HOW TO SET FINANCIAL GOALS FOR 2020

We are almost through the first month of 2020, and I’m betting you’ve put your money aside while you recovered from the holidays and settled into the new year. But it’s time to start thinking money, so let’s talk about how to set financial goals for 2020.

SETTING FINANCIAL GOALS

Setting financial goals is incredibly important.

Without financial goals, you don’t really know where you’re going, how much money you’ll need and where that money is coming from. You’re essentially driving into the future with no money roadmap.

So, let’s make that roadmap. Let’s set some great financial goals so that you can:

Achieve your goals
Reduce your debt
Up your savings game
And, most importantly, work towards financial freedom.

HOW TO SET FINANCIAL GOALS FOR 2020

FIGURE OUT WHAT’S BEHIND YOUR FINANCIAL DECISIONS

If you read anything by Simon Sinek, you know that knowing your “why” is imperative to success in life and business. And money is no exception.

You can have all the grand financial plans you want to, but if they have no substance behind them—if there’s no “why” then you’ll be unlike to achieve them.

PLAN FOR YOUR FUTURE

When you set financial goals for 2020, you need to think about your future. Not your right now but what happens down the line. For those goals to meet your needs you need to figure out where you’re going and how much money you’ll need.

So, where do you see yourself in one year? How about 2? 5? 10? There’s no wrong answer, but you do need to know what it’s going to be.


SET SOME GOALS

If you know where you’re headed and how much you’re going to cost, you need to set some goals that are related to how you’re going to make your future happen.

Make sure that your goals are meaningful to you, the need to be related to your “why.”  They also need to be goals that you can actually achieve (aim high but not too high) and you need to be able to measure them to know if they’re working or not.

FACE YOUR DEBT

Debt reduction should be one of your top goals, mostly because when it comes down to achieving financial goals your debit is one of the biggest things that stands in your way. You need to aim to reduce debt so that you can pursue other goals.

GET TO KNOW YOUR CREDIT

Your credit score matters, and you don’t have to be afraid of it. If you want to set financial goals for 2020 and be successful, one of those should be getting in touch with your credit and working to improve it.

CREATE A BUDGET

Finally, when it comes time to set financial goals for 2020, you want to put it all together in a fancy little budget. Budgets don’t have to be complex and you don’t need them to be robust enough to pass a board inspection. Go for simple, achievable and do what works for you!

everybodylovesyourmoney.com

Venezuela postpones pull-out of 100 bolivar note after chaos

CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro suspended on Saturday the elimination of the country's largest denomination bill, which had sparked cash shortages and nationwide unrest, saying the measure would be postponed until early January.

The surprise pulling of the 100 bolivar note from circulation this week -- before new larger bills were available -- led to vast lines at banks, looting at scores of shops, anti-government protests and at least one death.

Maduro, speaking from the presidential palace, blamed a "sabotage" campaign by enemies abroad for the delayed arrival of three planes carrying the new 500, 2,000 and 20,000 bolivar notes.

"One plane, contracted and paid for by Venezuela, was told in flight to change direction and go to another country," he said, without specifying who had given the orders. "There's another which was not given flyover permission."

The 100 bolivar bills, officially out of use since Thursday and worth just 4 US cents at the black market currency rate, can now be used until January 2, Maduro said.

Many Venezuelans had found themselves without the means to pay for food, gasoline or Christmas preparations in a country already reeling from a profound economic crisis.

About 40 percent of Venezuelans do not have bank accounts, and so cannot use electronic transactions as an alternative to cash.

Adding to the chaos, Venezuela has the world's highest rate of inflation, meaning large bags of cash must be humped around to pay for basic items.

'Stupid and destructive'

In the southern mining town of El Callao, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead during looting on Friday, authorities confirmed. An opposition legislator reported three fatalities.

The Democratic Unity opposition coalition said the socialist leader should resign for incompetence and for inflicting yet more suffering on Venezuelans.

"We have a government utterly stupid and destructive in economic management, whose only goal is to keep power at whatever price," said opposition leader Julio Borges.

Maduro had justified the 100 bolivar note's elimination as a way of strangling mafia and smugglers on the frontier with Colombia. He has also closed border crossings with Colombia and Brazil until January 2.

Earlier on Saturday, about 400 people in western Tachira state jumped fences and defied security personnel to surge into Colombia in search of food and medicines, which are scarce in Venezuela, witnesses said.

In southern Bolivar state, people broke into dozens of shops and warehouses in various towns, witnesses and business leaders said. Authorities declared a curfew in Ciudad Bolivar and the state governor said 135 people had been arrested.

Security forces fired teargas in Venezuela's largest second city, Maracaibo, to stop looters, witnesses said. Some protesters burned 100 bolivar bills.

Addressing thousands of supporters at a rally in Caracas, Maduro blamed the opposition for stirring violence and said some members of the Justice First and Popular Will parties were arrested for colluding with mafias.

The 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez, whose popularity has plunged during three years of recession, says domestic political foes supported by the United States are sabotaging the economy to undermine his government.

Critics say it is time for Maduro to go after 18 years of socialist policies have wrecked the economy. But authorities have stymied an opposition push for a referendum to remove him before the next presidential election due in late 2018.

source: interaksyon.com

Venezuela, where a hamburger is officially $170

CARACAS - If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.

A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.

But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It's the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that's applied.

But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions are unthinkably expensive.

Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.

"Everybody is knocked low," Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. "We can't breathe."

Shuttered stores

In Chacao, a middle-class neighborhood in the capital, office workers lined up outside a nut store to buy the cheapest lunch they could afford. Nearby restaurants were all but empty.

Superficially it looked like the center of any other major Latin American city: skyscrapers, dense traffic, pedestrians in short sleeves bustling along the sidewalks.

But look closely and you can see the economic malaise. Many stores, particularly those that sold electronics, were shuttered.

"It's horrible now," said Marta Gonzalez, the 69-year-old manager of a corner beauty products store.

"Nobody is buying anything really. Just food," she said as a male customer used a debit card to pay for  a couple of razor blades.

A sign above the register said "We don't accept credit cards."

Lines for necessities

An upmarket shopping center nearby boasted a leafy rooftop terrace, a spacious Hard Rock cafe, chain stores for Zara, Swarovski and Armani Exchange.

They were all virtually deserted except for bored sales staff.

Instead a line of around 200 people was waiting patiently in front of a pharmacy.

They didn't know what for, exactly, just that the routine now was to line up for daily deliveries of one subsidized personal hygiene product or another -- toothpaste, for instance -- and grab their rationed amount before it ran out, usually within a couple of minutes.

"We do this every week. And we don't know what we're trying to buy," said Kevin Jaimes, a 21-year-old auto parts salesman waiting with his family.

"What's frustrating is when you get into a gigantic line but they run out before you get any."

The alternative then is to turn to black market merchants who sell goods at grossly inflated rates, often 100 times more than the subsidized price tag.

Jaimes lives with his family of seven, and tries to get by on a monthly salary of 35,000 bolivares -- in reality, around $35.

That sum is too paltry for him to even think about dropping into the cinema upstairs in the center, where tickets are 8,800 bolivares.

If somehow he could, he'd find the same sort of entertainment being shown in American multiplexes: "The Jungle Book," "Captain America: Civil War," and "Angry Birds."

But motion pictures and popcorn, while maybe an enticing diversion, are luxuries Venezuelans these days can ill afford.

source: interaksyon.com

Should You Pay Off Student Loans Before Investing?

Millennials who have been out of college for a few years are starting to wonder if they should start investing before they’ve paid off their student loans. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but each person should be able find the best path forward.

Investment and debt-repayment are two sides of the same coin. Most people with student loan debt pay interest and annual fees totalling 4-6% of the balance of their loans. This is in addition to the premium payments made every month. This percentage is a loan’s APR, and it is an immovable object. Unless you look into student loan refinancing, this APR represents the annual cost of the money you borrowed for your graduation. This rate will stay the same for the entire term of your loan.

Investment portfolios bring in returns that vary year by year. If the economy is active and healthy, you could see returns of 7-9% or even more. Some years see investors receiving enormous returns that far exceed 10%. The thing is, these returns are unpredictable. Unlike your student loan APR which never changes, investment returns go all over the place. Some years, your portfolio may even lose money.

In years where your investment return percentage exceeds your loan APR, you will make more money than you lose, making investment a worthy pursuit, even if you haven’t paid off your student loans yet. But on years where your portfolio brings in less money than you lose in student loan interest payments, your investments won’t be “worth it” in a way that is easy to appreciate.

However, investing has one advantage that makes this decision a little more complicated than subtracting interest payments from investment returns. When people start investing at an early age, compound interest kicks in earlier, greatly amplifying the overall growth potential of your investments over your lifetime.

Most readers will already be familiar with this concept, but it’s worth a review. If you make regular payments into an investment account for your whole life without withdrawing funds, the dividends that your portfolio earns will also be added to the pot. In this way, a successful investment pays into itself. This creates a snowball effect. As time goes on, you’ve got more money, so it grows faster, so it gives off higher returns, which makes your money, which can then grow faster, etc.

With compound interest, the sooner you begin the better. Therefore, a lot of advisors consider it prudent to start investing as soon as possible, even if the return you expect from your investment is nearly equal to your student loan APR.

However, you shouldn’t begin investing if you don’t have certain financial details worked out. If you have no savings to cover you if you lost your job or experienced a personal emergency, you shouldn’t put aside money to invest. Instead, create an emergency fund. You may also have personal preferences that motivate you to pay off your student loans as soon as possible. Some people find a lot of personal comfort in being debt free, and may invest with more fervor once the debt is cancelled. Finally, explore investment acceleration options, like employer matched 401(k)s.

Hopefully this has given you a clear way of figuring out how to prioritize your investments and student loan repayment. Simply giving these concepts clever consideration indicates that you are careful about your money, a trait which will serve you well for life, long after your student loans are paid off.

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source: modestmoney.com

U.S. shares drop on Greece uncertainty, rate hike anticipation

NEW YORK - A setback in Greek debt talks pushed U.S. and European shares lower on Friday, along with investor views that positive U.S. data may accelerate the timing for a hike in interest rates.

Oil prices fell on concerns production may rise further.

The International Monetary Fund delegation left Greek debt negotiations on Friday because of "major differences" with Athens on the same day that EU officials held their first formal talks on the possibility of Greece defaulting.

"It's largely the Greek situation again, and that's been played out on a day-to-day basis where you had a huge rally followed by a decline predicated on whether they are coming closer or moving further from a resolution," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

However, the darkening Greek outlook failed to fluster Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who holed up with his negotiators after proclaiming optimism at an open air concert.

The euro inched higher against the dollar after Tsipras'comments even though equity and bond investors were skeptical.

"You have to question whether (the Greeks are) looking at reality," said Janna Sampson, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.

U.S. Treasuries prices ended little changed, with longer-dated yields holding below seven-month highs as concerns about a Greek default supported safety demand for bonds ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting next week.

A U.S. consumer sentiment survey and production data, after strong retail sales data on Thursday, gave a rosy view of the U.S. economy ahead of the Federal Reserve's June 17 policy statement, which may provide clues on timing for the first U.S. rate hike in nearly a decade.

"Both of these led the market, coupled with yesterday's report, to think that the first hike from the Fed could be closer," said OakBrook's Sampson, adding that lift-off could be in the fall, ahead of her previous expectation.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 140.53 points, or 0.78 percent, to 17,898.84, the S&P 500 lost 14.75 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,094.11 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 31.41 points, or 0.62 percent, to 5,051.10.

The S&P and the Dow showed slight gains for the week while the Nasdaq fell slightly.

Oil fell for a second straight day as investors took profits after Saudi Arabia said it was ready to raise production to record highs, adding to worries over global oversupply.

Brent crude settled down $1.24, or 2 percent, at $63.87. For the week, Brent ended up 0.7 percent. U.S. crude fell 81 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $59.96. It rose 1.5 percent on the week.

In the late afternoon, the dollar index was unchanged after a day of choppy trading against a basket of major currencies while the euro was essentially flat after rising earlier in the day.

MSCI's all-world country index fell 0.4 percent but was on track for its first weekly gain in four, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.8 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

Asian shares erase gains, China factory weighs

TOKYO - An index of Asian shares erased its early gains on Tuesday after a measure of Chinese factory activity unexpectedly skidded to an 11-month low.

The flash HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dipped to 49.2 in March, below the 50-point level. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 50.6, slightly weaker than February's final PMI of 50.7.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down about 0.1 percent.

The private survey signaled persistent weakness in the world's second-largest economy that is likely to add to calls for more policy easing from Beijing.

"A renewed fall in total new business contributed to a weaker expansion of output, while companies continued to trim their workforce numbers," Annabel Fiddes, an economist at Markit said.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which has recently pushed to seven-year highs, sagged 0.3 percent in early trading. Japan's Nikkei stock average slipped about 0.5 percent, pulling away from the previous session's 15-year highs.

The U.S. dollar edged slightly higher on the day, but still remained well off its recent highs as investors bet that the U.S. Federal Reserve will stay its hand on hiking interest rates in the months ahead.

Underscoring that the long-term view remains intact but the near-term is unclear, Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer, the central bank's second-in-command, said on Monday that the Federal Reserve is "widely expected" to begin raising interest rates this year though the policy path remains uncertain.

Fischer said the stronger dollar and weaker oil prices figure in U.S. policymaking, but said the central bank is "trying to look through those phenomena."

The dollar plunged last week after the Fed cut its inflation outlook and its growth forecast. The market consensus is that the Fed will hold off raising rates until at least September, rendering short-term directional bets difficult to make.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, edged up about 0.2 percent to 97.179 .DXY, but remained below its 12-year peak of 100.390 struck on March 13.

The dollar was up 0.1 percent on the day against its Japanese counterpart at 119.80 yen, but remained well below Friday's session high of 121.20 and levels above 122 yen touched earlier this month.

The euro stood at $1.0923, down about 0.2 percent from the previous session but still well above a 12-year nadir of $1.0457 plumbed last week before the Fed's statement.

The euro got a lift against the dollar on Monday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he expected consumer prices to rise gradually by the end of the year even if they might remain very low or negative in the months ahead.

Some market participants took this as a sign that the ECB might wrap up its bond-buying scheme early, though Draghi said it intended to carry out purchases at least until end-September.

The weaker dollar lent support to dollar-denominated commodities, though some investors took profits on recent rallies. U.S. crude futures edged down about 0.4 percent to $47.28 a barrel after soaring 1.9 percent in the previous session.

Spot gold edged down about 0.2 percent after a four-day rally, to $1,187.10 an ounce.

source: interaksyon.com

Cybercrime ring steals up to $1 billion from banks — Kaspersky

A multinational gang of cyber criminals has stolen as much as $1 billion from as many as 100 financial institutions around the world in about two years, Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab said on Saturday.

The company said it was working with Interpol, Europol and authorities from different countries to try to uncover more details on what it being called an unprecedented robbery.

The gang, which Kaspersky dubbed Carbanak, takes the unusual approach of stealing directly from banks, rather than posing as customers to withdraw money from companies’ or individuals’ accounts. It said the gang included cyber criminals from Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, as well as China.

Carbanak used carefully crafted emails to trick pre-selected employees into opening malicious software files, a common technique known as spear phishing. They were then able to get into the internal network and track down administrators’ computers for video surveillance.

In this way, Kaspersky said, the criminals learned how the bank clerks worked and could mimic their activity when transferring the money.

In some cases, Carbanak inflated account balances before pocketing the extra funds through a fraudulent transaction. Because the legitimate funds were still there, the account holder would not suspect a problem.

Kaspersky said Carbanak also remotely seized control of ATMs and ordered them to dispense cash at a predetermined time, when a gang member would be waiting to collect the money.

“These attacks again underline the fact that criminals will exploit any vulnerability in any system,” Sanjay Virmani, director of Interpol Digital Crime Center, said in a statement prepared by Kaspersky. “It also highlights the fact that no sector can consider itself immune to attack and must constantly address their security procedures.”

source: interaksyon.com

Sell Structured Settlement Annuity

Do you have a structured settlement annuity that you are looking to receive cash for right now? Well the experts here at Cash For Settlement Payments may be just the answer you are looking for. We are able to help you with your transfer and if you absolutely would like a loan against your settlement payment rights then we are glad to help facilitate that as well. What we do is we set you up with a court date so that you can let the judge in your jurisdiction know that you are looking to cash in your settlement payments because of the following typical reasons: 





    * The money can be better used else where in a lump sum situation

    * You or your family is facing a hardship and prefer to liquidate the investment holding in exchange for
        the money to save your family

    * To help make mortgage or house payments (many annuitants use the money to purchase a home)

    *  Ease the trouble of everyday life

No matter what the reason it needs to be sound and approved so please speak with us about your reason and need for money and we will work with you to help you out right away. You can contact us via email or we prefer that you call and speak to us. We would love to come and meet you in person and work with you for getting the settlement transfer done as we build a strong relationship with all of our clients.

source: cashforsettlementpayments.com

Stocks rally as global selloff abates, bonds fall

NEW YORK - World equity markets rallied, with European stocks surging the most in more than two years, and bond prices slid on Friday as investors poured back into beaten-down markets on solid U.S. corporate earnings and rising consumer sentiment.

Wall Street followed Europe's lead, with all major stock indexes climbing more than 1 percent after earnings reports eased concerns about the impact of weak global demand on U.S. growth and businesses.

Expectations among some investors that the European Central Bank will increase stimulus also buoyed sentiment.

Results at General Electric, Honeywell International Inc and Morgan Stanley topped expectations. GE rose 2.4 percent, Honeywell gained 4.2 percent and Morgan Stanley advanced 2.1 percent.

With 81 companies in the S&P 500 already reporting third-quarter results, 64.2 percent have beaten expectations, a rate slightly below the average over the past four quarters but better than the past 20 years.

U.S. housing starts and permits rose in September, a sign the market's modest recovery is supporting a growing economy, while U.S. consumer sentiment rose in October to the highest in more than seven years.

Despite the rally, the S&P 500 posted a fourth straight weekly decline, its longest streak in more than three years. The U.S. benchmark is down more than 6 percent from a record high in September as concerns about the global economy, a resurgent European debt crisis and the Ebola virus sparked the downturn.

"The reaction the market has had over the past couple of weeks is a bit overdone," said David Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Global Asset Management, which oversees $930 billion in assets.

"The overall trend of the market is to grind higher on earnings but the real flashpoint for risk assets is going to be the ECB," Lafferty said, referring to whether it can increase its stimulus.

MSCI's all-country world index rose 1.22 percent while the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed up 2.76 percent at 1,280.17, its biggest single-day percentage gain since June 2012.

The Euro STOXX 50 index of 50 European companies rose 3.1 percent in the biggest jump in almost 18 months, shy two-hundredths of a percentage point of being the biggest single-day jump since September 2012.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 263.17 points, or 1.63 percent, to 16,380.41. The S&P 500 rose 24.00 points, or 1.29 percent, to 1,886.76 and the Nasdaq Composite added 41.05 points, or 0.97 percent, to 4,258.44.

For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 both fell 1 percent while the Nasdaq lost 0.4 percent.

The U.S. dollar edged higher. The euro was last down 0.37 percent at $1.2759, just off a session low of $1.2755. The dollar was up 0.54 percent against the yen at 106.89 yen.

Brent crude rose above $86 a barrel, bouncing from near four-year lows as investors bought back into a market they said was oversold, and as fighting in Iraq increased political risk.

Brent for December rose 34 cents to settle at $86.16 a barrel. U.S. November crude settled up 5 cents at $82.75, posting its third weekly decline.

U.S. Treasuries prices posted their second straight day of declines.

Benchmark 10-year notes, up as much as three points on Wednesday on fears over the global economy, were off 12/32 in price on Friday to yield 2.1971 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

Social media — More hindrance than help in banks’ cyber crime fight

LONDON — Banks are fighting an uphill battle to protect themselves and their client accounts from cyber attacks, and the sometimes careless use of social media by customers and staff isn’t making the fight any easier.

British police and banks this week warned customers about the rise in criminals using social media to strike up a relationship and then try to get money from them.

Personal details from sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are also being used by fraudsters to scam customers, including to help in the increasingly common practice of “vishing”, or voice phishing, industry sources said.

“Vishing” involves fraudsters calling and saying they are from the bank. They say there is a security problem, and ask the customer to call the emergency number on their bank card. But the fraudsters never hang up from the call — in Britain they are able to stay on the line for 2 minutes — and create a fake dial tone to convince the customer to provide account details or even transfer money to another account.

Britain’s BBA banking lobby group estimates one in six customers could fall for this type of fraud, or 8 million people in the United Kingdom alone.

“The classic cyber crime doesn’t involve extremely sophisticated technology, it involves finding a date of birth on social media,” said Paul Clandillon, European practice leader for fraud and financial crime at IBM, at a recent conference on financial crime.

Revelations this month that hackers had obtained details of 83 million customers of JP Morgan — one of the biggest data breaches in corporate history — have shown how vulnerable banks remain, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on cyber defences.

That was a complex attack, but far simpler and more frequent frauds involve scammers using social media profiles to obtain a fuller picture of potential victims, bank industry sources and fraud investigators said.

Fraudsters can map out a bank’s organizational chart via information on social media, or dig out customer information online. Often they don’t need to look far — when Barclays introduced debit cards with photos on them, for example, some customers posted photos of their new cards, including account details printed on them, on social sites.

The weakest link 


“They (fraudsters) view the customer as the weakest link and they are convincing customers they are the bank. They have access to data in ways they never had before,” Bruce Forbes, head of security investigations and digital forensics at Royal Bank of Scotland, said at last month’s BBA conference.

Banks have long been the favorite target of cyber criminals — although retailers, healthcare firms and others have also been hit — with attacks including attempts to steal money, client data or confidential information about sensitive financial deals, or just trying to disrupt systems.

So-called hacktivists can break into financial systems to score political points while state-sponsored hackers can look to conduct industrial espionage or disrupt economic activity using banks as intermediate targets.

Cyber crime costs the global economy $445 billion (279.36 billion pound) a year and continues to grow, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). These losses come from fraud, intellectual property theft, and the mushrooming spending on cybersecurity itself.

Often hackers will not use data themselves, but parcel them up and sell them to other people to use, notably specialists who convert stolen passwords and identities into financial gains. Criminals can keep data for months or years before using it.

Defence tool

Social media provides a double-edged sword for banks, however, and the industry is also using it to fight back.

“Social media helps the criminals pursue their trade, but it also leaves a digital footprint in evidence that provides opportunities for us,” said Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner for specialist operations for London’s Metropolitan Police.

Technology developed more than a decade ago to help casinos in Nevada detect collusion between players and dealers is among the tools being used by banks to hunt for networks of organised fraudsters, by hunting out associations between people on social media that were otherwise nearly impossible to find.

Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Earth are also being used by banks alongside more complex searches, involving trawling for data that does not show on regular search engines.

Such “unstructured data” includes not just social media but pictures and videos and other information, and accounts for more than 80 percent of all data available.

“Focusing on unstructured data is what will give us the edge (over criminals) to be able to identify the very complex and organised collusive rings,” said IBM’s Clandillon.

source: interaksyon.com

Sterling soars on Scottish vote, Asian shares rise

SYDNEY - The British pound rose sharply after the Scottish independence vote indicated Scotland would remain in the United Kingdom, while Wall Street's overnight gains and Alibaba Group's red-hot initial public offering underpinned Asian shares.

Sterling was last up 0.6 percent at $1.6489 after rising as high as $1.6525, a marked turnaround from a 10-month low of $1.6051 touched just last week. Investors awaited final results, with figures so far indicating a solid win for the "No" camp.

"The results appear to be leaning toward 'No,' and this indirectly lifted the dollar against the yen," said Masashi Murata, currency strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo.

Sterling's rise against the yen took the Japanese currency down more than two full yen to buy 180.66 yen, its lowest since late 2008.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2 percent, supported by cheer on Wall Street, where both the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average set intraday record highs. But the Asian index was still on track for a weekly loss of about 1.4 percent.

Sentiment was also underpinned by news that Alibaba Group Holding priced its IPO at $68 a share, the top end of the expected range, raising $21.8 billion on Thursday in one of the largest-ever stock offerings.

Japan's Nikkei stock average was up 1.6 percent after earlier touching a seven-year high, getting a tailwind from a weaker currency as the dollar pushed to a new six-year high of 109.46 yen. It was last up 0.4 percent at 109.14 yen.

The Nikkei also got a lift after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he aims to carry out as soon as possible reform of the country's $1.2 trillion public fund, the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), in a reshuffle seen as good for equities.

"It's mainly short-term hedge funds chasing the market higher today by buying futures and index-heavy weight stocks," said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against a basket of six major peers, stood at 84.272, edging down about 0.1 percent on the day after it climbed as high as 84.743 on Thursday, its strongest level in more than four years.

The euro steadied at $1.2923 after refreshing a 14-month low on Thursday, when it fell as low as $1.2834.

Risk sentiment was tempered by geopolitical clouds on the horizon. The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a bill requested by President Barack Obama to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State militants, which now goes to Obama to sign into law.

Obama said the strong bipartisan support showed Americans were united in the fight against Islamic State militants.

"The emergence of the militant group ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and recent increase in efforts to fight it, has ushered in a new era of geopolitical risk" in the Middle East and North Africa, strategists at Barclays wrote in a client note.

"We think the stage seems set for a prolonged period of heightened regional uncertainty, with risks potentially spilling over into global oil markets and other economies and financial markets in the region," they said.

Brent crude held below $98 a barrel on Friday, but was set for its first weekly gain in three on the possibility of lower OPEC output. Brent edged down to $97.65 a barrel, while U.S. crude slipped slightly to $92.97.

Spot gold inched lower to $1,224.35 an ounce after touching $1,216.01 in the previous session, its lowest since Jan. 2 on speculation about an earlier-than-expected U.S. interest rate hike.

source: interaksyon.com

Five years after death, Michael Jackson’s fortunes blooming

LOS ANGELES | Michael Jackson fans will place flowers on his grave in Los Angeles this week to mark the fifth anniversary of his death, but half a decade on, the pop icon’s financial fortunes are positively blooming.

The self-proclaimed King of Pop was struggling to avoid bankruptcy when he died on June 25, 2009. At the time, he was in rehearsals for a series of comeback shows he hoped would resurrect his earlier jaw-dropping wealth.

But in five years since, the Michael Jackson Estate — which runs his affairs on behalf of Jackson’s mother and three children — has earned over $700 million, according to a new book about the singer’s business empire.

“Michael Jackson is making more money now, five years after his death, than he had been since the prime of his career,” Zack Greenburg, author of “Michael Jackson Inc.,” told AFP.

Die-hard Jackson fans staged a flash mob Sunday ahead of Wednesday’s anniversary — when more are expected to pay their respects at the Forest Lawn cemetery just outside Los Angeles, where the pop megastar is buried.

While the business side is going well and fans are celebrating his legacy, it’s been a tough few years for his family — both through losing Jackson himself, and because of the frenzy of legal action unleashed by his shock death.

One of the biggest was the criminal trial of Conrad Murray, the doctor who, while treating Jackson for insomnia, gave him the clinical anesthetic propofol that killed him at his Holmby Hills mansion five years ago.

Murray was eventually convicted of involuntary manslaughter and jailed for four years. He was released last October after two years behind bars.

Then came the civil trial brought by Jackson’s aging mother Katherine, who sued tour promoters AEG Live claiming they negligently hired an incompetent doctor and drove her son to his death. A jury threw out her claims.

MONEY AFTER DEATH

But while the family came to grips with their loss, the Michael Jackson Estate, led by executors John Branca and John McClain, got straight down to business five years ago.

Above all, they had to rapidly generate revenues to stave off the massive debts that Jackson had built up in the last five years of his life.

In his heyday, Jackson — whom Greenburg said “fundamentally changed the formula for monetizing fame forever” — was making over $100 million a year, with hits including 1982′s “Thriller,” still the biggest selling album ever.

He had also bought the Beatles back catalogue for $47.5 million in 1985, an investment estimated to be worth $1 billion today.

But the child molestation charges that engulfed Jackson in the mid-2000s brought an end to the good times. Jackson, who temporarily went to live in Bahrain, almost had to sell his beloved Neverland ranch.

In his final years, he was still going on massive spending binges, taking loans on his assets to cover the bills. At the lowest point, his debts totaled some $500 million, forcing him to plan for the doomed comeback concerts in 2009.

After Jackson’s death, one of the estate’s first money-making ventures was the “This is It” motion picture, patched together from footage of rehearsals for the doomed final tour. The film made some $200 million worldwide.

A few months after his death, Sony and his lawyers signed a record contract said to be worth over $200 million by The Wall Street Journal — foreseeing the release of seven albums over 10 years.

The estate also did deals with Cirque du Soleil for both a touring show and a permanent show based at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas.

Only last month, Jackson was back on stage — as a hologram — performing at the Billboard 2014 Music Award event in Las Vegas.

Jackson, or rather his hologram, sang and moonwalked to “A Slave to the Rhythm” recorded in 1991 and included on the recently-released album “Xscape,” the second since his death, following “Michael” in 2010.

Greenburg said the star’s financial turnaround, in death, was unprecedented.

“If you look at the numbers, it’s actually over $700 million in five years. Over that period of time… no living artist has gotten anywhere close to that,” he told AFP.

“Regardless of where the King of Pop’s spirit resides, one thing’s for sure: Michael Jackson, Inc. is alive and well,” he concluded in his book.

source: interaksyon.com

Refund your Oyster or help charity

Do you have an Oyster card which you bought for lols that time you went to London and then completely forgot about?

Well then you should check out if you can get the spare money back, as there’s £124 million on them (not yours, but loads in general)

Transport for London reckon – out of the 75 million cards issued since time began (2003) – that there’s around 28 million cards that haven’t been used for over a year, and THESE have a combined amount of £64 million on them. Lordy. TfL also has £59.5 million in deposits on these cards too.

Once you’ve found your card, here’s what you can do:

Phone: call 0343 222 1234 with your Oyster number to hand and go through all the security questions, get the nice person on the other end to cancel your card, which you then send to TfL’s customer services HQ to get a full refund of your credit and deposit via bank transfer, cheque, or TfL website credit.

Post: Complete a TfL refund form and send it in to TfL with your Oyster. (Admittedly, if you live in, say, outside of London, a TfL refund form may be difficult to come by).

Person: You can apply for a refund at any London Underground ticket office (BE QUICK WHILE THEY STILL USE HUMANS) and someone will be able to help you.

If the payment method you originally used was a debit or credit card that’s since expired, you can ask for the refund to be transferred to a nominated bank account or to receive it via cheque. If you haven’t registered your card, you’ll need to show some form of ID in order to get the refund. You can’t get a refund on behalf of someone else.

If you can’t be arsed to do any of this, and fancy being nice, TfL donate unused cards to charity, and the spare cash goes to the Railway Children charity which helps nippers on the streets of Africa, India and the UK. Which is quite nice isn’t it? (Although you’ll probably go for the refund though eh?).

source: bitterwallet.com

Mortgage approvals down since nosier tests

Mortgage approvals have fallen to a nine month low.

The new affordability tests, which ask a variety of quite tough and nosey questions, are said to be the main cause for this, and hence having a knock on effect on the housing market.

The approvals fell for a third month in April 2014, according to the Bank of England, and these new rules are said to be part of the reason.

The seasonally adjusted figures showed that a total of 62,918 house purchase loans were approved during April, the lowest number since July 2013. It’s also markedly lower than the previous six months’ average of 70,132.

Analysts reckon that these figures, along with those of an increase in manufacturing, showed that the UK economy was undergoing a hoped-for rebalancing away from housing and consumer-dependent growth to an industry-based model.

A man with a great name – Samuel Tombs, who is UK economist at Capital Economics – had this to say:

“The data has provided more encouraging evidence that the recovery is shifting away from its excessive dependence on housing and consumers towards industry”

So the economy may be showing signs of recovery, but be cautious, as these tests may actually really start dragging on the property market. While it’s still happening with house-buying and that, and the market is still vibrant with house prices in England and Wales rising 6.7% in April compared with the same month last year, according to the Land Registry.

The slowdown in approvals over the spring means that in April mortgage lending to homebuyers was 17% below its recent peak of 75,838 in January, when total lending peaked at 124,358 approvals.

Remortgaging has also dropped off since the start of the year, with 31,703 loans approved for existing borrowers who were not moving house. This is below the previous six-month average of 34,316.

The total value of mortgages approved fell to £15.7bn in April, down from £16.3bn in March, while loans for house purchases dropped from £10.6bn to £10bn.

So that’s all super news if you ever do find yourself on the property ladder.

source: bitterwallet.com

Apple allows ‘approved’ virtual currencies in Apps

Apple Inc will let software developers include virtual-currency transactions in their applications, paving the way for new forms of money to appear on iPhones and iPads.

“Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions,” Apple said in an update to its App Store review guidelines. (r.reuters.com/rys79v)

Apple did not provide details on the approved virtual currencies.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet did not immediately respond to an email seeking more information.

Virtual currencies are not backed by any government or central bank and are bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of central control.

Several U.S. state regulators are looking to toughen rules on the use of the controversial cryptocurrency and have over the last few months warned investors to consider the risks associated with virtual currencies before trading in them.

Last week, satellite TV operator Dish Network said it would accept bitcoin payments from customers from the third quarter, joining companies such as Overstock.com Inc and Zynga Inc in accepting the digital currency.

source: interaksyon.com

US sells lucky 'Year of the Horse' greenbacks for Chinese market

WASHINGTON DC - The US Treasury is selling red "hong bao" envelopes with "lucky" dollars bearing auspicious serial numbers to mark the Chinese Year of the Horse next year.

Exactly 88,888 of the dollar notes go on sale Wednesday, each stuck in a red envelope blazoned with New Year's greetings and horse pictures.

The serial number on each note begins with 8888, which pronounced in Chinese sounds like the word for "prosper" and is considered by many to be especially lucky.

Chinese often give and receive gifts of money in red envelopes -- hong bao -- to mark the new year, which falls on January 31 in 2014.

The Treasury is selling each note, with envelope, for $5.95, though the prices falls to $4.50 for 50 or more, and $3.95 apiece for 1,000 or more.

Cheng Wang, a retired official of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said the annual lucky banknote issue is a hit, especially in years represented by the most propitious animal symbols of the Chinese zodiac.

"The Year of the Dragon (2102), it was sold out in one week. That's how hot it was," he said.

"The Year of the Horse is good too. You reach a goal with a horse."

source: interaksyon.com

Asian shares sag, dollar rises on upbeat U.S. data

TOKYO - Asian shares sagged on Friday though upbeat signals on China's manufacturing activity limited losses, while the dollar pushed higher after upbeat U.S. data led some investors to price-in a less dovish stance at the U.S. Federal Reserve.

China's manufacturing sector grew at the fastest in 18 months in October, with the official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rising to 51.4 last month from September's 51.1, beating economists' consensus forecast of 51.2.

The final HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) came in at 50.9, up from 50.2 in September and unchanged from a preliminary flash estimate released last week.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell about 0.2 percent, while Australian shares .AXJO gave up 0.2 percent, but still remained just shy of five-year highs. Japan's Nikkei stock average erased early gains and dropped 0.6 percent.

U.S. S&P E-mini futures edged up 0.1 percent, after the S&P 500 Index closed down about 0.4 percent but still gained 4.5 percent for the month.

Later on Friday, the U.S. ISM survey of manufacturing for October could offer investors a fresh signal on the Fed's future course.

"If the ISM report is better than expected, it could add to revived tapering expectations, and U.S. yields and the dollar could go up and stocks could go down," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo.

Data on Thursday showed the pace of business activity in the U.S. Midwest jumped more than expected in October, soothing some worries about sluggish fourth-quarter growth after last month's federal government shutdown.

A decline in new jobless claims in the latest week also added to evidence that the economy weathered the shutdown. New claims fell by 10,000 to 340,000, just above the average estimate of 339,000.

Still, not all investors or economists were convinced that the latest U.S. data heralded a shift in monetary policy expectations.

"The existence of noise in the October data will likely make it difficult for the Fed to gather enough evidence to start tapering in December," strategists at Barclays wrote in a note to clients, adding that they still to expect the central bank to begin reducing its current $85 billion monthly bond purchases in March 2014.

Pressure on euro

The euro remained under pressure after plunging in the previous session as euro-zone inflation dropped to its lowest rate in nearly four years, heightening expectations that the European Central Bank will further ease its monetary policy.

The euro dropped about 0.3 percent to $1.3545, moving away from a two-year peak of $1.3833 set one week ago. On Thursday, it suffered its biggest one-day fall against the greenback in six months, tumbling 1.1 percent.

Data on Thursday showed euro-area inflation slowed to a four-year low of 0.7 percent last month, far below the ECB's target of just under 2 percent. Other data showed unemployment held at record highs in September.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was on track for a sixth session of gains, rising 0.3 percent to 80.398 after touching a two-week peak of 80.418 and pulling further away from a nine-month trough of 78.998 hit one week ago.

Against the Japanese currency, the dollar was about 0.2 percent lower on the day at 98.18 yen.

In commodities trading, gold steadied but was still trading close its lowest in nearly two weeks, hurt by sharp losses in the previous session from month-end profit-taking, the strong U.S. economic data and the higher dollar. Spot gold edged up 0.1 percent to $1,326.53 an ounce, after sliding 1.4 percent on Thursday.

source: interaksyon.com

'Hot money' flows back in Sept amid Philippines' robust economy

MANILA - The Philippines enjoyed significant inflows of "hot money" last month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said today.

In a report, the BSP said the country saw $2.691 billion in net inflows of foreign portfolio investment in September, up 72 percent from the $1.5 billion in the same month last year.

This led to net inflows of $2.691 billion in the January to September period, ahead of the $2.649 billion in the same nine-month period last year.

Unlike job-creating foreign direct investments (FDI), portfolio funds are invested in financial assets, such as shares in Philippine listed firms and government IOUs. Portfolio investments are also called "hot money" because they flee at the slightest negative news.

The BSP attributed the increase in portfolio funds last month to "the recognition of the country's sound macroeconomic fundamentals and record growth in the first two quarters of this year." To recall, the Philippine economy grew at a record 7.5 percent in the first half of this year, higher than the government's full-year goal of 6-7 percent and the fastest in Asia alongside China.

Hot money in September went to Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)-listed securities at $1.8 billion; peso government securities, $714 million; and peso time deposits, $52 million. The main beneficiaries for PSE-listed securities consist of holding firms, banks, property firms, information technology companies, and utilities.

The top five investor countries last month were Singapore, the United Kingdom, the US, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong with a combined share of 84.4 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

Asian shares cheer as deal to avert U.S. default reached

SYDNEY - Share markets from Australia to Japan staged a relief rally on Thursday after legislators produced a last-minute deal to lift the U.S. government's borrowing limit and dodge a potentially catastrophic debt default.

The agreement, crafted by U.S. Senate leaders, has been approved by Congress, leaving President Barack Obama to sign the bill into law. Obama has vowed to do so promptly and begin reopening the government "immediately.

It came just hours ahead of an October 17 deadline when the Treasury Department said it would have exhausted its borrowing authority.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan hit a fresh five-month high and was last up 0.4 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei advanced 1.2 percent to its highest in three weeks.

But in what appeared to be a buy-on-the-rumor/sell-on-the-fact move, U.S. stock index futures actually dipped on the news, having already rallied 1.3 percent overnight on hopes that a breakthrough was imminent.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's performance against a currency basket, also slipped a touch to 80.381, pulling back from a one-month high of 80.745.

The deal, however, does not resolve the fundamental issues of spending and deficits that divide Republicans and Democrats. It funds the government until January 15 and raises the debt limit through to February 7, so global markets face the possibility of another showdown in Washington early next year.

"The can has been kicked further down the road...the reset button has been pushed and we will go thought this all again in two months time," said Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.

But Lucas expected "normal trading" to return over the coming days as the earnings season gets underway.

Still, the resolution couldn't have come at a better time for companies such as South Korean train maker Hyundai Rotem, which recently launched an initial public offering in what could be the country's biggest share sale so far this year.

Crisis over?

In the currency market, the improved risk appetite saw investors favor high-yielding currencies including the Australian dollar.

The Aussie dollar hit a 4-month high of $0.9574 and scaled a 4-1/2 month peak of 94.48 yen. It has since stepped back a notch to $0.9534 and 94.01 yen.

Against the yen, the U.S. dollar briefly reached a three-week high of 99.01, before strong selling interest knocked it back to 98.64. The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.3549.

Among commodities, copper slipped 0.5 percent to $7,227 a tonne (1 tonne = 1.12 metric tons), while gold traded at $1,280 an ounce -- struggling to gain momentum in the absence of safety bids. U.S. crude dithered at $102 a barrel.

Many traders are already trying to get past the fiscal drama and looking to see when a backlog of U.S. economic data, including the September payrolls, will be released when the partial government shutdown is lifted.

With the maneuvering in Washington just about over, investors will re-focus on economic news and the timeline for the U.S. Federal Reserve's tapering of its bond-buying program -- a major driver of global assets in recent months.

The Fed stunned markets last month by opting to delay the start of stimulus reduction.

"It will be some time before we are able to get a clear read on the U.S. labor market post-shutdown," said Westpac economist Elliot Clarke.

"But a logical expectation given recent events and the lack of a long-term solution is that we will see soft employment growth through the remainder of 2013 and into 2014."

That, Clarke said, is likely to see the Fed maintain a dovish tilt, adding the U.S. central bank will very likely have to downgrade its 2013 and 2014 growth forecasts given the impact of the U.S. government shutdown.

source: interaksyon.com

Dog eats money, US Treasury pays owner

A Montana man who pieced together the remnants of five $100 bills eaten by his one-eyed dog last year is sporting a $500 check he says he received this week from the US Department of the Treasury to replace the digested funds.

Wayne Klinkel said his dog Sundance, a golden retriever, sniffed the wad of bills out of a car cubby space while waiting for Klinkel and his wife to return from lunch, and the canine made the currency his lunch.

Klinkel, a graphic designer from Helena, Montana, who works for the local newspaper, the Independent Record, said he found Sundance had left nothing uneaten but one intact dollar bill and a small piece of a single $100 note.

"He's been notorious for eating paper products," Klinkel said about Sundance. "I knew right away what had happened."

Klinkel rescued Sundance as a puppy from a shelter 12 years ago and the dog later lost his left eye to surgery.

For days after the December incident, Klinkel followed Sundance around in the snow, collecting his droppings in a plastic bag, he said.

Klinkel kept the bag of doggy mess frozen in the cold outside his house, and after weeks of hesitation, he went forward with his plan for retrieving the soiled cash by thawing the droppings in a bucket of soapy water.

Using an old metal mining screen and a hose, he separated the $100 bill pieces from the rest of the matter, then washed and began to assemble the tiny paper fragments.

"It was sort of like putting the puzzle pieces back together," Klinkel said.

He then took the taped bills to a local bank and the Federal Reserve in Helena but was turned away, he said. Klinkel was eventually directed to the US Department of Treasury's Mutilated Currency Division, where he mailed the digested bills with a notarized letter on April 15.

"There was no guarantee I was going to get anything back," Klinkel said.

The Treasury Department offers reimbursement for some proven cases of damaged currency, and a standard claim can take up to two years to be processed, according to the department's website.

"When mutilated currency is submitted, a letter should be included stating the estimated value of the currency and an explanation of how the currency became mutilated," the website says.

Klinkel said he didn't hear a word from the department until Monday, when he received a crisp $500 check in the mail from the Mutilated Currency Division to replace Sundance's midday snack six months prior.

The Independent Record, the paper that employs Klinkel, has posted a picture on its website of Sundance with the check dangling from its mouth.

An operator with the US Department of Treasury on Thursday said department representatives were furloughed and unavailable for comment on Klinkel's reimbursement.

source: interaksyon.com