Barron's: Palladium Is Set to Soar

Tight supply, and continued demand for growing car and truck markets, should keep expanding the metal's price.

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Here's something to put a shine in your portfolio: Palladium, the often-overshadowed cousin of the precious metal platinum, is poised to gleam brilliantly.

Thanks to both rising demand and sketchy supply, some analysts are looking for a 20% jump in futures prices this year, with continued growth through 2014. Link to Barrons.com.

Photo by Mackenzie Marco on Unsplash

WSJ: Six Ways to Squeeze Money From Your Boss

By SIMON CONSTABLE

First, the bad news: For most workers, fat salary hikes won't happen this year. The economy's still too weak.

Now, the good news: You can get other financial goodies from your employer, if you know how.

Most people are unaware that corporations are riddled with seams of gold. Here's a guide to finding the buried treasure. The specifics will be different for each company, but this should get you close enough to mine some dollars.

1 Your 401(k) plan.

To the extent you can afford to do so, put enough money in your 401(k) retirement plan to collect the entire company match.

A lot of data suggest people don't do that, says Mark Schmit, vice president of research at the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va. "If you don't take advantage of it, you are leaving money on the table."

It can be like getting an extra 3% or 4% raise, on top of any annual salary increase. For more read here.

Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash

WSJ: When Investing, Try Thinking Outside the Box

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Sometimes it pays to look beyond the obvious when it comes to investing.

That means adding some exotic investments to a portfolio laden with blue-chip stocks and Treasury bonds. Think platinum and pipelines.

The popularity of blue chips has driven the Dow Jones Industrial Average to levels not seen since before the financial crisis. And investors so crave Treasurys that yields have plunged and remain close to historic lows. The way to find bargains is where others aren't and that means going off the beaten path. For more read here.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

NBR: Feb 21, 2012: Rising Oil Prices vs Recovering Economy

Rising Oil Prices vs Recovering Economy

by EditorTB on FEBRUARY 21, 2012 in COMMENTARIES, ECONOMY
SUSIE GHARIB: As we reported earlier in the program, oil futures traded at
a nine-month high today. Tonight`s commentator worries those higher oil
prices could hurt the U.S. economic recovery. He`s Simon Constable,
columnist at “The Wall Street Journal.”

SIMON CONSTABLE, COLUMNIST, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Something in the
Middle East has a good chance of blowing a hole in your pocketbook. A
growing spat between Israel and Iran has oil prices surging. A row between
Sudan and south Sudan is making it worse. Right now, oil costs $106 a
barrel, up from around $98 at the beginning of the month. What that means
for you is higher gas prices — much higher. A gallon nationally now
averages $3.57, up 13 percent from a year ago, according to the latest AAA
report.

It will likely reach $4 soon. It`s already there in California. Heck,
it`s not even summer driving season yet. So, what? Well it`s likely that
this surge in prices will worsen and put the brakes on a very fragile U.S.
economy. Think of it like a tax hike just when we don`t need one. The
higher gas bills will suck money out of your wallet that could have been
spent on other things. It will be bad for jobs. It means it could be time
to hunker down and save whatever extra cash you have. I`m Simon Constable.

Read more here.

We Won An Award

WSJ Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators that Really Matter.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"The WSJ Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators That Really Matter"A Winner in 2012 Small Business Book Awards

Cleveland, OH, February 17, 2012 - "The WSJ Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators That Really Matter" has been voted a Winner for a 2012 Small Business Book Award, in the category of Economics.

The Small Business Book Awards recognize business books that were published in 2011. Small business owners often seek advice and information through books. While there are many thousands of books published each year, it's those of interest to small businesses and entrepreneurs that the Small Business Book Awards seek to honor.

"With so many books being published each year, we wanted to recognize those that made a difference to small business owners and managers and startup entrepreneurs," said Ivana Taylor, Book Editor at Small Business Trends, which produces the Awards. "Our annual Small Business Book Awards are a way to highlight the books that entrepreneurs are reading and learning from."

The Awards are an honor to the authors who write books for the small business and entrepreneurial community. Says Anita Campbell, CEO of Small Business Trends, "For many of the authors, writing a book is a labor of love. Often they get up early in the morning before the rest of the family awakes, and they devote their evenings, weekends, holidays and vacations to writing. They deserve recognition."

About the Small Business Book Awards

The Small Business Book Awards, now in its fourth year, enable the small business community to nominate, show their support for, and vote on their favorite business books. The top 10 winners will be selected by readers based on number of votes as the Best Small Business Books of 2012, while the top five vote-getters in each category become Category Winners. Voting commences February 1, 2012. In last year's Awards, over 41,000 votes were cast by the community.

The Small Business Book Awards initiative is produced by Small Business Trends, an award-winning online publication, which along with its sister sites, serves over 4,000,000 small business owners, stakeholders and entrepreneurs annually.

CONTACT:

Small Business Trends
admin@smallbiztrends.com
Twitter hashtag: #BizBookAwards

###

Barron's: Baltic Dry: Not Washed Up

By SIMON CONSTABLE

News that the Baltic Dry Index is sunk as an economic indicator is much exaggerated.

The index—which measures the cost to haul dry freight over the world's oceans—has merely run aground after getting hit with a shipping-market tsunami. Don't worry. It will right itself soon enough–and should once again become a useful forecasting tool, as early as the end of the year.

The cost of shipping dry commodities, such as coal, iron ore and grains, forms the basis for the BDI. When more raw materials are shipped, it is because they are needed to be made into finished products. Also, when more of them are shipped, the price of chartering a vessel increases. That makes the index a gauge of industrial expansion. Link to Barrons.com

Cargo Ship

Photo by Jens Rademacher on Unsplash

News on WSJ Guide to Economic Indicators...

We're going to be translated into Japanese. Here's a sneak peak of what will be translated...