Employers added far fewer jobs in May, leading the stock market to a major sell-off Friday morning.

THE TAKEAWAY: The jobs report — citing the fewest number of new jobs created in eight months — has spiked fears of a double-dip recession. That’s probably premature, but it does look like the recovery is on life support at the moment. Several leading economists have cut back their forecasts for 2011 growth in the last two weeks, and the poor jobs numbers add to the concern, the Washington Post reported.

Debt jitters in Europe led to a stronger dollar Monday (5/23), depressing prices on most commodities valued in dollars, including oil. This in turn sank the value of the two U.S. oil stocks we were watching over the weekend: Chevron and ExxonMobil.

If you had been prescient enough to buy June put options on the nearest-the-money strike prices for both stocks at Friday’s close, you would have profited modestly on Monday. Both oil stocks fell another 1 percent, accelerating Friday’s losses, and the June 100 put for Chevron gained $27, while the June 80 put for XOM rose $26. Holding 10 contracts of each, you’d have been up more than $500 on the day. Following is Sunday’s post on this topic: More…

The first computers to run on Google’s new Chrome operating system will go on sale June 15 with netbooks made by Samsung and Acer, the tech giant announced this week. The machines will test Google’s vision of an alternative to the Windows or Mac systems. The new system also will help determine whether consumers are ready to embrace a new generation of computers in which software and user files exist on the Internet “cloud” rather than on their hard drive.

General Motors is investing heavily in a new eight-speed transmission, part of an $8 billion investment plan that likely will add jobs in several states.

GM has had several profitable quarters since coming out of bankruptcy, and now it’s accelerating plans to invest in new technologies as well as existing plants. One key move has been a plethora of small, efficient new car models. Our advice: Keep the company on your watch list of potential stocks to add.

Apple has supplanted Google as the world’s most valuable brand worth $153 billion, according to the annual BrandZ survey by Milward Brown.

BrandZ is a brand-equity database with data from more than 650,000 consumers and professionals across 31 countries comparing more than 23,000 brands. The new survey has Apple taking the No. 1 spot in its “Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands” list with an estimated value of $153 billion. Google had owned the top spot the previous four years. More…

Seems like it was only last week that gold and silver were off to the races with gold hitting new all-time highs and silver seriously threatening the amazing $50-an-ounce mark only seen 30 years ago when a pair of wily oil tycoons tried to manipulate the market.

Oh wait, it WAS just last week!

The two most popular precious metals have been sliding in value all this week. In late trading Wednesday (5/4), gold was down $22.20 to $1,518 while silver was off $3.11 for the day to $39.47 — some $8, or nearly 20 percent, off last week’s peak. But is this because market anxiety, often a bullish factor for the metals, has tapered off with the U.S. military takedown of Osama bin Laden?

Not really. More…

Stock-index futures were higher ahead of Monday’s (5/2) market opening, and commodity prices dipped in the wake of the confirmed death of terror leader Osama bin Laden in a U.S. military special-operations raid. Stocks were modestly higher just after the opening bell as analysts predicted a “feel-good rally” would permeate market sentiment for at least the short term.

Just after the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange, however, all major stock indices were modestly lower as was crude oil, while precious metals were down sharply for the day.

But what about the longer term? More…

Silver reached a stunning 30-year high Monday (April 25), continuing a nine-day winning streak and outpacing gold’s record-setting surge as worries continue over U.S. debt, the value of the dollar and Mideast instability. The shiny gray metal closed Monday above $47 — a price not seen since the Hunt brothers, a pair of wily oil tycoons, tried to corner the silver market back in 1980.

Like gold, silver is seen as a safe haven for investors. The dollar’s weakness and the specter of inflation have driven up the prices of both precious metals. More…

CEO pay jumped 27 percent in 2010 even as companies were loathe to give raises to rank-and-file employees and slow to hire back workers laid off during the recession, USA Today reported.

This is certainly good news for CEOs, whose annual salary now averages $9 million. But trouble may loom on the horizon. There are signs, the newspaper reported, that investors may push back, given that much of corporations’ profits have come from cost-cutting. Also, new rules permit investors to take nonbinding votes on executive pay.

With you and your spouse balancing careers, investment objectives and other daily stress factors, how do you handle the demands of raising children—doing your best for the little ones while keeping the household running smoothly?

There’s certainly no shortage of advice out there. Writer/blogger Alan Paul has weighed in on the Tiger Mom controversy with a different perspective—that of the dad. Six years ago Paul, his wife and their three small children moved from suburban New Jersey to Beijing where they spent three and a half years watching Chinese, Western and other cultures live side by side. More…