When riots, rhetoric and solar event eclipse earnings growth

US STOCKS fell last week and the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped one of its longest ever streaks without a major sell-off as it plunged more than 2 per cent on Thursday.

The rally could be back on track this week, depending on what Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen says in a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The chest- and war-drum beating match between the US and North Korea stopped last week, making what felt like it could be another Cuban missile crisis seem like just another bluff from the regime of Kim Jong Un.

For bricks-and-mortar retailers, the apocalypse remains nigh, however. Among the remaining companies with high investor expectations, sportswear retailers rolled over last week, in the wake of disappoint…