Investing

Not every company is slashing its dividend these days. Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings, sending more money out to their shareholders.

Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street, and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we use our "This Just In" column to examine some of these picks -- and the track records of the companies behind them -- so individuals can make better investing decisions.

Smaller is better? Some might call that idea an affront to a deeply ingrained American mantra of bigger, better, stronger. In the auto business, however, the answer to that question is getting increasingly obvious.

If the last two years have taught me anything, it's that I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am -- and neither is anyone else.

Back in my freshman year of high school, I embarked on an unusual journey. I had no way of knowing it at the time, but it was one that would forever change my life.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) built a tablet computer. Kinda, sorta. So did Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), and nobody knows how many tablets we'll see running the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android softwaresoon enough. So there's a totally legit tablet war brewing; will Apple crush its enemies? Nobody knows.

The new RFP is here! The new RFP is here!

Lupus hasn't seen a new drug developed specifically for it in the last 50 years, although Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline are close to getting one approved. Merck (NYSE: MRK), Vertex Pharmaceuticals , and others are trying to crack into the hepatitis C market since the current offerings available from Roche and Merck only cure about half the patients they're used in.

The Fool gave out some investing tips this week (as always), sparked some outrage, and turned an investor's eye toward a much-hyped device called the iPad.

The steel industry, while continuing to improve somewhat, is still struggling to recover from economic difficulties. U.S. Steel (NYSE: X), the largest of the domestic steelmakers, has turned in a quarter that was hardly worth writing home about.