TheStreet: Why a Higher Minimum Wage Will Make Workers Poorer

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Sometimes you get two pieces of news so at odds with each other that it defies logic.

The last few days of the old year combined with the first few days of 2016 brought such a mind-muddling mess. On the one hand, 14 states started to implement higher minimum wage requirements on Jan. 1, with the goal of reducing income inequality. Read more here.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Forbes: GE Heads North And Why You May Get A Deal On A Conn. House

By SIMON CONSTABLE
It’s official: General Electric GE +0.00% is retreating from Connecticut and relocating its headquarters to Boston.

CEO Jeff Immelt says it’s a move to get it closer to an “ecosystem that shares our aspirations.” That and be near all those amazing universities in Cambridge, etc. It makes sense given that the Boston beltway is something of a Silicon Valley of the East.

I guess Yale University being in Connecticut just didn’t sway the powers that be. Still, the move could be good for house hunters looking for a deal in the nutmeg state. Read more here.

TheStreet: 7 Reasons You Should Love -- Or At Least Like -- the Market's Slide

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Ouch. Financial markets' performance this year has been nothing short of painful for many investors.

Chances are, you're still feeling the sting of 6% drops by both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 last week. It was, in fact, the worst start to a New Year ever for the S&P. There are nonetheless some good reasons to embrace the volatility, though:

Read more here.

U.S. News: Why China's Market Woes Will Hurt Some Emerging Markets

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Ouch! China has unleashed a financial typhoon on world markets. 

It's true that U.S. stocks got broadly hammered. But the real issue won't be how China's slowing economy affects the U.S. – because it likely won't.

Rather, the big impact will be felt by emerging market economies that have historically relied heavily on commodity exports, as well as some non-emerging markets that bet big on the materials business. 

Read more here.

OZY: How China's Money Mess Helps the U.S.

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Assuming he wasn’t much of a markets investor, baseball great Yogi Berra might have taken some odd pleasure in watching the financial markets unfold lately if only to repeat his famous goofy line: It was “déjà vu all over again.” We are talking, of course, about the recent meltdown in China, followed by a pretty nasty start to the year on Wall Street, where investors couldn’t have been pleased by an apparent repeat of August’s China-led stock pullback.

But investors are always looking for silver linings, and some may yet find theirs. At least some folks are promising, hoping and praying as much — that roiling markets in China might make for hay in the United States and elsewhere. What’s more, they could be right. Read more here.

Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash

WSJ: What Is a Reversal vs. Correction?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

What is the difference between a reversal and a correction? 

It could matter a lot if you are trading.

By Wall Street’s rule of thumb, a correction is generally defined as a pullback in a market or index of 10% or more. More colloquially, it means that the underlying trend, either up or down, remains in place. In short, a correction is a temporary blip. Read more here.

WSJ: Commodity Funds Fall Short, Study Says

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Sobering news for investors in specialty-commodity mutual funds: On average, they fall short on key measures, new research has found.

“These categories of funds have not been able to consistently create positive net alphas for their investors over longer time periods,” the report states. Alpha is a measure of the value fund managers add to the investment process when adjusted for risk factors such as volatility.

Read more here.