TheStreet: 4 Reasons Carl Icahn's Junk-Debt Warning Shouldn't Terrify You

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Billionaire investor Carl Icahn's warning about the risks of junk-rated debt might scare you, but that doesn't mean you should write off the entire category.

He sounded the alarm about high-yield -- or non-investment grade -- securities last week, saying the market is "extremely overheated." It's not the first time that observation has been made. Read more here.

Forbes: Ten Ways To Start Your Way Financial Independence This July 4

By SIMON CONSTABLE

As you grab a hotdog or two this July 4 it’s worth remembering that true freedom requires financial independence. Only a few of us are born with enough resources to make that happen, but there are steps you can take to get closer to it.

Read more here.

TheStreet: What Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis Means for Muni Investors

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- While the financial world focused on the Greek debt drama, a problem with even bigger potential consequences has been brewing in the Caribbean.

Puerto Rico can't pay its $72 billion of debts, the governor of the island warned Sunday, just two days before a budget deal needs to be approved by the territory's legislature. It could affect U.S. investors such as mutual fund holders and hedge funds, in a much larger manner than events in Greece.  Read more here.

Photo by Ana Toledo on Unsplash

Forbes: How I'm Saving The Cost Of An Apple Watch Or Fitbit Device

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The wearable revolution will be happening without me, at least for now. Or put another way, I will not be getting an Apple Watch or a Fitbit device anytime soon. For the time being, I will rely on feline assistance.

Read more here.

TheStreet: Millennials Leading Charge Into Foreign Stocks and You Should Follow

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) Americans are increasingly investing in foreign stocks, and millennials are leading the way.

The generation born from 1980 to 2000, whose estimated population of 92 million makes it the biggest in U.S. history, consistently invested more in international stocks than any other age group from 2005 to 2011, according to a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The gains occurred despite rising appetites overall for foreign investments. Read more here.

Karina Albers, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

TheStreet: Why Chasing Stock Returns Could Cost You $1.9 Million

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Chasing stock returns could be far more harmful to your portfolio than you ever imagined.

You might find yourself as much as $1.9 million worse off than if you had left your investments alone, based just on the relatively modest idea of investing the maximum in a 401(k) plan.

Read more here.

Forbes: J.Crew Even More J.Screwed

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for J.Crew, it did.

Earlier this week I posted a column asking a question: Is J.Crew actually becoming J. Screwed? Read more here.

But that was before one of the company’s executives reportedly hit a new low and dragged its image even further down. The New York Post reports:

Read more here.

TheStreet: Will 'Obamatrade' Kill Another 1 Million Factory Jobs?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Trans Pacific Partnership, or Obamatrade as it's known to opponents, might be bad news for America's beleaguered manufacturing workers. That is, if it ever gets approved. 

It's hard to come to any other conclusion after reading a recent working paper from the Federal Reserve that studied the effects of liberalizing trade with China in the past decade. The authors conclude that the U.S. lost 1 million factory jobs in just eight years through 2007. 

The Trans Pacific Partnership could mean more of the same. By far the likeliest outcome will be "another trade-related disaster for U.S. domestic manufacturing," says Alan Tonelson, an international trade and manufacturing expert with more than three decades in the field.

Read more here.

Forbes: J.Crew Or J.Screwed?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Is J.Crew actually becoming J. Screwed?

All is not well at the iconic apparel retailer J. Crew. The lead designer for women’s clothing has been ousted and the customers aren’t happy. In a rather unusual way they are letting their feelings be known.

The Washington Post sums up the mood with the following: 

“Customers aren’t just abstaining from buying the company’s famously preppy clothes, however. They are publicly criticizing J. Crew’s alleged style and quality shortcomings on blogs and on social media. Using the Twitter hashtag #revivejcrew, disgruntled customers are doffing their cashmere gloves and airing their complaints in 140 characters or less.”

Read more here.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Curlyrnd, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, 

via Wikimedia Commonsr

WSJ: Women, Especially, Are Failing Financial Literacy

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The bad news: Women are falling far behind men in financial literacy. The even worse news: Men apparently don’t know much about the topic in the first place. 

The lack of knowledge can be costly for anyone, of course, but the consequences may be worse for women because they tend to live longer than men. There is some hope, though, at least for the women, as they seem to comprehend their shortcomings in financial expertise.

Those are the findings of two recent studies published by the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center. Read more here.

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

Barron's: Vanuard's Precious Metals Fund -- Back to Conservatism

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Ask Jamie Horvat, co-manager of the Vanguard Precious Metals & Mining fund, where he thinks the price of gold is heading, and he’s quick to tell you: “I don’t really care.”

Horvat joined the $2.1 billion fund (ticker: VGPMX) in 2014, right after the price of gold tanked, falling 29%, from $1,692 an ounce at the beginning of 2013 to $1,202 by the end. That same year, 2013, the fund lost 35%. That sounds bad, but that 35% loss made Vanguard Precious Metals & Mining the best-performing fund in the category, according to Morningstar.

Read more here.

Forbes: Newscorp's WSJ Makes Bold Move on Fleet Street

By SIMON CONSTABLE

They don’t call Fleet Street, the traditional home Britain’s newspaper industry, “the crucible” for nothing. That makes the announcement by my former employer Newscorp. even more notable.

Its Dow Jones division, which I was employed by until earlier this year, says it will re-launch its European and Asian editions of The Wall Street Journal with new broadsheet newspapers. Gone will be the smaller sized, or tabloid editions.

Why is it so notable? Read more here.

Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

TheStreet: How Your Portfolio Can Profit From Japanese Manufacturing Growth

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The manufacturing sector is ready for liftoff in Europe and Japan, according to an analysis by the New York-based Economic Cycle Research Institute, which studies such matters. Even the U.S. factory sector will benefit, but most of the growth will be overseas, ECRI said. 

What's more, there should be ample time for investors to get in on the action. 

"A clear global industrial upturn is happening," said Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder & chief operations officer of ECRI. He's basing that assessment on data showing a current rebound in industrial production from six months ago as well as proprietary ECRI indicators pointing to a sustained upswing.

Read more here.

TheStreet: China's Steel Producers Choke

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (The Street) -- China's steel producers seem to have indigestion. It's a sign that things are not quite right in the world's second-largest economy, where steel is used in industries from construction to automobile manufacturing. 

It's as worrying as if your 17-year-old son who usually eats you out of house and home suddenly and inexplicably lost his appetite. For years, China's economy voraciously dined on steel bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

To see how that's changing, take a look at the chart showing year-to-year growth for China's steel production, based on data for crude steel output from the World Steel Association. It says the data it collects account for about 98% of global production. China produces about half of that each year. Read more here.

It's Not the Cat's Poop that Makes You Nuts

By SIMON CONSTABLE

News that a so-called "cat poop parasite" causes schizophrenia has me somewhat skeptical. Actually, very skeptical.

At 2 am in the morning when you are trying to get some well-earned shuteye, it is not the cat's poop that wakes you up by punching you in the face. It is the cat.

At 2.15 am it is still the cat and not the cat poop.

At 2.25 am, 2.31 am and 2.46 am, 2.58 am and all the times through when the alarm goes off it is always the cat that wakes you up before she goes back to bed for a nap. It is never the cat poop. 

Sleep deprivation caused by the cat would eventually turn even a psychic muscleman into a psychotic mess, given a long enough time period.

Yes, cats poop. But it's the cat that you love that's driving you nuts, not the cat's poop.

See original post here.

TheStreet:The Reason You Should Worry About Falling Factory Orders Isn't What You Think

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Look out, below: There's a worrying sign in the factory orders data, one that's also somewhat puzzling. 

When you chart the data, it looks even worse. Data reported by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank shows a dramatic downward trend in new factory orders for consumer goods over the past year. Consumer goods are items that you and I might buy like shoes or hats. It's not industrial machines or aircraft. 

Read more here.

WSJ: What Are Frontier Markets?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Most investors know about emerging markets like Mexico or Brazil. Lesser known are the so-called frontier markets such as Argentina, Pakistan, Botswana, Ukraine and Vietnam.

As far as economic development, frontier markets are at the bottom of the heap, says Win Thin, global head of emerging markets at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York. “Typically they are poorer countries, but they are on the way up.” Read more here.

Pakistan's Flag

Photo by Burhan Ahmad on Unsplash

Barron's: Rice Prices May Soar

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Observers of the rice market worry that there could be a repeat of the food crisis of 2008. If there is, prices could soar from current depressed levels.

In 2007-08, a combination of export restrictions from major rice-producing countries and speculative investment purchases caused shortages of the grain. Consumers across Asia panicked, buying and hoarding whatever rice was available, while Haiti saw riots.

In the U.S., certain grocery stores limited rice purchases.

As the supply situation worsened, prices catapulted to more than $24 per hundred pounds by April 2008, from about $13 near Thanksgiving 2007.

This time, prices have been on an almost continuous slide for the past 17 months, discouraging growers even as demand increases. Rice is trading around $10 per hundred pounds, down nearly 40% from the end of 2013.

“Current levels of supply against demand are very similar” to the food crises of 1972-74 and 2006-08, says Shawn Hackett in a recent edition of the Hackett Money Flow Report.

The stocks-to-trade ratio, a measure of how much rice is in storage relative to how much is shipped around the globe, is 225%, a tad lower than the 233% seen in 2007-08 when prices started to surge, according to the Firstgrain Rice Market Strategist newsletter. The lower ratio means smaller stockpiles.

“Rice production is projected at a new record,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in May. But “consumption is forecast to surpass production for the third year in a row, drawing down stocks to the lowest since 2007-08.” 

Read more here.

TheStreet: If Apple CEO Isn't Losing Sleep Over Greece, You Shouldn't Either

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (The Street) -- Greek drama alert: The country by the Aegean Sea is supposed to repay 300 million euros to the International Monetary Fund Friday. 

Will it? Who knows. But that question is at the center of a media-led drama that's playing out as if the future of the world depended on it.  

Should you be worried? Unless you have lent the Greek government money, probably not. Here are seven reasons why: 

1. Is Greece a vital iPhone market? Regardless of how many iPhones, or similar products, Apple sells in Greece, it's unlikely the company is betting the farm on that market, or even that CEO Tim Cook loses sleep over it. And as Apple (APPL) goes, so goes the market. It is Apple's earnings that will, in part, drive what happens to major indices such as the S&P 500. Sales of its products in Greece aren't likely to move the needle on that front. It probably doesn't matter a whole lot to other companies like General Motors (GM) or Facebook (FB) or Twitter (TWTR) either. For more click here.

Photo by iSAW Company on Unsplash

TheStreet: Watch Grain Markets and Monsanto for Price Gains From Ukraine Crisis

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The world's eyes are yet again on Ukraine, as fighting in eastern provinces intensifies and Russian and U.S. military forces stare each other down in the Black Sea. 

So what is an investor to do? Start by forgetting Ukraine's natural gas pipeline to Europe: The effects of the conflict will more likely play out in the world grain markets.

First, the gas worries, which may be little more than hot air. Yes, the European Union does import a lot of gas from Russia, but less than previously. At year-end the total was around 9 billion cubic feet a day down from close to 14 billion at the beginning of 2011, according to estimates from the Energy Policy Research Foundation.

See full story here.