The ‘smart money’ says it’s time to buy the Chinese internet giants and the U.S. FAANGs

When the media and investors turn negative on stocks but the “smart money” is bullish, it’s a good time to think about buying. After all, exactly what is the smart money, and how do you know? Lately, several fund managers who pass this test have been pounding the table on Chinese internet names.

Saudi Arabia Summit Loses Its Swagger as Elites Question Kingdom

Hosted by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the three-day conference that kicks off in Riyadh on Tuesday was meant to showcase the opportunities created by reform efforts to break the economy’s dependence on oil and unveil billion-dollar contracts in front of the world’s business elite. Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- who posed for selfies with hundreds of delegates at last year’s conference -- will be keen to show that it’s business as usual in the kingdom, even as European leaders and President Donald Trump demand more information on how the Washington Post columnist was killed at its consulate in Istanbul. No-shows from the likes of Deutsche Bank AG’s Christian Sewing, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon and BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink will deal a blow to the 33-year-old leader and the kingdom, which has built close ties with Wall Street executives and relies largely on global banks to finance its ambitious plans.

• 
  Trump accuses Saudi of 'lies' over Khashoggi killing

  AFP
• 
  Saudis Call Khashoggi's Death A 'Mistake,' As Turkey Speaks Out

  Yahoo View

Don’t cheat yourself with the 4% rule

If you’re planning for retirement, you’re probably thinking about how much you’ll need, how long the money will last, and how much you can safely take out each year. You recognize that in retirement there will be a balancing act between spending on current needs while also preserving enough for your later years. Instead, all-too-often, retirees use simplified rules of thumb to determine how much to take out each year.

With crude around $70, it’s time to sell your oil stocks

The energy sector has been whipsawed by headlines lately, and many investors can’t decide whether to buy or sell oil stocks. When oil (CLX8) raced up to a new 52-week high of more than $76 to start October, many thought things looked great. Then as U.S. oil supplies rose and as OPEC production rose, things didn’t look so hot.

Suze Orman has a killer question for your retirement

Suze Orman is one of those singular personalities in the financial business who seems to be right on the pulse of everyone she meets. She’s written books, starred in her own television show and made innumerable appearances in person. Like Oprah

This tiny biotech spun a quick $2 billion from $12 million

More than a year ago, the biotech Endocyte Inc. was backed into a corner. The West Lafayette, Ind.-based company (ECYT) announced a “strategic restructuring,” that dreaded corporate-speak, including about a 40% cut to its workforce, leaving it with just 47 employees. The company was also making major changes to its clinical trials, not the best sign as those power a biopharmaceutical company’s entire business.

10 questions to ask yourself before you buy — or sell — a house

Housing is the biggest expense for most American families, typically devouring a third of their budget. If you play around with the mortgage calculator at Bankrate.com, you can figure out how big a mortgage you could support with your monthly rent payments.

Marijuana stocks to watch: Aurora Cannabis investments may be more valuable than its pot

Aurora Cannabis Inc. is a major pot producer, but if its bets on other cannabis companies continue to pay off, it may be able to stop actually growing weed on its own. Aurora (ACBFF)(CA:ACB) said recently its investments were worth more than C$700 million ($540 million) as of Sept. 21, bolstered in part by demand for pot stocks ahead of full legalization of marijuana in Canada on Wednesday. As the entire sector has benefited, so has Aurora’s portfolio, boosting the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit to C$79.9 million, after a loss of $20.8 million the year earlier.

• 
  The True Story Behind the Biggest Marijuana Deal Ever

  Motley Fool
• 
  Better Buy: Aurora Cannabis Inc. vs. Canopy Growth Corporation

  Motley Fool

AMD earnings: Trade wars could harm assault on Intel

As shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. fall back toward earth, investors have the opportunity to decide whether the current trade war climate had impinged upon the chip maker’s ability to capitalize of the misfortunes of its main rival. AMD (AMD) is scheduled to report earnings after the market close on Wednesday. AMD’s stock approached its peak for the year in September following AMD’s launch of its Radeon Pro V340 server card in late August and a slew of price upgrades from analysts, and have since fallen into a correction.

Walmart will save $20 million annually on floor wax

Walmart Inc. has found a new way to save millions of dollars: Switch the floor wax it uses in its stores. According to the retail giant’s Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, Walmart (WMT)  switched to a new floor wax that’s both cheaper and more effective, reducing the number of times the floors have to be buffed. “That one change in floor wax will save us over $20 million a year,” he said, according to a FactSet transcript of the company’s Tuesday investment community meeting.

Larry Culp is the production ‘nerd’ who could just transform GE

Larry Culp, the former CEO of Danaher and the first outsider to lead General Electric Co., will revitalize GE with the same powerful system he used to quintuple revenue at Danaher: the Toyota Production System, or TPS. TPS is a system that attacks waste and exposes employees to end-customer demand, so production is pulled by demand, not pushed by capability.

The same question that can chart a path to early retirement is the one Warren Buffett used to build Berkshire Hathaway into a powerhouse

Inversion is a mental model that involves flipping your outlook to prevent the opposite of what you want to happen from happening. Warren Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger employed inversion as a business strategy to build Berkshire Hathaway into a powerhouse. In a recent podcast with Brandon of the Mad Fientist, who retired early at 34, productivity expert James Clear said the same strategy Buffett used can help set someone on the path for early retirement.

What should I do with multiple 401(k) accounts?

My current company has a 401(k) plan. Should I roll all my other 401(k) plans into my current plan, leave them where they’re at, or move them to an IRA or other investment? The differences between 401(k)s and IRAs come in a variety of forms and there are a lot of angles to this issue.

• 
  9 Costly Tax Mistakes to Avoid

  Motley Fool
• 
  This Valuable Retirement Savings Hack Just Disappeared Forever

  Motley Fool

These 5 things will kill your early retirement dreams

OUTSIDE THE BOX Early retirement is all the rage these days in personal finance circles. And when I say “early”, I mean really early. I retired at 52 and today’s crowd makes me feel like a slacker. People are retiring in their

• 
  Elon Musk spars with Fortnite on Twitter after joking about buying the video game

  MarketWatch
• Canada’s pot party: Big demand, short supply, and stamps with no glue

  MarketWatch

Take this quiz to see if you’re as clueless as the rest of America when it comes to your retirement

Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement. One of the most troubling stats comes from the National Institute on Retirement Security, which found nearly 40 million households have no retirement savings at all. Apparently, a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $280,000 to cover health care and medical expenses throughout retirement.

How to outlast a job you hate until you can retire

Filling your mind with pleasing images of retirement — what you’ll do, where you’ll reside — can divert attention from the daily grind. Counting the days until retirement gets easier if you’re used to priming your brain to work to your advantage. Joanne Waldman is director of training at Retirement Options, which certifies retirement coaches and offers retirement readiness assessments.

Marijuana investors may lose 90% of their money in Canada, so consider the really big prize elsewhere

Marijuana presents a tremendous opportunity for investors over the next few years. Naïve investors are excited. The reality is that professionals will pick their pockets, and many naïve investors who are excited now will end up losing 90% of their investment.

Netflix is ditching freeloaders from subscriber forecasts after volatile stock moves

After two consecutive off-the-mark quarters, falling short of its own forecasts for subscriber growth, Netflix Inc. hopes to put an end to the big swings in its stock price with some changes to its accounting. In kicking off tech’s earnings season Tuesday, Netflix (NFLX)reported better-than-expected subscriber growth in the quarter, leading to an 11% jump in its shares in after-hours trading. Three months ago, Netflix reported weaker-than-expected subscriber growth, sending its stock tumbling about 12% in the next trading day.

‘You are a disaster’: Cleveland-Cliffs CEO berates analyst on earnings call

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. fell more than 6% Friday after Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves slammed analysts during the mining company’s earnings call earlier in the day, accusing them of failing to understand numbers and targeting a Goldman Sachs analyst for most of his angry remarks. Cleveland Cliffs (CLF) stock hovered at its lowest since Sept. 11 and was on pace for its largest percentage loss since late June. Goncalves fired his first salvo soon after the conference call’s first remarks wrapped up.

Blackrock, Fidelity employees and others sue over high fees on their own 401(k)s

Sharp-eyed investors are always on the alert for pricey fees on mutual funds. ‘If fund companies open up their plans to competing products, that creates a business problem. Employees at big fund companies say they’re being charged excessive fees on their 401(k) plans and that the plans are loaded with expensive, underperforming funds, Barron’s reported.

• 
  This Valuable Retirement Savings Hack Just Disappeared Forever

  Motley Fool
• 
  What should I do with multiple 401(k) accounts?

  MarketWatch

Goldman Sachs Defends Tech Stocks, Says Many Now Look Cheap 

Elevated valuations and crowded positioning have been blamed for the waning leadership of the market’s biggest industry, along with everything from rising bond yields to corporate earnings. The truth is, computer and software makers are cheaper than they’ve been historically, and fund managers currently hold fewer tech stocks than their representation in benchmark indexes, according to Goldman strategists led by David Kostin. “Popularity has turned into concerns of overcrowding and outperformance has turned into concerns of overvaluation, ” Kostin wrote in a note earlier this week.

The 10 commandments of retirement

OUTSIDE THE BOX We’re faced with a host of thorny retirement issues: Keep Social Security solvent. Make Medicare affordable. Many Americans aren’t saving enough. They want to retire earlier than they can reasonably afford. They’re

Marijuana stocks to watch: Canopy Growth is the cannabis business’s $4 billion gorilla

The following article is part of a package of stories that MarketWatch is publishing to mark the start of full legalization of cannabis for adult use in Canada on Wednesday. Smith Falls, Ontario–based Canopy Growth Corp. made headlines and drove cannabis stocks to new heights over the summer when it announced that Corona brewer Constellation Brands Inc. was going to invest an additional $4 billion in the company. Billed by both companies as a strategic partnership, the additional $4 billion investment adds to the 9.9% stake that Constellation bought in October of last year and sets the company up to either be bought outright by Constellation — via warrants that could increase its stake to more than 50% — or continue to work with the beverage company to create a range of consumer-focused cannabis products that may one day appear in markets in dozens of countries.

• 
  The True Story Behind the Biggest Marijuana Deal Ever

  Motley Fool
• 
  Cannabis stocks mixed as investors digest the latest deals and capital raises

  MarketWatch