Apple didn’t say it was hiring 20,000 new workers, nor bringing back all of its overseas cash

Apple Inc. announced a series of plans Wednesday that were celebrated as promises to hire thousands of workers and bring home all of its overseas cash. Well, not necessarily. Apple AAPL, -0.45%  said in its release that the company planned to “create over 20,000 new jobs through hiring at existing campuses and opening a new one.” The key word there is “create,” which Apple really likes to use when discussing jobs: The company even has a portion of its website dedicated to “job creation” that claims it is “responsible for 2 million jobs” in the United States, most of which are jobs “attributable to the App Store ecosystem.” Apple currently employs 84,000 people in the U.S., it said Wednesday,

Netflix, Starbucks, and a government shutdown — What you need to know for the week ahead

The biggest political story all week was the impending government shutdown, which took effect at midnight on Friday. During the most recent 16-day shutdown in 2013, the S&P 500 gained 3.1%. Economists at Goldman Sachs estimated that each week the government is shut down in the first quarter would take 0.2% off first quarter GDP. Meanwhile, Treasury yields continued their recent market higher with the two-year Treasury yield settling above 2.05% and the 10-year Treasury settling at 2.64%, above the 2.63% Jeff Gundlach called out earlier this month as a key level for the benchmark government bond.

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  3 Things to Watch in the Stock Market This Week

  Motley Fool
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  Netflix, Ford and More Big Earnings to Watch For This Week

  247wallst.com

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

GOLDMAN SACHS: The government shutdown will take a toll on the US economy, but the pain won't last long

Goldman Sachs says the government shutdown will result in a 0.2% reduction in first-quarter GDP for every week it persists. Expect the government shutdown to slowly drain the US economy, says Goldman Sachs. Now that the federal government has failed to successfully negotiate a funding bill, first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) will slip by 0.2 percentage points for each week the shutdown persists, according to Goldman.

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  Trump suggests ‘nuclear option’ in Senate to end shutdown

  BostonGlobe.com
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  With government shut down, spending bill vote set for 1 a.m. Monday

  UPI

Ford earnings: Disappointing outlook, stock weakness among stumbling blocks

Ford Motor Co. comes to the week of its fourth-quarter earnings release hobbled by weak guidance and lows for its stock. The auto maker is scheduled to report results after the bell on Wednesday. Ford’s guidance earlier this month has disappointed Wall Street, and analysts are likely to scour earnings for signs the company can weather the storm. Bright points for Ford F, -0.58%  include its best-selling pickup trucks and SUVs, the type of vehicles that U.S. residents have taken a marked liking in recent years at the expense of sedans and compacts. The company is also looking at launching compact SUVs this year, which have also grown in popularity. “That’s where the profits are, and where the

The Singapore Exchange has gathered a share of Belt and r...

Sutat Chew of the Singapore Exchange says Chinese firms took to the bourse last year to raise equity and debt funds that were part of Belt and Road initiatives.

Twitter's Noto Is Said to Be Among Finalists as SoFi CEO

Anthony Noto, Twitter Inc.’s chief operating officer, is in talks with Social Finance Inc. to become the online lending company’s new chief executive officer.  San Francisco-based SoFi has been searching for a leader since September, when co-founder and CEO Mike Cagney departed amid turmoil at the firm. Noto has yet to accept an offer, and talks could still fall apart, according to people familiar with the matter. He is one of fewer than a handful of finalists for the role, with as many as two women and two men in the running, said the people, who asked not to be identified since the matter is private. SoFi declined to comment. Twitter spokeswoman Kristin Binns said, “As a policy, we don’t comment

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  SoFi in talks with top Twitter exec about CEO position: WSJ

  Reuters
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  SoFi in discussions with top Twitter executive Anthony Noto over CEO job: Source

  CNBC

Many companies are not waiting for the Brexit process end...

Nicolas Mackel of Luxembourg for Finance says companies are making decisions to relocate operations without waiting for the end of Brexit talks.

Stock Market Bears Are the Dumbest Thing on Wall Street

The stock market is on fire in 2018. In just 13 trading sessions, the S&P 500 and Dow have rallied close to 5% each, with the Nasdaq closing in on a 6% year-to-date gain. So what's with the melancholy attitude, Wall Street bears? There's no sugar coating it: the stock market will, at some point, endure a correction. But timing is what needs to take focus here. Some of the best and most respected analysts on the Street have said stocks will continue to rally in 2018. And they have good reason to be bullish: tax reform is likely to unleash a wave of much better than expected profit reports this year and next. Giant companies such as Action Alerts Plus holding Apple (AAPL) , Boeing (BA) and Disney

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  3 Things to Watch in the Stock Market This Week

  Motley Fool
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  Wall Street Week Ahead: Where Netflix goes, Big Tech may follow

  Reuters

Credit Suisse Plans Low Bonus Pool Increase for 2017

Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, plans to increase its bonus pool for last year as the lender makes progress on its three-year restructuring plan, two people familiar with the plans said. Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende earlier reported that the pool would probably increase by about 10 percent. Credit Suisse declined to comment.

Amazon's Monthly Prime Price Hike Might Just Be Followed by an Annual Hike

One of my 2018 Amazon.com (AMZN) predictions -- that Prime would see a price hike -- just partly came true. And it wouldn't be altogether shocking if it went from being partly to completely true by year's end. This morning, Amazon announced that the price for a U.S. Prime subscription paid on a monthly basis would be rising by $2 to $12.99 per month, or nearly $156 on an annualized basis. For now, however, the price of an annual Prime membership, which was last hiked in early 2014, remains at $99. Clearly, Amazon is trying to motivate Prime members on monthly subscriptions to switch to the annual plan, which likely has less churn and (since credit cards are billed just once each year) carries

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  Amazon increases its monthly Prime membership rate to $12.99

  Fox 59 News - fox59.com
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  Amazon Raises Prime Membership Fees: What You Need to Know

  Motley Fool

Amazon's Cashier-Less Store Opening Monday Has a Secret Agenda

If Amazon's (AMZN) futuristic new convenience store is a success, the job profession known as cashier may be extinct within 20 years. Amazon Go, a cashier-free convenience store concept, will finally swing open its doors to the public on Monday in Seattle. The store has been in test form by Amazon employees since 2016. John Q public will be able to shop for groceries at the 1,800 square foot store, and once they are finished, walk out without checking out. The company will use technology that automatically detects when products are taken from, or returned, to shelves and track those items in a virtual shopping cart. Amazon will then charge the Amazon accounts of shoppers shortly after and send

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  Amazon Go: see inside Amazon's new store without a checkout line

  USA Today
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  Amazon to open its first cashier-less store in downtown Seattle

  The Telegraph

THE INSURTECH REPORT: How financial technology firms are helping — and disrupting — the nearly $5 trillion insurance industry

The global insurance industry is worth nearly $5 trillion, and insurance companies are at risk of losing a share of this valuable market to new entrants. Some are helping incumbents deliver better end products, while others are directly competing with legacy players.

Merck leaps past rivals with latest lung cancer drug results

Merck & Co. Inc. shares surged 5.8% in extremely heavy trade Tuesday after the company announced that its key cancer drug Keytruda had positive results in a late-stage clinical trial for advanced lung cancer. Keytruda has already been approved for this indication, last year. But the latest results should support the Food and Drug Administration’s decision and pose a setback for competitors Roche RHHBY, +0.59%  and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. BMY, +0.73% They also support the company’s MRK, +0.25%  move to change the design of the phase 3 trial last fall, despite pushback from Wall Street, cancer research expert Brad Loncar said. Merck’s recent results are “actually about as big as it gets,” Loncar,

How Interest Rates Affect Every Aspect of Your Personal Financial Life

If you've ever made a student loan payment or carried a credit card balance into a new month, you already know how interest rates work. In those cases, it's the percentage tacked onto your principal debt, or the price you pay later for borrowing money now. The federal funds rate (FFR), the interest rate of all interest rates, is calculated by the Federal Reserve and determines how much a bank needs to pay if it borrows money from another bank.

Stock investors don't seem to care about government shutdowns — but this one comes right in the middle of earnings season

After Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, were unable to pass a spending bill by midnight Friday, the US government has entered a partial shutdown, with all nonessential services going into a freeze. Historical data suggests that a big market move shaking stocks is unlikely, but a shutdown would still be concerning to investors. "Although a government shutdown sounds scary, the reality is it has been a non-event historically for equities,” Ryan Detrick, a senior market strategist at LPL Financial, said in an email.

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  Will Donald Trump still get paid during the government shutdown?

  HelloGiggles
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  Democrats kill stopgap spending bill; government headed for shutdown

  Los Angeles Daily News

IBM could struggle just to meet its disappointing outlook

International Business Machines Corp. will be challenged in the short term to stabilize its margins, meet its somewhat disappointing outlook and maintain a minuscule tax rate, analysts said Friday. IBM IBM, -3.99%  shares started falling late Thursday and dropped 4% to close at $162.37 Friday, after the company offered a disappointing outlook along with an earnings beat and return to revenue growth following 22 straight quarters of declines. Friday marked the biggest one-day percentage drop for the stock in six months, when shares fell 4.2% on July 19, and wiped out gains from earlier in the week. By comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.21%  , which counts IBM as a component,

• Analysts Expect Five9 Inc (FIVN) to Post $0.04 EPS

  The Cerbat Gem
• Brokerages Expect Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (FRGI) to Announce $0.13 EPS

  The Cerbat Gem

Why colleges and students should pay close attention to Amazon’s HQ2

Amazon selected 20 cities as finalists for the company’s HQ2, the company’s new headquarters. It could mean a lot for those cities — and the colleges and students located there. A new study suggests that a company’s decision to open a new office could push the company to recruit from schools in the area. Companies are nearly twice as likely to recruit at universities within 100 miles of a new office in the four years after opening the new office compared to the year before it opened, according to an IZA — Institute of Labor Economics discussion paper. And if the new office is in a location where there’s a dearth of companies in its industry — say somewhere other than the coasts? The firm is six

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  Why did Amazon choose these cities?

  BostonGlobe.com
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  The disturbing part about Amazon's HQ2 competition

  CNN

Here’s why Goldman Sachs thinks the Winter Olympics are a risk to restaurants

Feb. 9, the date of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, might be the start of a tough two-week period for the restaurant business, according to Goldman Sachs. “Cold and inclement weather is likely a first-quarter headwind… and the Winter Olympics could also encourage food-at-home versus food-away-from-home spending,” wrote Goldman analysts in Friday note. Analysts also expressed near-term caution because of the likely lag between the benefits of personal tax cuts and wage boosts and restaurant spending. “[T]here are no signs that price is an easy lever to pull,” analysts said. Overall, analysts say they have a “favorable” view of the restaurant sector, a beneficiary of the new tax reform