General Electric Is Shockingly One of the Hottest Stocks of 2018

We're only finishing up the first trading week of 2018, and it's already proving eventful. For starters, stocks are following through on 2017's uber-bullish price action. The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 25,000 level for the first time in history this week, and investors are looking to even more upside in the year ahead. But the best-performing Dow component this year may surprise you. It's not last year's high-flyer Boeing Co. (BA) , or tech giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) . It's serial laggard General Electric (GE) . GE is up around 6.3% year-to-date, outperforming the rest of the market in a big way in the early days of 2018. And as GE's chart shows now, this could just be the beginning

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  Wall Street Futures Turn Red, Dollar Rebounds as Global Rally Eases

  The Street
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  These ‘Lucky 13’ dividend-rich stocks are better bets than the ‘Dogs of the Dow’

  MarketWatch

This person asked the internet if it was necessary to save so much for retirement — the response was surprising

When VintageBurtMacklin, as the Reddit user goes by, asked why everyone is advised to “save so much for retirement” — and if it is really the right move — the commenters of the personal finance thread of the online discussion site responded in full force. Apparently, they have been paying attention to the news of the looming retirement crisis affecting the country. VintageBurtMacklin shared his scenario: he took a new job after welcoming a new baby, and analyzed his budget, keeping in mind the typical advice that retirement savings should be maxed out before moving on to other financial goals, such as paying off a house or saving for college and new cars. “While I understand the importance of

Retail workers feel disruption from shifting shopper habits

The retail industry is being radically reshaped by technology, and nobody feels that disruption more starkly than 16 million American shelf stockers, salespeople, cashiers and others. The shifts are driven, like much in retail, by the Amazon effect — the explosion of online shopping and the related changes in consumer behavior and preferences. A Walmart worker dashes in and out of the grocery aisles, hand-picks products for online shoppers and brings them to people's cars.

• A look at retailers' new jobs amid a changing landscape

  Associated Press
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  Retail workers see shift amid changing landscape

  USA Today

Bitcoin is an asset, not a currency: Israel's central bank

Israel's central bank said on Monday it would not recognise virtual currencies such as bitcoin as actual currency and that it was difficult to devise regulations to monitor the risks of such activity to the country's banks and their clients. Deputy Governor Nadine Baudot-Trajtenberg said there had been public complaints Israeli banks were making it difficult for some customers to transfer money from their accounts to buy bitcoin. Other central banks faced the same problem.

• S.Korea inspects 6 banks over virtual currency services to clients

  Reuters
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  South Korea inspects six banks over virtual currency services to clien

  Reuters

Morning Brief: Apple investors say iPhones are bad for kids

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), PNC Financial (PNC), and BlackRock (BLK) are all scheduled to report earnings on Friday as the highly-anticipated fourth quarter earnings period gets underway. Celgene to buy Impact Biomedicines: U.S. biotech pharmaceutical firm Celgene Corp. said on Sunday that it had agreed to acquire Impact Biomedicines for as much as $7 billion, subject to certain milestones associated with regulatory hurdles and sales performance. Celgene is interested in Impact Biomedicines’ fedratinib, a kinase inhibitor that has shown promise as a potential treatment for a type of blood cancer called myelofibrosis, according to a statement put out jointly by both companies.

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  Celgene to Buy Cancer-Drug Maker Impact for $1.1 Billion

  Bloomberg
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  Celgene Will Pay Up To $7 Billion For Impact Biomedicines; Earnings Update Due | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis

  Investor's Business Daily

Bitcoin pulls back further from $17,000

The price of a single bitcoin continued to back away from the $17,000 level it reached over the weekend, as previously highflying cryptocurrency Ripple coins lost further ground. On Monday, the bitcoin spot price BTCUSD, -5.02% BTCUSD, -5.02% was down around 2% at $15,856.55, having hit around $17,135 on Saturday, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin futures for January BTCF8, -7.02% on the CME were changing hands at $15,875, a 4.5% drop from Friday’s settlement. On the CBOE, futures XBTF8, +12.21%  were changing hands at $15,960. The price of another cryptocurrency, Ripple coins, which surged 150% at one point last week, also continued to pull back. It was changing hands at $2.62 for a single coin

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  Ripple Gateways Can Freeze Users’ Funds at Any Time

  Medium
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  3 Cryptocurrencies That Skyrocketed by 800% (or More) in December

  Motley Fool

China currency outflows have eased with a weaker dollar

Johanna Chua of Citi says China has seen solid currency inflows for bond purchases and a weaker dollar stemming outflows.

China’s Foreign Reserves Extend Rising Streak Amid Capital Curbs

China’s foreign-exchange reserves posted an 11th straight monthly increase, capping a year of recovery amid tighter capital controls, a stronger yuan and resilient economic growth. The reserves climbed $20.7 billion to $3.14 trillion in December, according to a People’s Bank of China statement on Sunday, compared with a $3.13 trillion median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. That brought the full-year increase to $129 billion. The world’s largest foreign currency stockpile has been steadily rebounding since January, when it fell below $3 trillion for the first time in almost six years after the central bank propped up the yuan. The currency has come roaring back with authorities keeping a tight

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  China December FX Reserves Rise to $3.14 Trillion, Highest Since Sept 2016: Central Bank

  US News & World Report
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  China's Dec forex reserves rise to $3.14 trn, highest since Sept 2016

  Business Standard India

How to generate the income you need in retirement

You’ve spent your whole life saving for retirement . Now you’re finished working, and it’s time to start spending what you’ve saved. For many investors, the transition can be confusing or even traumatic. How will you tap your portfolio? As investors approach this transition from saving to spending they should take three steps: start with a retirement income plan, keep their portfolio invested and diversified, and then rebalance their portfolio periodically to generate the cash they require. Here we’ll discuss the last step — creating your paycheck when rebalancing. Why is this important? If you’re an investor, you’ve almost certainly heard of having an appropriate asset allocation to stocks and

China isn't just a manufacturing hub anymore, says bank

UBS has seen a 'more open field' for asset managers in China    2 Hours Ago | 02:59 Beijing's push to transition its economy has led to the country moving on from simply being known as the world's factory, according to a top executive at Swiss bank UBS. "A lot of things are being created now in China, rather than [it just] being a manufacturing hub," Kathryn Shih, president of UBS Asia Pacific, told CNBC on the sidelines of the UBS Greater China Conference in Shanghai. "China is at the forefront of a lot of changes in financial technology. So we see a lot of financial firms using China technology now, whether it's local firms or even international firms," she said. Changes have also come to the

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  China's economic transition is good news for its debt worries, economist says

  CNBC.com
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  China-focused hedge fund says entire supply chains will benefit from emerging tech

  CNBC.com

Volkswagen, Uber to Deploy Nvidia's Technology for Self Driving

Nvidia Corp., trying to spread its industry-leading graphics chip technology into new areas, said Uber Technologies Inc. and Volkswagen AG will use its artificial intelligence expertise to help bring self-driving cars to the roads. Uber, the largest ride-hailing company, will use Nvidia processors and software for its forthcoming fleet of self-driving vehicles, the chipmaker’s Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang said at the CES consumer electronics show Sunday in Las Vegas. Volkswagen will deploy Nvidia technology to develop an intelligent co-pilot system, the companies said, and Huang was joined on stage by Herbert Diess, VW brand chief. Nvidia is touting the tie-ups as a way of claiming

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  Nvidia Is Teaming Up With Aurora, Baidu and Uber to Build Next Gen Self-Driving Cars

  Fortune
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  Entrepreneurs Flock to Las Vegas for Giant Consumer Electronics Show

  VOA News

How the New Tax Law Affects Your Real Estate, Vacation Home

Ask us anything: We're getting questions from readers about the new tax law. While there's a lot still to be learned about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, people are asking about changes to the retirement savings credit and property taxes. No matter your question, we've got answers from some of the nation's top tax and financial planning experts. So, don't be shy. Send your questions about the new tax law to Robert.Powell@TheStreet.com. We'll try to answer and publish as many as we can about how it's going to affect your investments, retirement savings and taxes. Question: I am a real estate agent in Florida. My customers want to understand the tax impact on their second home purchases, specifically

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  6 Things to Know About Buying a Home Under New Tax Rules

  Motley Fool
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  New tax law could gut college sports programs

  The Des Moines Register

An Extreme Stock Market Means Gold Prices Will Keep Rallying

After a solid year, gold is looking very positive in 2018 and beyond, according to Tocqueville Asset Management. In a recently published year-end investor letter, Tocqueville's senior portfolio manager John Hathaway said that a new gold rally could be triggered by several factors, including extreme valuations of financial market assets, a worsening U.S. fiscal position, and rising inflation pressures. "Renewed interest in gold will be triggered by financial-market losses," he said in the letter. "Valuation excesses signify systemic risk." Hathaway reminded investors that risks and costs of holding physical gold are low, which makes it "a cheap insurance on a possible significant retreat from

Stocks surging because of fear of missing out: Investment...

Investors need to be careful as global stock markets continue to rally, Charles Newsome, divisional director at Investec Wealth and Investment, said.

Here’s what all 30 companies that make up the Dow industrials think about the tax cuts

President Donald Trump can make corporate America great, or at least more competitive, after he signed the tax bill into law Friday, according to a MarketWatch survey of the large multinational members of Dow Jones Industrial Average. Almost all the companies that responded applauded the legislation, mostly in the broadest sense and largely in corporate-speak without specifics, saying the lowered corporate tax rate would “allow” or “enhance” the ability of U.S.-headquartered companies to compete more fairly with overseas-based companies. The new tax law lowers the maximum corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. Don’t miss: Here are the winners and losers of the final version of the Republican tax

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  Insight: In possible boon for White House, Fed ready to lay low as tax plan kicks in

  Reuters
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  Big Oil Finds Hurdles Buried in Trump’s ‘America-First’ Tax Plan

  Bloomberg

Why retiring in America has become less attractive

Getting old in America isn’t what it used to be. In a worldwide study, the U.S. fell to No. 17 (down three spots from last year) in the Natixis Global Asset Management Global Retirement Index. The index ranks 43 mainly developed countries on their ability to offer its citizens a secure retirement. Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Sweden top the list. Why did the U.S. have such a dismal showing? The U.S. took hits in income equality, health care spending and life expectancy. While America may have the fifth-highest income per capita, we have the sixth lowest score for income equality, suggesting that retirement saving is difficult for average workers. Our life expectancy fell, yet we spend the

It's Nvidia's World, Investors Just Get to Profit in It

You ain't seen nothin' yet. That's the message Goldman Sachs (GS) is putting out about Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) after a stellar performance in 2017. Nvidia was the best-performing chipmaker last year, and the best-performing component in the entire S&P 500 the year before. Now, as semiconductor peers get roiled by concerns over chip design flaws, Nvidia looks positioned to hand investors big returns for yet another calendar year. Goldman reiterated Nvidia as a buy, affirming a $228 12-month price target for shares. Without a doubt, Nvidia is enjoying some tailwinds across multiple product lines right now. The firm's GPUs, historically used for accelerating video game graphics, are being used in a

Oilfield-services stocks are about to stage a big rebound, Credit Suisse says

After a difficult 2017 for the energy sector, this is the right time for investors to buy shares of oilfield-services and equipment companies, according to Credit Suisse analyst James Wicklund. Shares of oilfield-services companies plummeted as crude oil prices tumbled in 2014 and 2015. But as oil rallied in 2016, the stocks were even more volatile than the commodity, as investors looked ahead. The action was brutal when the rally stalled in 2017. Here’s a four-year chart for West Texas intermediate crude oil (WTI) CL1, -0.48% : Here’s the action over the same period for the S&P 1500 Composite Oil and Gas Equipment and Services subsector: You could have made a lot of money if you had precisely

Analysts expect their favorite Nasdaq stocks to rise as much as 43% in 2018

Big Nasdaq companies outperformed in last year’s broad stock market rally, and analysts are expecting more gains in 2018. We’ll show you analysts’ favorite Nasdaq 100 stocks, while also listing the companies that analysts expect to post the largest increases in sales in 2018. The Nasdaq 100 Index NDX, +1.04%  is made up of the largest 100 companies included in the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.83% which has more than 3,300 members. Here’s how the total returns of these tech-heavy indices have compared with the S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.70% over the past five years: The Nasdaq 100 was the strongest performer in 2017 and also been the best five-year performer. Here’s a breakdown of which Nasdaq 100

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  Earnings Could Boost Asia Stocks to New Record Highs

  Bloomberg
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  Wall Street Futures Turn Red, Dollar Rebounds as Global Rally Eases

  The Street

4 simple and effective ways to help a young person get a jump on retirement

There’s plenty of stressful news these days, and by and large I’m used to hearing or reading about unpleasant developments. But I was particularly alarmed by a report this fall that Congress was considering drastic cutbacks in the contribution limits to 401(k) and similar retirement plans. Currently, the maximum annual contribution to such plans is $18,500 ($24,500 for workers age 50 and older). These contributions are tax-deferred, meaning the money isn’t taxed until it is withdrawn, presumably after retirement when workers may be in lower tax brackets. Some House Republicans were thinking of reducing tax free or tax deductible contributions to as little as $2,400. The difference between death

Insight: In possible boon for White House, Fed ready to lay low as tax plan kicks in

U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers have come to view Donald Trump's tax overhaul as a short-term economic boost that will neither permanently supercharge the economy, as the president says, or cause an immediate disruption that would require a central bank response, as some analysts have warned. The interviews offer the most detailed look yet at a key issue -- whether the changes in the tax code might prompt the Fed to raise rates more quickly and thus blunt the new law's impact.

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  U.S. bank gains from tax law start with red ink

  Reuters
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  RPT-INSIGHT-In possible boon for White House, Fed ready to lay low as

  Reuters