TheStreet: 5 Financially Themed Gifts for the Holidays

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It's that time of the year again when thoughts invariably turn to holiday gifts. In what has become an annual tradition, I have compiled a list of financially-themed items to suit all budgets, from less than $10 to more than $8,000. Read more here.

U.S. News: Why Fund Investors Are Dumping Junk Debt

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Junk bonds took a little tumble recently. Should investors be worried?

There's no immediate cause for concern, but longer term a lot rests on how the oil market performs.

Here's the skinny:

TheStreet: Cuba Fund Surges 17% on Castro's Death

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Cuba's longstanding dictator Fidel Castro barely got one foot in the grave and already investors are getting excited.

The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund  (CUBA), a closed-end fund known as the "Cuba Fund" because of its ticker, surged as much as 17% intraday on Monday following the Cuban dictator's death on Friday. More than 1.8 million shares of the fund had changed hands by Monday afternoon compared with normal daily volume of about 22,000. Read more here.

Photo by Mr. Söbau on Unsplash

RealMoney: Cuba Fund Surges as Fidel Castro's Death Spurs Speculation

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Cuba's longstanding dictator Fidel Castro barely got one foot in the grave and already investors are getting excited.

The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin Fund Inc., a closed-end fund known as  (CUBA) that holds stocks poised to benefit from a normalization of U.S. relations with the island nation, surged 11% Monday, the most in almost two years. Less than an hour into the session 1.4 million shares of the fund had changed hands, compared with normal daily volume of about 22,000. 

The news of Castro's death broke Friday, fueling speculation that relations between the former Soviet ally and the U.S. might continue to thaw under his brother, Raul Castro. President Barack Obama announced plans in December 2014 to chart a new course of policy toward Cuba, and he visited Havana in March of this year. The country has suffered under one-party socialist rule and a brutal economic embargo by the U.S. Read more here.

Forbes Video: Has Twitter Jumped The Shark?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Socialfly co-founder & co-CEO Courtney Spritzer gives her insights on the short form blogging platform in this video.

U.S. News: Wall Street Predictions for 2017

By SIMON CONSTABLE

What happens to the markets in 2017?

The outlook for stocks is positive, but which sectors of the market do better or worse partially depends how what policies the President-elect Donald Trump implements.

First, the economy looks set to speed up next year, to 2.3 percent growth versus 1.5 percent this year, according to estimates from PNC Financial Services Group. Faster growth is very important because it should lead to better company earnings. Read more here.

Barron's: Corn Prices Look Ready to Pop

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The prolonged bear market in corn could soon end. the grain’s price has been mired in a multiyear slump, trading as low as $3.16 a bushel in August, down from more than $8 in the middle of 2012. 

The bullish case is pretty straightforward: Supply may be reaching a peak while demand is still growing.

Traders wishing to benefit from a run-up may want to consider buying active-month corn futures on the CME and rolling them forward to later-dated ones as each contract nears expiration. Alternatively, it might be worth considering the Teucrium Corn exchange-traded fund (ticker: CORN), which holds corn futures. 

Increases in supply have been dramatic in the last decade, but there are no obvious ways for that to continue with prices so low. Global production hit 1.03 billion metric tons in the current growing season, up from 716 million tons a decade ago, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read more here.

Photo by Katherine Volkovski on Unsplash