Investment world

Pick the right sectors, boost returns with dividends and diversify using a fund. Small-cap stocks generally outperform when interest rates are low, which isn't exactly reassuring in a year when the Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates a few times. Fortunately, where small caps are concerned, interest rates aren't the only thing to consider. The small-cap market is generally defined as the smallest 10 percent of stocks, says Eric D. Nelson, a certified financial analyst and managing principal of Servo Wealth Management in Oklahoma City. Although rising rates can be a drag, small-cap stocks will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the tax code changes this year and have had some of the biggest positive earnings since December, says Sean Lynch, managing director of equity strategies for Wells Fargo Private Bank in Omaha, Nebraska. This asset class also supplies essential growth to any portfolio. From 1926 through 2016, small-cap stocks returned an average of

Ron Baron says Tesla's problems are only temporary. Tesla Inc (Nasdaq: TSLA ) has its fair share of detractors, but one of the company's largest investors is convinced that Tesla's share price still has explosive long-term potential. Baron Capital founder Ron Baron says investors that are hung up on Tesla's cash burn are being too short-sighted, and patient investors have some huge gains ahead. Baron Capital has roughly $27 billion in assets under management, and Tesla currently makes up 1.6 percent of its portfolio. Baron first bought Tesla stock in 2014. "I think we're going to make 20 times our money because the opportunity is so enormous," Baron said on CNBC Monday. He said cash burn is forgivable for a company like Tesla, which is aggressively building factories and infrastructure for the future. Tesla has said it expects its Model 3 gross margins to be "highly positive" by the third quarter and has assured investor

Make budgeting easy by using the right method and online tools. For many consumers, the cornerstone of a healthy financial life is a strong budget . "A budget is a very powerful tool," says Jamie Ebersole, acertified financial planner in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. "It gives you the ability to think further ahead so you can make plans for goals coming up." There's no one-size-fits-all strategy for building and maintaining a budget, experts say. Instead, savvy consumers may need to try a few strategies, tools or tactics to land on the one that works best for them. If you've tried unsuccessfully to budget before, changing up your budgeting strategy may be the key to doing better in the future. Here's what to know about creating a budget – and maintaining it over the long haul. Understand what a budget is. "[A budget is] an organizational tool to help you identify how it is you want to spend your money," says Douglas B

Learn how to break bad habits, fix your finances and reach your money goals If you're always running out of cash before your next paycheck, you may be in a recurring cycle of mismanaging your finances. Of course, some low-paying professions can contribute to your financial woes. But maybe you're carrying too much debt . Or perhaps you're not budgeting well or you don't know where your money is going each month . While there are dozens of factors that could be keeping you in a cycle of struggling to pay your bills and eliminate debt , ask yourself if you're always broke due to any of these reasons – and learn how take action and boost your financial well-being . 1. You haven't planned ahead. "The primary reason people run out of money is a failure to understand just how much more expensive life will get over time," says Mike Pruitt, a certified financial planner with MBE Wealth Management in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. And if

Japan's economy contracts 0.6 percent in Jan-March quarter, as spending lags. — Japan's longest straight period of expansion in nearly three decades ended in the first quarter of this year as the economy shrank at an annualized rate of 0.6 percent. Growth for the previous quarter was also revised downward according to data released Wednesday that reflected weaker spending by consumers, businesses and the government. On a quarterly basis, Japan's gross domestic product dipped 0.2 percent, the Cabinet Office reported. Analysts had expected a contraction, the first quarter pullback in two years. It ended the longest straight period of uninterrupted growth since the late 1980s. "There wasn't any particular driver for the weakness — private consumption and public demand were flat while investment spending and net exports fell slightly," Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economic said in a commentary. He forecasts that growth will slip to 1.2 percent thi

The big day is finally here: Bitcoin Cash is going to receive several software upgrades that are expected to help the network process more transactions than Bitcoin. Rather than taking place at a specific block height, the hard fork will begin today, May 15 at 16:00:00 UTC. What can you expect from the hard fork?  The new upgrades will: Increase block size from 8MB to 32MB, allowing for faster transactions Expand data carrier size to 220 bytes Enable smart contracts The team behind the upgrade recommends that full node clients and miners upgrade their software to Bitcoin ABC 0.17.1, which was released back in April. It should be noted that, while this software upgrade is considered a hard fork, Bitcoin Cash holders will not receive any new coins, nor will a new cryptocurrency be created. If everything goes smoothly, the value of Bitcoin Cash’s old blockchain will be canceled, and BCH holders will be able to continuing using their coins on the new blockchain without a probl

A long-awaited change is finally coming to the international world of finance. Turns out, Ripple is no longer the only cryptocurrency project to be utilized by banks. Bitbond, an online lending platform from Germany that is only 5 years old, is  using Bitcoins to provide international loan payments . The bank is currently processing payments worth approximately $1 million in a month. The majority of clients are small businesses with loans of $50,000 or less. Germany is a global leader in cryptocurrency adoption, second only to the United States. Although not a major bank, Bitbond can set a precedent for the other, even more conservative establishments in the banking industry. The official website of the company states: “By innovating in the fields of payments and credit scoring, Bitbond makes financial inclusion a reality around the world. All payment transactions on Bitbond are conducted via the bitcoin blockchain. Therefore, our service is available worldwide via the internet

A top United States policy maker made positive remarks about Bitcoin. St. Louis Fed president  James Bullard  identified positive aspects of cryptocurrency, saying that crypto is “facilitating trade that would not otherwise occur. Some of that’s illegal, but some of that is avoiding costs that would otherwise be there.” Asked whether Bitcoin was a threat to the US dollar, Bullard voiced uncertainty about the potential competition the leading cryptocurrency could pose, saying, “I don’t think so at this point […]. We don’t know how the future’s going to unfold.” “My idea is that there’s a lot of currency competition going on right now,” and he added:  “The dollar has been the winner historically because it’s backed by the largest economy and a relatively stable policy in terms of low inflation and that’s going to be tough to beat. But a lot of people here want to beat it.” Regarding the blockchain, Bullard was much more openly bullish, saying “…we think blockchain technology is

Important economic news related to the Eurozone, the Inflation Rate in Germany and in the Euro-area should move the Euro today, after the important economic data of GDP Growth yesterday. Any soft data on the Inflation Rate in the Eurozone will lower bets on ECB changing its monetary policy in 2018. There are economic releases that have the potential to move also the US and the Australian Dollar, and the Japanese Yen. Overall moderate to high volatility is expected mostly for the Euro versus other currencies. Key economic events to focus on today in the forex market: European Session Germany: Inflation Rate YoY Final, France: IEA Oil Market Report, Eurozone: ECB Non-Monetary Policy Meeting, Inflation Rate MoM, Core Inflation Rate YoY Final, Inflation Rate YoY Final, ECB President Draghi Speech, ECB Coeure Speech, ECB Praet Speech, Switzerland: SNB Chair Jordan Speech Time: 06:00 GMT, 08:00 GMT, 09:00 GMT, 12:00 GMT, 12:30 GMT, 14:30 GMT, 16:00 GMT “The Eurozone consumer pr

Whatever your net worth, there are a growing number of ways to invest in women's success. Last year State Street launched the SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF (SHE), which invests in large-cap U.S. companies that rank high in their sectors for women in senior management. With an annual expense of just 20 basis points, it already has more than $350 million in assets. PAX World Investments offers the three-year-old Ellevate Global Women's Index Fund (PXWEX) in concert with Sallie Krawcheck, the cofounder of ElleVest. There's a 90-basis-point annual charge and $1,000 investment minimum. The fund has $175 million in assets and has beaten the global-equity benchmark MSCI World Index. Motif Investing, an online platform that packages fractional shares of individual stocks into portfolios, allows you to buy into its No Glass Ceiling Motif, for a $9.95 trading fee, with a $250 minimum. It's made up of public companies run by women, including PepsiCo, IBM, Oracle, Lo

Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc has navigated the storm of headwinds as the insurer returned to profit on the back of increased investment income. This stellar performance means the company is steadfast in its primary objective of maximizing the stakeholders’ wealth. For the year ended December 2017, Mutual Benefit’s posted a profit after tax of N1.02 billion from a loss of N1.34 billion recorded in 2016. The impressive performance was driven by a 174.09 percent surge income from treasury bills of N910.82 million in the period under review. Income from treasury bills form part of investment income of insurers. Some financial institutions made money from short term government securities when yields were between 18 percent and 22 percent from late 2016 to September 2017 as government intensified issuance of treasury bills to fund a budget deficit and curb inflation. However, yields on treasury bills have fallen to an all time low of 12 percent as government launch an aggressiv