → Read More

Credit Suisse’s Jonathan Golub says an upsurge in volatility may be feeding on itself, leading to further wobbles in a market that was on the verge of busting higher just weeks ago. In a research report distributed Monday called “U.S. Equity Strategy: Post Traumatic Volatility Disorder,” Golub says a resurgence of volatility is under way → Read More

Cryptocurrency prices drifted lower Monday with most major coins in the red in late afternoon trading Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency, was showing small losses, with a single bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.07%  last going for $6,443.94, down 0.6% since Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken crypto exchange. Coming off a week in → Read More

MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE The anniversary of Black Monday’s crash reminds us to be prepared for a precipitous decline in the stock market. See full story. The first thing the Mega Millions winner should do — according to the guy who runs the lottery Another piece of advice: Get a good financial planner. The jackpot is → Read More

Uber Technologies Inc.’s head of corporate development, Cameron Poetzscher, has resigned less than a month after a Wall Street Journal article revealed allegations of prior sexual misconduct in the office, according to a person familiar with the matter.  An Uber spokesman on Monday confirmed Poetzscher’s departure. The resignation is effective immediately and Uber’s new CFO → Read More

Getty Images A landscaper installs a section of artificial lawn at a home in Burlingame, Calif. A new academic paper confirms what real-estate agents and reality-television shows have been telling homeowners for years: Curb appeal matters. The working paper, “Computer Vision and Real Estate: Do Looks Matter and Do Incentives Determine Looks,” was based on → Read More

In a busy week for central bankers, investors are on the lookout for details about when interest rates could be going up in continental Europe, where the monetary policy normalization process lags well behind the U.S. Federal Reserve. With the European Central Bank vowing to keep rates at present levels at least through next summer, → Read More

Happy Monday, MarketWatchers! Here are your top personal finance stories of the day. Personal Finance Here’s how NOT winning the Mega Millions could be the best thing that happens to you The $1.6 billion lottery jackpot is now the largest in U.S. history. Should I sell my $565,000 duplex and invest the money—or continue to → Read More

Child-care costs are the rise. Parents across the country spent $9,000 to $9,600 annually for one child’s day care last year, up roughly 7.5% on the year, according to a national average costs released Monday by Child Care Aware of America. “No matter how you look at the statistics, child care is unaffordable for families → Read More