Making the Most of Your Credit Card Overseas
Posted on May 7th, 2010
Credit cards are a great addition to any trip, especially when traveling overseas. They offer some of the best exchange rates and the convenience and security of carrying around as little cash as possible. Using a credit card also ensures that you won’t be stuck with left over foreign currency at the end of your trip.
Knowing this, imagine that you go on a trip to Europe and spend $3,000. You use your credit card for most of your purchases because, in addition to the advantages above, you earn rewards in the form of extra cash or airline miles for every purchase you make. A
Will Retail ETFs Feel the Mother’s Day Love?
Posted on May 7th, 2010
Retail exchange traded funds (ETFs) have performed solidly lately – this last week’s sell-off notwithstanding. If you’re shopping to show your love for your mom, they may do even better.
This Mother’s Day, many husbands and children are going to honor their moms with electronics. Children and spouses are expected to spend $906 million on consumer electronics for Mom this Mother’s Day, a 5.7 % increase over last year, says Alan Wolf for Twice.
This comes as great news for the retail sector and ETFs, many of which had been hitting three-year highs. []
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Further Adventures in Home Maintenance
Posted on May 7th, 2010
As much as I’ve learned about money in the past five years, and as much as I like to share what I’ve learned, there are still times when I fail to follow my own advice.
As I’ve mentioned, we live in a hundred-year-old house. This is a great and terrible thing. The house is beautiful and full of character, but it’s also a pain in the ass. In the six years we’ve lived here, one of the pains we’ve encountered repeatedly is the sewer line. About once a year, the thing clogs. But in the past year, it’s clogged more like once a quarter.
Generally, we’re able to handle the clogs on our own. We pour a littl
Barclays Bank leads declines on 100
Posted on May 6th, 2010
European equities markets were lower again Thursday, with declines continuing on concerns that debt problems will spread from Greece to other nations in the region as speculation circulated that Spain and Portugal will be the next economies to need bailouts.
The FTSE 100 was 1.52 percent lower in London, while the FTSE 250 fell 0.8 percent to 9,902.74.
Banks were lower after Moody’s Investors Services issued a report saying that banks in the UK and Ireland as well as in Portugal, Spain and Italy are threatened by the debt crisis.
Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC) led declines on the 100 as it dropped 6.25 percent while Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) fell 5.76 percent, Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN) was 4.67 percent lower and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) dropped 4.31 percent.
The biggest decline in London came on the 250, where Talvivarra Mining Company (LSE: TALV) led miners lower as it fell 10.05 percent, but Gem Diamonds (LSE: GEMD) was one of four gainers in the sector and topped the winners list on the 250 as it added 5.9 percent.
Asset managers Schroders’ voting shares (LSE: SDR) led gains in London and on the 100, adding 6.11 percent, while non-voting shares (LSE: SDRt) followed with an advance of 4.81 percent.
Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE) was up in a mixed energy sector, adding 1.22 percent after Exane BNP Paribas upgraded the oil explorer from “neutral” to “outperform”, while Salamander Energy (LSE: SMDR) was up 1.88 percent for the best performance in the sector but Hansen Transmission International (LSE: HSN), which makes gearboxes for wind turbines, dropped 8.6 percent as it turned in the worst performance of the day in the sector.
Grocer Wm Morrison (LSE: MRW) was down 3.1 percent, the worst performance in the retail sector, after it reported that sales at its stores open a year or more grew only 0.8 percent in the 13 weeks ending 2 May, against an expected growth of 2 percent and compared to sales growth of 4.8 percent in the previous quarter.
The best performer in the retail sector was automobile retailer Inchcape (LSE: INCH), which added 3.45 percent on the session.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 1.41 percent as the European Central Bank held Eurozone interest rates at 1 percent for the 13th month in a row, while the Dax fell 0.84 percent to 5,908.26, the CAC-40 was 2.2 percent lower to 3,556.11 and the IBEX dropped 2.93 percent to 9,352.6.
Banks in Italy were lower on the Moody’s report that listed them as threatened by the debit crisis in Europe, with Unicredit (MIB: UCG) 7.4 percent lower and Intesa Sanpaolo (MIB: ISP) down 7.7 percent even after a central bank official there called his nation’s banks “robust”.
Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower, largely on worries that China’s efforts to cool down the property market will result in a decline of as much as 30 percent in home prices there, and on continuing nervousness about debt issues in Europe.
Tokyo markets opened to declines after a three-day closure for holidays, with the Nikkei 225 down 3.27 percent to 10,695.69 while the Topix index fell 3.07 percent to 956.72 and the Mothers market dropped 2.85 percent to 490.35.
Among decliners were camera maker Canon (TYO: 7751) and automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor (TYO: 7203), each of which fell 3.1 percent on the session as exporters were hurt on concerns that the weaker euro versus the yen will devalue sales in the Eurozone.
The Sensex was down 0.59 percent to 16,987.53 in India, the Straits Times Index fell 0.72 percent to 2,839.65 in Singapore and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.96 percent lower to 20,133.35.
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.53 percent to 7,579.48 while South Korea’s Kospi was down 1.98 percent to 1,684.71 as miner South Korea Zinc (KRX: 010130) dropped 5.7 percent.
In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries fell 1.99 percent to 4,598.6 and the S&P/ASX200 was down 2.16 percent to 4,573.2 as miners fell on continued concerns about a new mining profits tax to be implemented in 2012.
The Shanghai Composite fell 4.11 percent to 2,739.7 on declines in the real estate sector as property developer China Vanke Co (SSE: 000002) was down 4.1 percent even though its property sales were up in April, while Poly Real Estate Group Co (SSE: 600048) dropped 6.7 percent.
New York markets were lower after the Labor Department reported that while initial unemployment claims filed last week were down, but not by as much as expected, and on April sales figures from retailers that were disappointing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.89 percent lower to 10,771.76 in midday trade, while the S&P 500 had dropped 1.13 percent to 1,152.75 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.23 percent to 2,372.7.
Crude oil prices continued to slide, with West Texas Intermediate crude down more than $1.20per barrel at midday.
Prices for copper and silver were both lower at last report, but gold had added more than $20 to nearly $1,200 per troy ounce in New York trade at shortly before 1 p.m.
Maybe It Wasn’t Just Greece
Posted on May 5th, 2010
In the span of a few minutes this afternoon, the Dow lost nearly 1000 points, then gained most of it back. There were lots of reports saying that fears about Greece triggered the sell-off.
But mistakes by traders or glitches in computerized trading systems may have played a role as well.
Laws may make it more difficult for consumers to receive student loans
Posted on May 5th, 2010
As student loan legislation increasingly favors the consumer, incentives for lenders may be drying up.
A recent report by SmartMoney.com pointed to some of these proposals that could serve the current college crowd at the expense of future borrowers.