Australia, the land down under, may be far away for most people, but its emerging presence on the global startup scene is causing people to start to take note. In Startup Genome‘s industry standard assessment of startup ecosystems around the world, cosmopolitan cities Sydney and Melbourne made the top 20, despite the fact that Australia is a…
Today, market research firm Forrester published a report for brands titled “Social Relationship Strategies That Work.” So: What works? Not Facebook (FB) or Twitter (TWTR). The crux of the research suggests that brands are wasting their time, effort, and money on Facebook and Twitter to diminishing returns. A study conducted by the firm from earlier this year found that posts…
There is quite a bit of volatility in the precious metals as they sit at this important resistance level ahead of what could be an important active month of December. There was little delivery report activity, and the usual dribbles of bullion out of the Comex warehouses as noted below. There is intraday commentary related…
Ross Stores Inc. (ROST – Analyst Report) posted better-than-expected third-quarter fiscal 2014 results, wherein earnings per share rose 16% year over year to 93 cents, above the higher end of the guided range of 83–87 cents. Earnings benefited from better-than-anticipated top-line growth and robust merchandise gross margins. Moreover, earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 87 cents per…
The Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) released this morning puts the October year-over-year inflation rate at 1.66%, off the May 19-month high of 2.13%. It is well below the 3.86% average since the end of the Second World War and 29 percent below its 10-year moving average. For a comparison of headline inflation…
Beware of cards bearing gifts If you’ve been receiving a flood of credit-card offers, you aren’t alone, said Kara McGuire at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Credit experts say card offers “are hitting the mailbox at rates not seen in a long while.” Since fewer Americans carry a credit-card balance these days, lenders are trying to…
Australia’s central bank said investors are starting to distort the nation’s housing market and is discussing possible measures with other regulators to strengthen lending practices. “The composition of housing and mortgage markets is becoming unbalanced, with new lending to investors being out of proportion to rental housing’s share of the housing stock,” the Reserve Bank…
(Reuters) – For Americans looking to retire abroad, deciding where to live can be a challenge. But Lynne and Tim Martin took that question off the table by deciding to retire everywhere and anywhere. In 2011 the couple opted for what might be called extreme retirement abroad: They sold their Paso Robles, California, home, jettisoned…
Deciding to retire early Stocks have been on a tear, said Liz Moyer at The Wall Street Journal, and the five-year bull market has allowed many investors to “at least ponder the possibility” of retiring early. But there are some important questions to ask before you cash in your nest egg ahead of schedule. First, have you…
Tapping into international markets is one way to expand your customer base and grow your small business exponentially. However, small businesses face many barriers to exporting including high shipping costs, unfair trade policies by other countries, cultural differences and other challenges. To help small businesses overcome these obstacles and mitigate the risk of exporting, the…
