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Taking stock of financial and digital inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Mon, 31 Aug 2015 16:21:00 -0400


Expanding formal financial services—including traditional services (offered by banks) and digital services (provided via mobile money systems)—to individuals previously excluded from their access can improve their capacity to save, make payments swiftly and securely, and cope with economic shocks. Importantly, having access to financial services is also considered a critical component of women’s full economic participation and empowerment. Many countries, therefore, are working to increase accessibility to and usage of formal financial services as important strategies to improving individuals’ financial stability and, at a macro-level, supporting inclusive development and growth.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where the provision and uptake of traditional financial services is limited due to a wide range of factors (including poverty, lack of savings, and poor infrastructure, among others), a number of governments are working to promote digital financial service offerings by creating an enabling environment for various entities (including bank and non-bank formal providers) to offer them. In turn, the region is leading global progress in the adoption of digital financial services: 12 percent of sub-Saharan African adults have a mobile money account (nearly half of whom exclusively use digital services) compared with only 2 percent of adults at the global level. In fact, in five African countries (Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe) more adults have mobile money accounts than have conventional bank accounts.

In the first of a series of publications exploring and sharing information that can improve financial inclusion around the world, the Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project (FDIP) takes stock of progress toward financial inclusion in 21 countries from various economic, political, and geographic contexts and scores them along four key dimensions of financial inclusion: country commitment, mobile capacity, regulatory environment, and adoption of traditional and digital financial services. The interactive rankings and report were launched on Wednesday, August 26 at an event entitled, “Measuring progress on financial and digital inclusion.” According to the report’s findings, four out of the five top-scoring countries are located in sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, some of the lowest ranked countries were also African, demonstrating regional diversity in the pathways toward financial inclusion and their subsequent outcomes.

Here are some of our main takeaways from four of the nine African case studies featured in the report: Ethiopia (ranked #21 overall), Kenya (ranked #1), Nigeria (ranked #9), and South Africa (ranked #2). Kenya and Ethiopia are the highest- and lowest-ranked African countries in the report, respectively, while Nigeria and South Africa represent the continent’s two largest economies, which have achieved disparate outcomes in terms of financial inclusion. (For the overall rankings of the nine African countries included in the report, see Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Overall FDIP rankings of African countries

Ethiopia: A developing mobile services ecosystem

  • Ethiopia’s overall financial and digital inclusion score was low due in large part to its poor mobile capacity and the low adoption rates of formal (particularly digital) financial services. The World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion Index (Findex)—one of the major datasets highlighted in the report—reveals that only 22 percent of adults in Ethiopia had a formal financial account and about 0.03 percent of adults had a mobile money account in 2014.
  • In addition, limited development of the information and communications technologies (ICT) sector and mobile communications infrastructure have inhibited mobile and digital access, reducing the array of financial products and services available to underserved populations.
  • However, Ethiopian digital financial inclusion has the potential and political support to grow: The government is taking steps to address shortcomings in the enabling environment for digital financial service provision, for example, by adopting a mobile and agent banking framework in 2013. This framework sets the foundation for allowing banks and microfinance institutions to provide services through mobile phones and agents. The government is also in the process of developing a dedicated Financial Inclusion Council and secretariat in order to enhance participation from non-financial institutions (namely, mobile network operators) in developing policies for achieving greater digital financial inclusion.

Kenya: Mobile money innovations drive uptake

  • Kenya scored highest in the overall rankings due to its highly accessible mobile networks, regulatory framework conducive to the development of digital financial services, and products that cater to consumer needs and so promote adoption. Kenya also has the highest rate of financial account penetration among women.
  • Between 2011 and 2014, Kenya increased its levels of formal financial and mobile money account penetration by 33 percentage points owing mostly to robust take-up within the country’s vibrant mobile money ecosystem. Nearly 90 percent of Kenyan households reported using mobile money services as of August 2014, and the M-Pesa system (operated by Safaricom) is widely considered the leading driver of success in adoption of mobile money usage.
  • Innovative services that have helped spur financial inclusion among marginalized groups have been developed within Kenya’s mobile network operator-led (MNO-led) approach: For example, in 2012, the Commercial Bank of Africa and Safaricom partnered together to provide the M-Shwari service, which offers interest-bearing mobile money accounts and microfinance.
  • Still, one aspect of the mobile money system upon which the Kenyan government could improve is consumer protection of clients of credit-only institutions, such as microfinance institutions (MFIs) and savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs). Lack of oversight could potentially leave users without adequate consumer protection as these institutions are not adequately regulated and supervised.

Nigeria: A stalled bank-led approach

  • Nigeria achieved a moderate score in the FDIP rankings because, despite a number of country commitments in recent years, low levels of adoption persist. In fact, Nigeria’s increase in financial inclusion has not been driven by uptake of mobile money services: While the proportion of adults age 15 and older who have a mobile money or traditional bank account increased from 30 percent in 2011 to 44 percent in 2014, only 0.1 percent of adults had a registered mobile money account in 2014 and had used it at least once in the 90 days prior, according to an Intermedia survey.
  • The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has taken a bank-led approach to mobile money, in which banks promote their traditional services via the mobile network. This is an alternative approach to the MNO-led approach seen in Kenya, where MNOs provide the network of agents and manage customer relations. Some experts have noted that in cases where a bank-led approach is adopted, for example in India, the financial incentives are not strong enough for banks to expand their services to the unbanked, while mobile network operators on the other hand have greater “assets, expertise, and incentives” to launch and scale mobile money services.

South Africa: Strong mobile capacity, yet room for growth in adoption

  • South Africa was ranked highest of all countries in the report in mobile capacity for its robust mobile infrastructure and large proportions of the population subscribing to mobile devices (70 percent) and covered by 3G mobile networks (96 percent). It also tied for the highest score of formal account penetration, including among rural, low-income, and female groups.
  • In the past decade, financial inclusion (as measured by the proportion of the population using financial products and services—formal and informal) has increased dramatically from 61 percent in 2004 to 86 percent in 2014. This uptick can be partially attributed to the increase in banking and ownership of ATM/debit cards. Disparities in penetration exist, however, among gender and race, with women and white populations being more likely to be banked than men and black populations.
  • As cited in the Brookings FDIP 2015 report, the 2014 Global Findex found that 14 percent of adults (age 15 and older) possessed a mobile money account in 2014. The top 60 percent of income earners were more than twice as likely to have accounts as the bottom 40 percent of the income scale. So despite strong mobile capacity, there is still room for growth in terms of mobile money penetration especially among low-income adults.

So what’s next for expanding financial and digital inclusion?

The FDIP case studies offer a number of insights into the policies and frameworks conducive to the uptake of formal financial services. In several of African countries considered to be mobile money “success stories,” for example, in Kenya (also see the Rwanda country profile in the report), mobile network operators play a substantial role in spearheading the drive toward financial inclusion and have collaborated closely with central banks, ministries of finance and communications, banks, and non-bank financial providers. Ensuring the participation of all stakeholders—not just governments and banks—in setting the national financial inclusion priorities and agenda, then, is critical. Furthermore, actively participating in multinational financial inclusion networks can enhance knowledge-sharing among members and lead to further country commitments. Finally, leading surveys of the national financial inclusion landscape can also help governments and financial service providers better target their strategies and services to the local needs and context.

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Stock buybacks: From retain-and reinvest to downsize-and-distribute

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2015 10:00:00 -0400


Stock buybacks are an important explanation for both the concentration of income among the richest households and the disappearance of middle-class employment opportunities in the United States over the past three decades. Over this period, corporate resource-allocation at many, if not most, major U.S. business corporations has transitioned from “retain-and-reinvest” to “downsize-and-distribute,” says William Lazonick in a new paper.


 

Under retain-and-reinvest, the corporation retains earnings and reinvests them in the productive capabilities embodied in its labor force. Under downsize-and-distribute, the corporation lays off experienced, and often more expensive, workers, and distributes corporate cash to shareholders. Lazonick’s research suggests that, with its downsize-and-distribute resource-allocation regime, the “buyback corporation” is in large part responsible for a national economy characterized by income inequity, employment instability, and diminished innovative capability.

Lazonick also challenges many of the notions associated with maximizing shareholder value, an ideology that has come to dominate corporate America. Lazonick calls for a decrease, or even a ban, in stock buybacks so companies will be able to use these funds to finance capital expenditures but more importantly to attract, train, retain, and motivate its career employees. And some of the funds made available by a buyback ban can even flow to the government, he argues, as tax revenues for investments in infrastructure and human knowledge that can underpin the next generation of innovation.  

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  • William Lazonick
Image Source: Toru Hanai / Reuters
     
 
 


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Stocks and the economy

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On ::

The stock market started 2016 with its worst first two weeks ever, renewing a decline in stocks that began around mid-2015. In mid-December, the Fed indicated its confidence in the economy's expansion by finally raising the policy interest rate above zero. Does the falling stock market reflect signs of economic trouble that the Fed missed?…

       


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Making sense of China’s stock market mess

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Mon, 13 Jul 2015 03:34:00 -0400


Nearly two years ago China’s Communist Party released a major economic reform blueprint, whose signature phrase was that market forces would be given a “decisive role” in resource allocation. That Third Plenum Decision and other policy pronouncements raised hopes that Xi Jinping’s government would push the nation toward a more efficiency-driven growth model in which the private sector would take a greater share of economic activity and the state would exercise its leadership less through direct ownership of assets than through improved governance and regulation.

Over the past two weeks, Xi’s bureaucrats launched the most heavy-handed intervention in China’s stock markets in their twenty-five year history. Spooked by a sudden 19% plunge in the Shanghai Composite Index, regulators halted initial public offerings, suspended trading in shares accounting for 40% of market capitalization, forced state-owned brokers to promise to buy stocks until the index reached a higher level, mobilized state-controlled funds to purchase equities, and promised unlimited support from the central bank. At first these measures failed to prevent a further fall. But by the end of last week, the market stabilized, at a level 28% below its June 12 peak but still up 82% from a year ago, when the bull run started. What ever happened to the “decisive role” of market forces?

A skeptic would argue that the contradiction between market-friendly rhetoric and dirigiste reality shows up the hollowness of Xi’s reform program. Under this reading, the promised economic restructuring is unlikely to make much progress, either because Xi doesn’t really believe in it, or because the power of entrenched interest groups and bad old habits is simply too great to overcome.

This view finds support in both the embarrassing stock-market spectacle and the fitful progress of reforms. Progress in a few areas has been solid: slashing of bureaucratic red tape has led to a surge in new private businesses; full liberalization of interest rates seems likely following the introduction of bank deposit insurance in May; Rmb 2 trillion (US$325 billion) of local government debt is being sensibly restructured into long-term bonds; tighter environmental regulation and more stringent resource taxes have contributed to a surprising two-year decline in China’s consumption of coal. But many other crucial reforms are missing in action. Most important, almost nothing has been done to dredge the dismal swamp of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which deliver a return on assets only half that of private companies, but still suck up a share of national resources (capital, labor, land and energy) grossly disproportionate to their contribution to output.

Given this record, it is plausible to interpret the stock market’s wild ride over the past year as a diversionary tactic by a government facing economic growth that ground ever lower and reforms that seemed ever more stuck in the mud. First Beijing tried to pump things up by encouraging retail investors to return to a stock market they had abandoned after the last bubble burst in 2007, and let brokers extend huge amounts of credit to enable investors to double their bets on margin. By early July, margin credit stood at Rmb 2 trillion, four times as much as a year earlier. That figure equaled 18% of the “free float” value of the market (i.e. the value of all freely tradable shares, excluding those locked up in the hands of strategic long-term shareholders). Even after a recent decline, margin credit is nearly 14% of Shanghai’s free-float market capitalization, compared to less than 6% in New York and under 1% in Tokyo.

The Chinese government also tried to entice foreign investors by permitting them to invest in the Shanghai market via brokers in Hong Kong. And for a while it seemed possible that domestic A-shares would be included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which would have forced global institutions to move billions of dollars of equity investments to Shanghai in order to ensure their funds matched their index benchmarks. (In early June, MSCI deferred that decision for at least another year.) Amid a dearth of good economic news, the government could point to a buoyant stock market as evidence that it was doing something right. And after a couple of years spent cracking down on wealth-making activities through a fierce anti-corruption campaign, Beijing could also reassure business and financial elites that it had their interests at heart.

For a while it worked: the Shanghai index more than doubled in the 12 months before its June peak. But the ill-informed enthusiasm of novice investors, magnified by credit, pushed valuations to absurd levels that could lead only to an ugly crash. Now that the crash has come, China’s leaders must face the grim reality of a broken market, a stagnant economy, and a stalled reform program.

This account has much truth to it. The government did encourage the stock bubble, and its blundering intervention last week did undermine the credibility of its commitment to markets. Yet there is another way of looking at things that is both less dire and better attuned to China’s complexities.

Little evidence suggests that the stock market lay anywhere near the center of policy makers’ concerns, during either the boom or the crash. The main aims of macroeconomic policy over the last nine months have been to support investment growth by a cautious monetary easing, and to stabilize a weakening property market (important because construction is the key source of demand for heavy industry). The stock market was a sideshow: an accidental beneficiary of easier money, and the fortuitous recipient of funds from investors fleeing the weak property market and seeking higher returns in equities.

There was good reason for policy makers not to pay much attention to the stock market. China’s market is essentially a casino detached from fundamentals. It neither contributed much to economic growth while it was rising, nor threatened the economy when it collapsed.

In countries such as the U.S.—where about half of the population own stocks, equities make up a big chunk of household wealth, and corporations rely heavily on funds raised on the stock market—a big stock-market fall can inflict great pain on the economy by slashing household wealth and spending, and making it harder for companies to finance their investments. China is different: less than 7% of urban Chinese have any money in the market, and their equity holdings are dwarfed by their far larger investments in property, wealth management products, and bank deposits. Equity-raising accounts for less than 5% of total corporate fund-raising; bank loans and retained earnings remain by far the biggest sources of investment funds.

But hold on—if the market were really so economically irrelevant, then why did the government panic and try to prop it up with such extreme measures? It’s a fair question. One plausible answer is that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), which oversees the market, got worried by the chaos and begged the State Council to mobilize support so that it could gain time to deal with the underlying problems, such as excessive margin borrowing. This explanation certainly seems to be the one the State Council wants people to believe. Despite its strong actions, the Council and its leader, Premier Li Keqiang, have stayed studiously silent on the stock market. The implied message is: “Okay, CSRC, we’ve stopped the bleeding and bought you some time. Now it is up to you to fix the mess and return the market to proper working order. If you fail, the blame will fall on you, not us.” If this interpretation is right, we can expect restrictions on trading and IPOs to be gradually lifted over the next several months, and rules on margin finance tightened to ensure that the next rally rests on a firmer foundation.

The episode highlights the built-in contradictions in China’s present economic policies. Based on numerous statements and policy moves over the last 15 years, there can be no doubt that influential financial reformers want bigger and more robust capital markets—including a vibrant stock market—in order to reduce the economy’s reliance on politically-driven bank lending. Moreover, the success of proposed “mixed ownership” plan for SOE reform likely depends on having a healthy stock market, in which the state shareholding in big companies can be gradually diluted by selling off stakes to private investors.

But the financial reformers are not the only game in town. As analysts like me should have taken more care to emphasize when it was released, the Third Plenum Decision is no Thatcherite free-market manifesto. In addition to assigning a “decisive role” to market forces, it reaffirms the “dominant role” of the state sector. Like all big policy pronouncements during China’s four decades of economic reform, it is less a grand vision than an ungainly compromise between competing interests. One interest group is the financial technocrats who want a bigger role for markets in the name of more efficient and sustainable economic growth. Another consists of politicians and planners who insist on a large state role in the economy so as to maintain the Party’s grip on power, protect strategically important industries and assets, and provide a mechanism for coordination of macro-economic policies.

In short Xi and his colleagues, like all their predecessors since Deng Xiaoping, are trying to have it both ways: improve economic performance by widening the scope of markets, but guide the outcomes through direct intervention and state ownership of key actors and assets. Both elements, from the leadership’s standpoint, are necessary; the critical question is how they are balanced. Free-market fundamentalists might say such an approach is unsustainable and doomed to failure. But they have been saying that since reforms began in 1978, and so far they have been proved wrong by China’s sustained strong economic performance.

Of course the task now is tougher, since China no longer enjoys the tailwinds of favorable demographics and booming global export markets. Moreover, “market guidance” is fairly easy to pull off in physical markets such as those for agricultural commodities, industrial metals or even property, where the government can manipulate supply and demand through control of physical inventories. It is far trickier in the ether of financial markets, where transactions take nanoseconds and billions of dollars of value can vanish in the blink of an eye. Yet Beijing will doubtless keep trying to develop bigger and better capital markets, while at the same time intervening whenever those markets take an inconvenient turn. It is too early to say whether this strategy will prove successful, but one thing is for sure: we will see plenty more wild rides in the Shanghai stock market in the years to come.


Arthur Kroeber is non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings-Tsinghua Center and head of research at economic consultancy Gavekal Dragonomics.
Image Source: Aly Song / Reuters
      
 
 


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U.S. job market goes from strength to strength as global stock markets tremble

By webfeeds.brookings.edu
Published On :: Fri, 08 Jan 2016 12:06:00 -0500


The latest BLS employment report showed remarkable strength in the U.S. job market even as global financial markets were trembling. Employers added 292,000 to their payrolls in December. Upward revisions in previous BLS estimates also boosted gains in October and November. In the last quarter of 2015, payrolls increased at a rate of 284,000 per month, a remarkable performance in the face of rising uncertainty about prospects for the world economy. U.S. employers added a total of 2.65 million jobs in 2015, the second best calendar-year gain of the current recovery. (Gains were stronger in 2014 but smaller in earlier years of the recovery.)

As usual, private employers accounted for an overwhelming share of the job gains. Ninety-seven percent of the gains in the fourth quarter and 96 percent of the gains last year occurred as a result of employment gains in the private sector. Whatever the uncertainty of the world economic outlook, U.S. employers have enough confidence in their own prospects to keep adding to their payrolls at a healthy clip. Public employment remains about 375,000 (1.7 percent) lower than it was at the onset of the Great Depression. Though government payrolls are now growing, in percentage terms they have been rising much more slowly that private payrolls.

Sizeable job gains were recorded in construction, transportation, motion pictures, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality industries, and health care. Gains were modest or negligible in manufacturing and retail trade. Payrolls fell for the twelfth consecutive month in mining, primarily as a result of continued weakness in world energy prices.   

Average hourly pay in private firms edged down 1 cent in December, but the nominal wage was 2.5 percent higher than its level 12 months earlier. This is a somewhat faster rate of improvement compared with the gains workers saw between 2010 and 2014. In terms of purchasing power, U.S. workers are clearly enjoying faster pay gains as a result of lower inflation. The 12-month change in real hourly earnings through November was 1.8 percent, the fastest rate of improvement in the current recovery. 

The BLS household survey also contained a big helping of good news. The unemployment rate remained unchanged, at 5.0 percent, but that was the result of sizeable employment gains combined with a notable influx into the active labor force. The number of survey respondents who said they were employed jumped 485,000, and the number saying they held a job or were actively looking rose 466,000. Over the past 12 months the labor force has increased only 1.69 million, but the number of household survey respondents who say they hold a job has increased 2.49 million.  Contrary to predictions that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act would push employers to put workers on part-time schedules, an overwhelming share of job growth has been in full-time positions. The number of survey respondents who said they held full-time jobs increased 504,000 in December. It has increased 2.6 million over the past year.

The gray cloud in the latest jobs report is the continued weakness in the prime-age labor force participation rate. The participation rate of men and women between 25 and 54 years old is now 80.9 percent, exactly the same as its level a year ago but more than 2 percentage points below its level before the Great Recession. Most labor economists anticipate that easier job finding and rising real hourly pay will bring more potential workers back into the workforce. Among Americans in their prime working years, however, that resurgence in participation is hard to see.


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Image Source: GARY HERSHORN
     
 
 


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Stockholm's new bike share will offer 5,000 electric bikes & cost just $33 per year

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Tue, 17 Oct 2017 17:31:14 -0400

The new City Bike program will also feature a 'bring your own battery' scheme, leaving the charging to the rider.


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Stockholm to get a forest of timber towers on top of a plywood podium park

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Wed, 05 Sep 2018 13:00:51 -0400

It is the "highest, densest and most environmentally friendly new neighborhood" in Stockholm.


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The biggest illegal ivory stockpile in the world will be destroyed by incineration

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 16:15:15 -0500

It is estimated that around 100 elephants are being killed each day by poachers to meet the growing demand for ivory in Asia.


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Cycling Across Scandinavia: Stockholm's Vision for Urban Life

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:53:15 -0400

We are at the end of our LostGen2 quest for the world's best city


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Jargon watch: Aufstockung, or vertical additions

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 09:00:58 -0400

It's happening all over, and wood construction can make it even easier and faster.


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Ethanol: How the Fuel is Produced, Growing Corn and Other Feedstocks, and More

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:11:04 -0400

Ed. note: This post, about ethanol is now the third post (read about biodiesel and compost to catch up) in the Green Basics series of posts that TreeHugger is writing to provide basic information about important ideas, materials and technologies for new


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Are plant-based meats ethical if they're funded by industrial livestock producers?

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 09:00:00 -0400

A writer argues that glitzy new plant-based technology distracts from the bigger issue of animal welfare.


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10 plant-based staples to stock a vegan kitchen

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Thu, 30 Jan 2020 17:28:02 -0500

After decades of eating mostly a plant-based diet, these are the basic staples I've learned to keep on hand for a variety of meals.


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Is It True That Farmers Feed Antibiotics To Livestock To Make Them Grow Faster?

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Thu, 26 May 2011 18:21:59 -0400

I always thought the 'it makes them grow faster' reasoning for why they put antibiotics in animal feed was a myth and that the truth was more complex. Farmers found they could crowd animals


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6 ways to 'beef up' your vegetarian vegetable stock

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Wed, 22 Jan 2020 16:37:48 -0500

These simple tricks add the depth and flavor that plant-based vegetable stock can sometimes be missing.


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Stockholm Declaration calls for Vision Zero, lower speed limits; USA says drop dead

By www.treehugger.com
Published On :: Mon, 24 Feb 2020 11:10:09 -0500

Over 80 countries have signed up to make our roads safer. Only one dissented.


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This cruise stock may be a 'short-term opportunity' despite 80% drop, trader says

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 11:15:44 GMT

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings' stock could see some near-term relief after plunging on the company's latest attempts to avoid bankruptcy, says analyst Matt Maley.


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Asia stocks little changed as data shows China's exports unexpectedly rose in April

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 07:20:30 GMT

Data showed China's exports rose 3.5% from a year ago, versus a 15.7% decline in a Reuters poll.


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Japan jumps more than 2% as Asia stocks rise ahead of US jobs report

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 07:23:19 GMT

The U.S. employment report for April is expected to be out at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Economists expect that more than 20 million jobs were lost last month, according to Dow Jones.


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How Tim Ferriss uses techniques from this ancient philosophy to handle Covid-19 stock market volatility, emotions

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 16:27:44 GMT

Investor and author Tim Ferriss said that he's struggled amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But there's a Stoic practice called "premeditation malorum" that has helped him sit with decisions in difficult times. Here's how to use it.


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How Warren Buffett's son spent the $90,000 of Berkshire stock he got at 19—worth $200 million now: 'I don't regret it'

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 17:19:07 GMT

Rather than spending his Berkshire Hathaway stock inheritance on extravagant things (or allowing it to accrue in value), Warren Buffett's son says he used it to buy something "infinitely more valuable than money." And he has no regrets.


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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Tesla, Facebook, Dunkin' Brands, Boeing, Moderna & more

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:04:37 GMT

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.


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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Lyft, Peloton, PayPal, Grubhub, T-Mobile & more

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 20:11:27 GMT

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.


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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Tesla, Uber, MGM Resorts & more

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 17:16:30 GMT

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading on Friday.


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5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 12:50:56 GMT

Stock futures rise as traders look past the jobs collapse and take comfort in new promises from U.S. and China trade negotiators.


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European stocks that you should be buying

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Sat, 10 Mar 2018 01:38:12 GMT

Mebane Faber, CIO at Cambria Investment Management, explains why he thinks stocks from Greece, Ireland, Russia and Spain are more attractive than U.S. equities.


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Time to go risk-off on stocks?

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Sat, 10 Mar 2018 01:38:12 GMT

Scott Nations, Chief Investment Officer & President at NationsShares, says recent declines on Wall Street "may be more than a dip" and investors should avoid taking risks.


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Asian shares up on China's NPC but China stocks fall

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 00:08:40 GMT

Asian stocks were mostly higher Wednesday, boosted by overnight gains on Wall Street and unveiling of China's official 2014 GDP growth target.


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Stock markets could still relapse on coronavirus worries: JPMorgan

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 02:23:21 GMT

Investors should be prepared for a potential stock market relapse and that they are not solely invested in the United States, says David Kelly, chief global strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management. He suggests exploring countries in East Asia, which will likely exit the coronavirus crisis faster than Europe or the U.S.


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5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:55:47 GMT

Dow futures drop Thursday after another avalanche of weekly jobless claims and a crush of earnings.


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5 things to know before the stock market opens Wednesday

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 13:54:09 GMT

Dow futures trimmed earlier gains as U.S. oil prices turned lower after a five-session winning streak.


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Stocks just posted their best month in decades, yet most of Wall Street hates this rally

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:07:18 GMT

"History tells us that the odds of another deep decline are very, very high," one strategist said.


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Jim Cramer says Buffett's sale of airline stocks makes him 'very concerned about the near term'

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 20:21:03 GMT

Cramer said that he viewed Buffett bailing on airlines as a sign that there were serious issues in the broader economy.


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Retail investors bought airline stocks even as travel slowed to a trickle, TD Ameritrade says

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 00:55:39 GMT

"I don't think you're buying these thinking that that business is coming back immediately," TD Ameritrade chief market strategist JJ Kinahan told CNBC.


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'Togetherness kills' — Cramer looks at stocks that will continue to suffer as social distancing remains

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 16:13:07 GMT

"Social distancing is going to be the answer why you have to sell certain stocks," CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday.


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Longtime bull Jeremy Siegel: March coronavirus swoon in stocks 'definitely going to be the low'

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 17:47:26 GMT

"I think 2021 could be a boom year. With the liquidity that the Fed is adding, unprecedented. It could be a really good year," the Wharton School professor told CNBC on Friday.


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Tesla shares are up more than 7% since Elon Musk said the stock was 'too high'

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 20:06:38 GMT

Shares of Tesla closed down 10.3% last Friday on CEO Elon Musk's tweet, but have quickly recovered those losses and added much more.


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Emons: The stock rally appears to be driven by three types of economies

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:24:12 GMT

Ben Emons of Medley Global Advisors discusses the opportunities investors can find among companies operating in the "new economy", such as tech and healthcare, and those in a "return to normal" environment, such as entertainment, leisure and hospitality.


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Stock market live Wednesday: Tech stocks rise, Dow falls 200, GDP -18%?

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 20:36:52 GMT

A converstation about the latest market-moving news, including oil's six-day rally and expectations of reopening the economy.


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Here's what happened to the stock market on Wednesday

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 21:36:06 GMT

The Dow and S&P 500 closed lower on Wednesday as investors weighed the potential of the U.S. economy reopening amid more dismal employment data.


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Stock market live Thursday: Nasdaq positive for the year, tech strength continues, Dow jumps 200

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 20:18:46 GMT

A conversation about the latest market-moving news, including a surge in oil prices and the latest unemployment data.


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'Bubble' stocks like Beyond Meat and Peloton were supposed to blow up, but the opposite happened

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 11:37:07 GMT

Bubble-like tech stocks remain among the biggest winners this year, and their strength pushed the Nasdaq Composite into positive territory on Thursday.


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Here's what happened to the stock market on Thursday

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 20:47:04 GMT

The tech-heavy Nasdaq clawed back all of its 2020 losses as tech shares added to their recent gains.


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Stock market live Friday: Record job losses, investors focused on reopening, Dow gains 450

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 20:37:36 GMT

A conversation about the latest market-moving news, including the upcoming jobs report.


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Here's what happened to the stock market on Friday

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 20:09:22 GMT

Stocks rose sharply even after the ugliest monthly jobs report on record as investors bet the worst of the coronavirus and its impact on the economy has passed.


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Warren Buffett's exit from airline stocks is a wake-up call for index investors, Jim Cramer says

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 22:40:41 GMT

"I recommend selling" some position in the S&P 500 index fund "if the [upward] streak continues," the "Mad Money" host said.


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Cramer's lighting round: JPMorgan Chase is an 'out-of-favor stock'

By www.cnbc.com
Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 23:11:47 GMT

"Mad Money" host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he's giving his answers to callers' stock questions at rapid speed.


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