Today in Globe Business

Rally leaves investors giddy - for now

Hopes that maybe, just maybe, the nation's beleaguered banks are on the mend swept Wall Street yesterday, unleashing a breathtaking stock market rally that left investors a bit giddy but had many experts warning that this rally, like so many before it, could falter as quickly as it began.

After months of disheartening losses, investors finally got a taste of what they desperately craved: a glimmer of good news in the financial industry - from none other than Citigroup, the biggest and most troubled of the nation's troubled big banks.

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Madoff is likely to face a life term

Bernard L. Madoff will almost certainly be spending the rest of his life in prison.

Federal authorities yesterday charged the accused swindler with 11 felonies, including four counts of fraud and three counts of money laundering. Madoff, 70, faces up to 150 years in jail and plans to plead guilty tomorrow, his lawyers said in court.

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Fidelity wants to hold your hand

It's not easy peddling financial advice when people are queasy about opening their quarterly retirement account statements.

But Fidelity Investments, seizing on what it views as an opportunity in uncertain times, will introduce a three-pronged financial guidance program in an effort to reassure wary investors buffeted by the turbulent economy, the company said yesterday.

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Citizens chief executive looks to renew tradition

PROVIDENCE - Citizens Financial Group chief executive Ellen Alemany wasn't around in the 1990s when the bank began its growth into the second-largest lender in New England. But with both Citizens and its parent company hurting, Alemany is replaying the strategy that worked so well in the past.

That means Citizens will renew its traditional emphasis on basic lending and customer service, growing business by increasing its take of old-fashioned bank deposits.

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Tucci: EMC is positioned for growth

Joe Tucci, the chief executive of data storage giant EMC Corp. in Hopkinton, said yesterday the world economy will shrink in 2009 for the first time since World War II - but that EMC will keep right on growing.

Speaking in Boston to a group of institutional investors, Tucci said EMC's broad array of storage, security, and virtualization products should let the company increase its lead over rivals despite a brutal recession. "We do believe we're going into this strong," said Tucci, "and we are going to, across the board, make sure we gain share in this environment."

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