Tough start for stocks. Quiksilver down 45%

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Stocks open lower -- All three major indices -- the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq -- opened moderately lower after the S&P and Dow set fresh records Monday. The Dow is down about 25 points.

While the S&P 500 has had numerous record closes in 2014, it is still about 10% away from its inflation-adjusted peak that it hit in January 1999.

Related: Stock records don't look so good when adjusted for inflation.

Here's the rest of what you need to know:

1. Feast and famine in food stocks: Hillshire Brands (HSH) shares surged nearly 9% after the open after the food company's board of directors authorized takeover discussions with Pilgrim's Pride (PPC) and Tyson Foods (TSN), which are in a bidding war to buy Hillshire. Both Pilgrim's and Tyson shares opened modestly lower.

Krispy Kreme (KKD) shares dropped like dough into a deep fryer after reporting earnings that were in line with expectations but sales that were much lower than Wall Street expected to see. The stock is nearly more than 13%.

2. Tech stocks mixed: Shares in Google (GOOG) were weak, opening down more than 1%, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the tech giant plans to spend over $1 billion on a "fleet of satellites" designed to improve internet access in remote areas.

Apple (AAPL) failed to excite investors after unveiling new products at its Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday including iOS8 and a new health and home-related software. Shares are up 1% in early trading.

Related: How are Google and Apple faring against the rest of the CNN's Tech30?

3. Retailers struggle with sales: Dollar General (DG) shares opened higher despite the retailer reported a modest quarterly gain in sales and profit that failed to meet expectations. Investment bank Sterne Agee & Leach downgraded the stock to "Hold" from "Buy" and lowered its earnings expectations for the company.

Quiksilver (ZQK) shares fell as much as 45% in early trading after a disastrous quarterly earnings report that showed the surf and beach apparel company losing much more money than analysts anticipated.

4. Economic action on auto sales, factories: At 10 a.m. the U.S. Census Bureau will release its latest data on monthly factory orders. Later in the day investors will get a sense of how the auto sector is performing as data on vehicle sales is released for May.

A final reading from HSBC on China's manufacturing activity for May lagged market expectations.

5. Stocks overseas: European markets fell in midday trading following reports of a lower-than-expected Eurozone Consumer Price Index for May ahead of Thursday's meeting of the European Central Bank.

"Inflation, or indeed the lack thereof, is understood to be a key spur for official action," wrote Marc Chandler, currency strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman, in a market report. "It simply reinforces confidence that the ECB will cut rates on Thursday.

Asian markets were mixed.

First Published: June 3, 2014: 10:08 AM ET

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Why hasn't Main Street recovered like Wall Street?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Frustration over the uneven economic rebound is understandable. Stock prices have nearly tripled from their lows in 2009 and continue to shatter records. Meanwhile, the "real" economy remains painfully pedestrian.

Related: Why you don't feel recovered

Why have the past five years only increased the divide between Main Street and Wall Street? Look no further than the Federal Reserve stimulus measures.

"Monetary policy is a blunt instrument, not a surgical tool. It's much better at inflating assets than creating jobs," said Kristina Hooper, U.S. investment strategist at Allianz Global Investors, which manages nearly $500 billion in assets.

Main Street misses the ride up: There's little question the Fed has been among the biggest forces behind the Dow's 10,000-point climb.

With banks scared to lend and Congress unwilling or unable to inject additional fiscal stimulus, Ben Bernanke & Co. were left with little choice but to unleash monetary policy. The Fed's moves stabilized the financial system and encouraged bigger investors to get back into the market since putting money in the bank yielded almost no interest.

Of course, many Mom and Pop investors had already cashed out as they watched their retirement funds evaporate. While hedge funds and billionaires scooped up beaten down stocks, less affluent Americans didn't have the tolerance or resources to buy companies like Apple (AAPL) at truly historic discounts in 2009.

In fact, fewer Americans have money invested in the stock market now than a decade ago, according to Gallup.

CNNMoney wants to know: Did you benefit from the big stock market rise?

"Only a small group has participated in this recovery. While we have made a lot of progress, it has been unevenly distributed," said Hooper.

Sluggish job, wage growth: Corporate America is also operating at extremely lean levels as the memories of the crisis linger. That means some companies like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) continue to cut costs -- a business way of saying eliminating tens of thousands of people's jobs.

The U.S. has almost recovered the jobs lost in the Great Recession, but it's been a slow rebound.

While companies are always expanding or contracting, the hiring hasn't kept up with the job trimming. Businesses simply expect the remaining employees to work harder.

All of this explains why some parts of the economy have returned to their pre-recession levels, private sector employment has not.

Even more alarming, many of the jobs that are created pay less than the ones lost during the recession. Real average hourly earnings for all U.S. employees decreased 0.3% in April from March.

Some companies are also scared to spend due to a lack of visibility over regulatory, health care and tax policies out of Washington.

"There is a vast array of uncertainty, which impedes the ability to plan. It's tough to navigate in a fog -- and that's what has descended on businesses in America," said Creatura.

Related: U.S. economy hits 5-year mark, but long way to go

Corporate America hoards cash: While many companies have done well since 2009, returning to record profitability, they have been cautious in their spending. Non-financial S&P 500 companies are sitting on an eye-popping $1.4 trillion of cash at the end of 2013, according to FactSet.

Normally companies would invest that money in new projects -- and the new equipment, factories and hires that comes with that. But they don't have the courage of incentives to deploy their cash right now.

Despite the fact that stocks climbed to record highs, capital expenditures fell by 4% in the fourth quarter of last year and inched up a meager 0.3% in 2013. That's down from annual growth rates of 10.5% in 2012 and 39.7% in 2011, FactSet said.

What little cash CEOs are spending is going into shareholder-friendly moves like stock buybacks that don't do much to stimulate broader economy.

"Management teams are now Pavlonian beings. They know exactly how to respond when they get increased cash flows: higher dividends and more buybacks," said Lawrence Creatura, vice president and portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

Income inequality deepens: The uneven nature of the current recovery has only added to the growing problem of income inequality in one of the world's wealthiest countries.

Pay data from Equilar shows CEOs now make about 257 times the average worker, up from 181 times in 2009.

If there's one somewhat bright spot for Main Street, it's that the recession wasn't worse. And the slow nature of the current recovery increases the chances it can continue chugging along before the inevitable next downturn.

"We could potentially see this type of recovery be one that continues for a while and enables those that haven't participated to catch up," said Hooper.

First Published: June 3, 2014: 10:57 AM ET

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China clamps down on Google ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

Google has tussled with Beijing on several occasions over censorship issues.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Authorities in Beijing restricted access to Google (GOOGL) services this week, according to Chinese censorship watchdog GreatFire.org, rendering the search engine as well as products like Gmail and Google Calendar inaccessible to millions of Internet users.

The move came ahead of the 25th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, discussion of which is still strictly censored by the Chinese government.

Google isn't completely blocked in China: Some Chinese residents have still have able to reach Google services, according to the company's public data, but total traffic has dropped in recent days.

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Related: Banned! 7 things you won't find in China

Services like Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR) and Google-owned YouTube, meanwhile, have long been completely blocked by the government.

Google has tangled with Beijing on a number of occasions over censorship issues. The site and all its major services were blocked back in 2012 as the Communist Party met for its once-a-decade gathering to appoint new leaders.

In January 2010, Google threatened to shut down its Chinese search site at Google.cn, citing censorship rules and the discovery of a cyber attack on its network infrastructure. Two months later, the company said it would stop censoring searches on Google.cn and automatically redirect Chinese users to its uncensored Hong Kong site.

The Hong Kong site and other international Google portals have been restricted in China during this latest disruption, GreatFire said.

First Published: June 3, 2014: 11:06 AM ET

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Handgun sales are hot

The market for handguns is driven by a growing interest in self-defense and concerns about tighter gun restrictions.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Smith & Wesson (SWHC)'s handgun sales jumped by nearly a third at the end of last year, and Colt Manufacturing sold twelve times as many handguns early this year than it did in 2013.

And now Colt is moving to boost its handgun production by 50%.

Related: Assault rifle boom cools off

The market for handguns is driven by a growing interest in self-defense and concerns about tighter gun restrictions.

"[New buyers] are people who have never touched a gun before and want to get into shooting," said Ben Shim, a gun industry analyst for CRT Capital and a NRA instructor.

Americans get more concerned about both personal safety and the right to bear arms every time there is a mass shooting, like the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012, and such massacres have been happening frequently.

Last week, a man killed seven people in California, including himself, using two handguns -- a Glock and a Sig Sauer -- and a knife. While some people view these events as a reason to restrict guns, others view such events as an incentive to buy guns.

Related: Pink is the new black for women who shoot guns

Sales of compact pistols are growing at double the rate of handguns overall, according to CRT.

That's why Colt recently unveiled a new compact handgun, the .380-caliber Mustang. Colt hopes it will compete with the lightweight Glock, one of the most popular pistols in the world. Small-frame pistols are also preferred by women, a fast-growing demographic in the shooting community.

"This is a hot category," said Shim. As an example, her cites Smith & Wesson's Bodyguard .380 pistol, which weighs less than 12 ounces and has a barrel shorter than three inches. "These are pistols that you can literally put in your pocket and they won't bulge out or make your pants drop. If someone jumps you, you can shoot through your coat pocket."

The market shift toward handguns has been so pronounced that Colt is repurposing some of its manufacturing equipment and personnel that were dedicated to making semiautomatic rifles to make handguns instead.

Related: Female gun instructors in hot demand

Another indication that handgun sales are on the rise is the jump in the number of concealed carry permits, which apply only to handguns.

These permits jumped 30%, to 9 million, between 2010 and 2012, according to the most recent figures from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. They've likely increased since then, says NSSF spokesman Lawrence Keane, since Illinois passed a new law allowing permits for gun owners to carry concealed firearms.

"There's no question that handgun sales have been steadily increasing," said Keane. "[People] are largely purchasing handguns for self-protection."

First Published: June 2, 2014: 9:58 AM ET

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Did the recession help save marriages?

More than 60% of couples married after the recession began discussed their credit score before getting married compared to only 35% of couples who got hitched pre-recession.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Couples who got married in 2008 or later were far more likely to come clean about their credit history before saying 'I do' -- and to continue to discuss their finances into their married years, according to an Experian Consumer Services survey of roughly 1,000 married adults.

"If you have a spouse who lost his or her job that would definitely bring finances and money to the forefront of the family economics," said Becky Frost, consumer education manager at Experian Consumer Services.

Experian found that couples who were married after the recession reported a variety of good behaviors that can help couples avoid money squabbles.

• More than 60% of post-recession couples discussed their credit score before getting married, compared to only 35% of pre-recession couples.
• More than 80% of post-recession couples discussed financial goals with their spouse at least monthly, compared to 65%.
• Post-recession couples said they would discuss a purchase that costs an average of more than $256 with their spouse before making it. In contrast, pre-recession couples would feel comfortable spending more than $1,000 without checking with their partner.

Related: Marriage and money: Our biggest mistake

But just talking once about money is not enough. The most successful couples regularly discuss their finances to ensure they're on the same page, said Pat Seamen, a senior director at the nonprofit National Endowment for Financial Education.

Disclosing your credit history early in a relationship is especially important because it can affect everything from the mortgage interest you will pay as a couple to the car you can afford, she said.

"If you've got pristine credit and your fiancee's credit is not so good, you need to know that because it will have a bearing on how you apply for loans or credit going forward," she said.

Experian found that credit scores had been a source of stress for 21% of married couples surveyed. But those couples who had discussed their scores before getting hitched were far more likely to agree.

Related: Average wedding bill hits $30,000

KEEP MONEY FROM WRECKING YOUR MARRIAGE

Whether you're planning to tie the knot or have been married for years, here are some tips for talking about money with your spouse:

Come clean about your debt: Whether it's hefty student loan debt or a ding on your credit report from an unpaid bill, be honest about your financial situation.

While your credit score won't be combined with your spouse's when you get married, your ability to reach joint financial goals can still be affected by your spouse's score.

Pay attention to joint accounts: Whether it is a credit card or home loan, missed payments on joint accounts can ding both of your credit scores. So if you let your spouse handle the bills, know that his or her missteps could affect your bottom line, too.

Talk during the good and the bad times: Don't just talk about money when you hit a rough patch. If you make it a habit to speak often, you'll be less likely to associate money with conflict.

Plus, it's easier to hash out an action plan when you're both calm.

First Published: June 2, 2014: 10:00 AM ET

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Stocks reverse course as Nasdaq retreats

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Here are five things you need to know about Monday's market action:

1. Another day, another record: U.S. stocks opened flat to slightly higher in the first day since investors closed out the record-setting month of May. The early gains were enough to push the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 to fresh all-time highs. A positive finish would represent the Dow's sixth record close this year and the S&P 500's 15th.

The Dow went as high as 16,740 this morning, and the S&P 500 hit 1,925 for the first time, but both indexes are now slightly negative.

The Nasdaq, which also had a strong May, quickly lost ground, trading down more than 0.4% by midmorning. The index is being dragged lower by tumbling shares of Google (GOOG), Tesla (TSLA) and Facebook (FB). Biotech stocks like Biogen (BIIB) were also in reverse.

Related: These stock market 'records' actually aren't that great

2. Big movers -- Apple, Broadcom, Gannett, Protective Life: Shares of Broadcom (BRCM) bounced 12% after the company revealed it is considering a possible sale of its cellular baseband business. The chip maker said a sale or wind down could generate $700 million in savings.

Gannett (GCI) rose 2% after Barron's argued the media company could surge 40%, especially if it follows in the footsteps of peers by spinning off its publishing assets like USA Today.

Protective Life (PL) surged 15% amid reports that Japan's Dai-ichi Life Insurance is considering acquiring the Alabama-based company.

Related: 5 sizzling stocks in May

Apple (AAPL) could see its stock gyrate a lot this week based on developments out of its Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on Monday in San Francisco. Investors are eager to learn more about Apple's efforts to enter new product categories.

The stock traded as high as $644 on Friday after the Beats deal closed and in anticipation of this week's conference. That's the closest the stock has been to its all-time high just over $700 from September 2012.

Related: Apple stock: How high can it go?

Shares of American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust (HCT)raced 10% higher after it agreed to be sold to Ventas (VTR) for $2.6 billion in cash and stock. Both companies are health care real-estate investment trusts, or REITs.

Energy and utility stocks were largely unmoved by the sweeping EPA rules unveiled on Monday aimed at slashing the power sector's carbon emissions 30% by 2030.

3. Positive data from China: A reading of manufacturing activity in China released over the weekend showed the country's factory sector continued to strengthen after a rough start to the year.

The data has boosted investor confidence, but not everyone was able to react to the news since a handful of Asian markets were closed for a holiday. The Nikkei in Japan surged by just over 2%.

Related: Fear & Greed Index: Still in neutral

4. Economic data and earnings: Investors received some disappointing news on the manufacturing front. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index unexpectedly dipped to 53.2 in May from 54.9 in April. That means the pace of manufacturing expansion slowed a bit.

Hertz Global (HTZ), Krispy Kreme (KKD) and Quicksilver (ZQK) will report earnings after the closing bell.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

5. International movements: European markets were slightly higher in midday trading, with the FTSE 100 in London and the Dax 30 in Germany outpacing CAC 40 in France.

The main stock market index in Spain is up around 0.25%. It was higher earlier in the day, with investors unfazed by news that King Juan Carlos is abdicating (or perhaps welcoming it). Markets were more interested in weekend news of an economic stimulus package, including a cut in the corporate tax rate to 25% from 30%.

First Published: June 2, 2014: 9:52 AM ET

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Stocks open lower after Tuesday's record highs

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Here are the key things to keep your eye on throughout the trading day:

Not looking good for more record highs today: The S&P 500 hit a record high on Tuesday of 1,911.9. Investors are watching to see if the five-year bull market can continue its steady march upward, although early trading indicates that might not be the case today.

The Dow is off about 20 points, and Nasdaq is down about 0.25%.

Although headlines have touted the record highs notched by the S&P 500 and other indexes, it's important to recall that the S&P 500 is about 10% off the frothy peaks of the dot-com era when adjusted for inflation.

Related: CNNMoney's Tech30

Telsa downgraded to junk bond status: Telsa Motors (TSLA) got zapped with junk bond status by ratings agency Standard & Poors, which pegged the electric carmaker's $3 billion in debt a few notches below investment grade. The ratings firm said Tesla's narrow focus and lack of track record were behind the ratings. Shares were down over 2% in the morning.

Related: S&P slaps junk bond rating on Tesla

Retail stocks on the move: Sometimes the shoe really doesn't fit. DSW (DSW), a discount shoe outlet, lost a quarter of its market cap in early trading, as earnings came in at the lower end of expectations and same-store sales growth fell 3.7% from the year before.

Michael Kors (KORS) reported results before the opening bell, and profits were a bit better than expected. The stock is down slightly. Kors shares are up more than 17% since the start of the year as the brand seems to be winning the battle for upper middle class purse consumers.

Related: Coach is going out of fashion among investors

Homebuilder stocks picking up: Toll Brothers (TOL) reported surprisingly strong earnings before the open, bouncing back from a disappointing start to the year because of the winter weather. Revenue was closer in line with expectations. It was one of the few stocks enjoying a bounce this morning with shares up ovef 1.5%.

A handful of other homebuilder stocks are also seeing some small gains as well, including D.R. Horton (DHI), Lennar (LEN) and PulteGroup (PHM).

International stocks: Eruope mixed, Asia higher. European markets were tipping lower towards the end of trading, while Asian markets ended mostly higher. The Shanghai Composite led the way with a 0.8% jump.

First Published: May 28, 2014: 10:07 AM ET

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