In an exclusive interview on CNBC famed stock trader Warren Buffett talked about the economy and stock market. He said that the economy is still in "shambles" and he see no sign of a bottom in the recession right now.

However, he said that he is optimistic on stocks "over the next 10 years."

A proposed merger between Xstrata and Anglo American came to an end yesterday. Xstrata put the deal on the table and offered it to Anglo, but the latter company turned down the offer. It did so under heat from Africa.

I'm sure you have your own method to picking out what stocks you like to buy. You might be a value investor who buys based on fundamentals. Or you may be a growth investor who looks for companies that have big earnings growth. Whatever type of stock you buy you need a method to know when to buy and sell.

I know you want to generate capital gains in the stock market. You need to use a strategy that fits the current market environment and your own personality to do that.

Over the past few days a high level meeting among the financial leaders of the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India, and China has taken place in response to the global economic crisis.

With the stock market having its big rally the past few months a lot of people are now predicting a big economic boom and expecting huge gains in stocks through the rest of the year.

But outside of a few economic reports most signs still point to a sluggish economy. For instance the NPD Group said yesterday that spending for video games fell 23% last month from where it was a year ago.

Americans lost collectively $1.3 trillion dollars in the first quarter of 2009 - putting them back to where they were in 2004.

Houses lost more value and of course stocks did too - although we have seen a rebound in the stock market since March, although it is the emerging market BRIC stock markets that have done the best.

Today it was announced that Brazil's economy shrank 1.8% from a year ago in the last quarter. Economists were expecting a decline of 2.8% so Brazil's GDP report wasn't as bad as expected.

Last week when Treasury Secretary Geithner went to China the Chinese state newspapers ran editorials expressing fear over the value of the dollar and the growing debt in the United States.

When Geithner spoke at a Chinese University he was laughed at when he said that Chinese investments in the US were safe. Yes laughed at!

In a lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal today the nation's most important financial newspaper calls the jobless numbers "bogus."