ETF Giants BlackRock and State Street Falter as Stocks Soar

A booming stock market is supposed to be a bonanza for investment firms that collect fees on assets they manage for their clients. Not so for ETF giants BlackRock Inc. (BLK) and State Street Corp. (STT), which are posting weaker earnings even as the stock market has reached new records, and even as their assets under management have exploded in size.

Here's the next disaster in retail. Hint: it's not J.C. Penney dying

Thanks to shoppers spending cautiously on clothes in recent months — despite a rallying stock market and low 3.7% unemployment rate — retailers of all kinds are sitting on mountains of excess inventory. Now that inventory must be worked off at profit-margin-busting prices in order to make way for the lucrative, full-price garb targeted to back to school shoppers in August and September. That backdrop sets the stage for scores of earnings misses, lowered profit outlooks and downtrodden earnings calls with Wall Street when the retail sector begins to release results in mid-August.

This local venture firm is beefing up its team with two new hires

Reston-based Proof.VC — which has invested in unicorns such as scooter startup Bird Rides Inc., mattress company Casper Sleep Inc. and seen its early investment in imitation meat juggernaut Beyond Meat Inc. escape Earth's gravity and settle into orbit — is expanding its team with a pair of new hires. Former Goldman Sachs Associate and entrepreneur Jennifer Schretter will join the venture firm as partner. In addition, Brian Lampe, a former George Washington University senior business analyst, has signed on as the firm's director of tax and finance.

Houston-based cabaret owner loses public accountant, discloses internal review findings

The Houston-based owner of adult clubs and bars like Rick's Cabaret and Bombshells lost its independent public accountant and disclosed certain financial findings from an internal review. Houston-based RCI Hospitality Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: RICK) initiated an independent internal review in May to look into inquiries made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a May 10 filing. RCI amended certain expenditures in its annual report for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2018, in a July 22 SEC filing.

Taronis Tech inks potential $165M deal to sell units to Turkish gas consortium

Taronis Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: TRNX) intends to sell up to 30 gasification units for around $165 million to an unnamed Turkish organization. The Clearwater-based company, which owns a patented plasma arc technology that enables two primary end use applications for fuel generation and water decontamination, is selling the units through its spin-off Taronis Fuels Inc. Taronis Tech announced earlier this month it intended to spin off its industrial gas business unit, Taronis Fuels, allowing its flagship operation to “benefit from a leaner cost structure.” Taronis Tech is facing delisting from the Nasdaq market and this month was granted an extension by a Nasdaq panel, allowing it to raise the bid price of its listed securities to $1 per share for 30 consecutive days. The contract with the unnamed Turkish organization, which according to Taronis has partnered with five of the largest industrial gas distributors in that country, consists of an initial purchase of 15 units over 18 months.

Already a 2019 Gainer, Nvidia Stock Could Skyrocket if This Happens

The bullish investing thesis on Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), the current leader in GPUs, is pretty clear. GPUs work better than CPUs for artificial intelligence applications and as a result, the chip maker — and NVDA stock — seem well positioned in a market with what is essentially huge growth potential. Due to the importance of artificial intelligence, Nvidia will have a lot of competition in the future and the company might not keep its leading position for very long.

Apple Target Raised at Morgan Stanley Amid Low Expectations

The iPhone maker's target was raised to $247 from $231 by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, who wrote in a note that there is a positive setup for earnings and “low risk” of the company's guidance for the September quarter missing expectations when it reports results next week. Shares of Apple rose 1.6% on Monday and were on track for their highest close since May. Morgan Stanley's price target is now the third-highest among analysts tracked by Bloomberg, and comes after Raymond James last week upgraded the tech giant's rating to outperform from market perform.

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  Morgan Stanley Is Bullish on Apple Earnings

  Motley Fool
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  Apple stock leads Dow higher after Morgan Stanley cites ‘attractive’ earnings setup

  MarketWatch

Cuggino on Fed, Markets

Michael Cuggino, Permanent Portfolio Family of Funds president & portfolio manager, talks about fears of slowing economic growth and why he thinks a rate cut of 25 basis points by the Federal Reserve is already baked in for July. He spoke on July 18 on "Bloomberg Markets."

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  Price of Gold Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Direction Will Be Determined by ECB Aggressiveness

  FX Empire
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  Fed Leaning Toward a Quarter-Point July Rate Cut Led by Powell

  Bloomberg

It took a ban and a government notice for ByteDance to wake up in India

ByteDance has finally woken up to India's security concerns after the country's law enforcement began to bite. Yesterday (July 21), the Chinese internet technology firm said it is in the process of setting up a data centre in India for its video-sharing apps, TikTok and Helo. “We now believe the time has come to take the next big leap,” ByteDance said in a blog post.

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  China's ByteDance plans to set up data center in India

  Reuters
• ByteDance building India data centre to avert TikTok trouble

  Financial Times

Millions of Barrels of Iranian Oil Are Piled Up in China’s Ports

Two and a half months after the White House banned the purchase of Iran's oil, the nation's crude is continuing to be sent to China where it's being put into what's known as “bonded storage,” say people familiar with operations at several Chinese ports. The store of oil has the potential to push down global prices if Chinese refiners decide to draw on it, even as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies curb production as growth slows in major economies.

Equifax settled a massive data breach suit — Here's how much consumers could get

Equifax's massive data breach in 2017 compromised 146.6 million Social Security numbers along with other personal information. As a result, the consumer credit reporting agency faced numerous lawsuits, including a class-action lawsuit that reached a settlement of at least $650 million on Monday. According to the terms of the settlement, which still requires court approval, Equifax has to put at least $380.5 million into a restitution fund for consumers harmed by the breach.

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  Maryland receiving $5.7 million from settlement with Equifax

  American City Business Journals
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  Equifax Agrees to Pay $700 Million to Settle U.S. Breach Probe

  Bloomberg

Fed Is Trying to Avoid Being Reactive, Says Conning’s Yeo

Siew Mee Yeo, Asia Pacific chief investment officer at Conning, discusses Fed policy and her outlook for markets. She speaks on “Bloomberg Markets: Asia.

Icahn Slams Occidental, Says Buffett Took CEO ‘to the Cleaners’

Occidental Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub and Chairman Eugene Batchelder appear to have negotiated the "extremely risky" transaction because they were worried their oil and gas explorer was in the crosshairs of a potential buyer, Icahn said in a letter that will be sent to Occidental shareholders Monday. "I do believe that Hollub and Batchelder know what's good for them and their personal agendas but do not particularly care what's good for shareholders," Icahn said in the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by Bloomberg. "With [Occidental] weakened and doing poorly, Hollub and Batchelder were fearful there would be a bid for the company which shareholders would accept."

• UPDATE 1-Occidental slams Icahn board slate as lacking skills, expertise

  Reuters
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  Icahn Slams Occidental's Anadarko Deal in Quest to Win Four Board Seats

  Bloomberg

Burning Cash, Aurora Cannabis (ACB) Loses a ‘Buy’ Rating

Bank of America said "no" to marijuana company Aurora Cannabis (ACB). In a downgrade announced late last week, BofA analyst Christopher Carey cut his rating on Canada's second largest cannabis grower by market cap, removing his "buy" rating and reducing the stock to "neutral." Aurora's price target likewise fell, from $10 a share (US) to $8. Cash With $400 million worth of cash and equivalents in the bank, and only $313 million in long-term debt, you might not think Aurora Cannabis was a company particularly worried about cash.

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  Will Aurora, Canopy, Cronos, and Tilray Be Profitable by 2021?

  Motley Fool
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  The newest mega-merger in cannabis marks one more step toward Big Weed

  Quartz

'Catastrophic' Stock Market Volatility Is Coming, Says Top Advisor

The good news is investors can use diversified exchange traded funds to smooth out the volatility, Cook says. "Market volatility needs to be embraced as today's new norm," he said. The Rise Of Stock Market Volatility Cook points to the increased big percentage moves in the stock market as a sign volatility is heating up.

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  One Thing To Remember About The Deluxe Corporation (NYSE:DLX) Share Price

  Simply Wall St.
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  How Does Investing In Parex Resources Inc. (TSE:PXT) Impact The Volatility Of Your Portfolio?

  Simply Wall St.

Your portfolio is probably heavy on index funds. Now may be the time to make changes

If you have money in the stock market, you probably own an index fund somewhere, including through target-date retirement funds that own stocks and other assets in mixes that are appropriate for investors of specific ages. Research Affiliates, in its latest report on bubbles, isn't arguing against indexing per se. Nor is it calling for a stock-market crash, though the company's chairman, Rob Arnott, said he views the market as expensive.

These Are The 5 Best Stocks To Buy Now

Invest in stocks with current quarterly and annual earnings growth of at least 25%. IBD's CAN SLIM Investing System has a proven track record of significantly outperforming the S&P 500. Once you have found a stock that fits the criteria, it is then time to turn to stock charts to plot a good entry point.

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  Wix Stock, Up 61% In 2019, Leads 5 Top Software Stocks Fast Approaching Buy Zones

  Investor's Business Daily
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  Best Growth Stocks To Buy And Research

  Investor's Business Daily

Why are so many unable to cover a $400 emergency?

Unfortunately, even during strong economic times, many people are already juggling so many other bills that they just can't imagine adding one more bill onto the pile, according to new research by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. In fact, the research concluded, some of these households actually do have enough money in savings, but many feel constrained by credit card debt and other bills. Often, researchers said, people who have some savings tend to mentally allocate some of that money toward upcoming expenses – maybe next month's mortgage payment, the minimum payments on the credit card bills, paying student loan debt or maybe even saving up for new tires by winter.

Finally, a performance review designed to weed out “brilliant jerks”

Of the many reasons to hate traditional performance reviews, perhaps a less obvious one is that they tend to work to the benefit of brilliant jerks. Atlassian, an Australian-based software company with 3,300 employees globally, has an idea for how to break this cycle. It recently rolled out a new type of performance review, 18 months in the making, in which employees' contributions to their team and company culture actually receive more weight than their personal accomplishments.

If You’re an Aggressive Investor, NIO Stock Is a Buy Under $3.50

When it comes to Nio (NYSE:NIO), the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, I'm on record against owning Nio stock. I believe Nio's Altman Z-Score indicates that if it doesn't shore up its business soon, there's an excellent possibility it could face financial distress in the next 12-24 months,” I wrote June 21. I went on to suggest that a combination of potential bankruptcy, increased competition in the electric business, and a negative gross margin, made NIO a losing proposition.

IBM's Stock Is Too Cheap to Be Ignored

IBM is unjustifiably one of the cheapest companies offering cloud-based software solutions. Big Blue continues to spew out significant amounts of free cash flow, and its Q2 2019 results show that IBM continues to improve its fundamental operations. Investors' initial reaction was one of dismay at having no update on IBM's $34-billion acquisition of multi-cloud platform operator Red Hat.

5 Reasons to Convert a Roth to a Traditional IRA

Yes, the Roth IRA gets you an investment account that is totally tax-free at retirement. You can no longer comfortably pay the immediate income taxes due on the money you're contributing to your Roth IRA. Converting to a traditional IRA is less of a financial stretch since the contribution to the fund is taken from gross pay, not takehome pay.

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  Can I roll my 401(k) and/or IRA funds into a more liquid investment fund without penalty?

  Investopedia
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  Can I take my 401(k) to buy a house?

  Investopedia