With the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games tonight, billions of people will spend the next two weeks thinking from a global perspective. That's a viewpoint that investors already know quite well, with Europe's ongoing debt crisis and threats of economic slowdowns elsewhere around the world. But for today, the stock market seems squarely focused on domestic concerns, with the first read on second-quarter U.S. GDP coming in with growth of just 1.5%. That may sound like bad news, but it has once again raised hopes that the Federal Reserve will take measures to speed up the pace of recovery, and that sent the Dow Jones Industrials
Merck
ExxonMobil
Finally, McDonald's
Let the games begin!
The Olympics are a fascinating spectacle as we watch athletes from around the world give it their all. Sometimes, though, it seems like it takes an Olympian effort just to find the best investments. To get some promising stock names that could put you in medal contention, take a look at The Motley Fool's latest special report, where you'll find three stocks that combine growth and strong dividends in a single package.