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Fed Right to Be in Wait-And-See Mode: Sharma

Fed Right to Be in Wait-And-See Mode: Sharma

Bloomberg4 days ago
Algorithm Research Founder and CEO Ketaki Sharma discusses the resiliency of US markets, the latest inflation data and her outlook for Fed policy with Bloomberg's Joumanna Bercetche on 'Horizons Middle East and Africa.' (Source: Bloomberg)
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Spear AI raises first round of funding to apply AI to submarine data
Spear AI raises first round of funding to apply AI to submarine data

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Spear AI raises first round of funding to apply AI to submarine data

By Stephen Nellis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -A startup founded by U.S. Navy veterans aiming to help the U.S. military use artificial intelligence to decipher data gathered by submarines has raised its first round of outside capital. Washington-based Spear AI specializes in working with what is known as passive acoustic data, which is gathered by listening devices underwater. Its long-term aim is to use AI to help submarine operators understand whether an object heard could be a rain squall, a whale, or a vessel that could be a threat, and to detect where it is and how fast it is moving. The challenge is that most existing AI tools are trained on data such as words or images that have been painstakingly labeled and organized over years or decades by companies such as Scale AI, which recently signed a $14.8-billion deal with Meta Platforms. Data from acoustic sensors is different. Spear AI co-founders Michael Hunter, a former U.S. Navy SEAL analyst, and John McGunnigle, a former nuclear submarine commander for the U.S. Navy, are building a hardware and software platform that aims to prepare that data for AI algorithms. The company sells sensors that can be attached to buoys or vessels and a software tool to help label and sort the data gathered by the sensors to make it ready to be put into AI systems. The U.S. Navy this month awarded Spear AI a $6-million contract for its data-labeling tool. Spear AI, founded in 2021, has been self-funded and has about 40 employees. Hunter, the CEO, said it raised $2.3 million from AI-focused venture firm Cortical Ventures and private equity firm Scare the Bear. The funding will be used to double the company's headcount to support its government contracts and commercial business prospects, such as monitoring underwater pipelines and cables. Hunter said Spear AI also aims to sell consulting services, a model similar to defense tech firm Palantir. "We wanted to build the product and actually get it out the door before the contract came in to get it," Hunter told Reuters. "The only way you can do that is with private capital." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Minimize Your Apple Stock Risk Before Earnings on July 31 with This 1 Options Strategy
Minimize Your Apple Stock Risk Before Earnings on July 31 with This 1 Options Strategy

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Minimize Your Apple Stock Risk Before Earnings on July 31 with This 1 Options Strategy

Apple (AAPL) is certainly a familiar name for investors. But it has been acting strangely this year, especially for a stock that was the first to cross the $3 trillion market cap level. As we see here, it is still above that perch. However, questions about the firm's ability to continue to deserve its lofty multiple, currently around 30x trailing earnings, and its ability to compete in the artificial intelligence business have dogged AAPL this year. The stock is off more than 14% year to date, well behind the broader market. More News from Barchart Low IV Alert: Stocks that Could be Ready to Pop Unusual Volume in Las Vegas Sands Call Options - Investors Bullish on Macao Gambling Alpha From Ashes: 'Big Loser' Comstock Resources (CRK) is Flashing a Statistically Significant Reversal Signal Tired of missing midday reversals? The FREE Barchart Brief newsletter keeps you in the know. Sign up now! That makes next week's earnings report even more of an 'event' than usual. So if you look at investing first as an exercise in risk management, and not as a sport or a casino game, an option collar might be a way to get exposure to AAPL while reducing the risk associated with a post-earnings decline. Show Me the Chart First! That's what I say to myself, as well as the folks I coach on using collars. Sure, you can technically collar any stock or ETF with a liquid options market. However, 'throwing good money after bad' is not a great habit. So as a 40-year chartist, and one who has seen a ton of manic markets, I only want to move forward if the stock chart indicates to me that there's a fighting chance the stock will go higher. That said, we're seeing again this earnings season that any company can be 'taken out back and shot,' to use a phrase from old Western movies. So with AAPL, I look at the daily chart below with my eyes wide open. I see a stock that is trying to mount a comeback. That 20-day moving average in yellow is trending well. But the PPO below is a bit choppy. And while many technicians wax poetic about this or that indicator, I'm a bit more visual, and less jargony. The weekly chart below is more encouraging, and also less. What? Allow me to explain. This is a market characterized by stocks that have been down on their luck suddenly surging in price. That makes traditional technicians happy, because it is positive momentum. However, like a sprinter in a horse race, if the speed can't be maintained long enough, the finish will not be as successful as the start. I see that risk with AAPL's weekly chart here. The 20-week moving average is still in a downtrend, and the PPO just crossed up. That latter aspect of the chart is good, but when that occurs so far below zero, it is less reliable. This all paints a picture for me of a stock that has a chance to move higher, but that an event like the forthcoming earnings report on Thursday, July 31 could easily blow that out of the water. But for those who like AAPL, collaring it can allow you to have your cake and eat it too. Here's one collar combination I zeroed in on. The table below shows four different combos, so you can see a small fraction of the variety of strike prices, expiration dates, break-evens and upside/downside combinations one can explore using Barchart's tools. How to Collar Apple Before Earnings: An Example The combination I'll focus on is the top one above. It goes out 5 months to Dec. 19, the last AAPL expiration date this year. So there's some time. The stock was trading near $214 on Friday morning, and the collar involves buying 100 shares of AAPL, buying a put option with a strike price of $205, and selling a call option struck at $260. This means I can sell AAPL at $205 if it declines below that level between now and Dec. 19. And if it rises to $260, roughly its all-time high reached at the end of last year, I could be forced to sell it. Talk about a high-class problem! That range is not the 'final' range for this collar setup, however. There's the net cost of the options. The puts cost $8.85 a share and the calls bring in $1.83, for the downside protection and for giving up profits, respectively. That nets out to about $7 a share. So if we take that $205 to $260 range and drop both levels by the net cost of $7, viola! We have an 'effective range' for this collar of $253 to $198. Recall that AAPL trades at $214 in this example. That produces upside potential of 18% and downside risk of 7.5%, for about a 2.5-to-1 reward/risk ratio. Option Collars Are Just 1 Way to Manage Risk To me, that ratio is as important a factor in investing as anything, whether you achieve it through an option collar or another strategy. So whether it is collaring popular stocks like AAPL, tactically managing assets, other options strategies, or simply using the strategy of 'position-sizing,' there are more ways than ever to manage risk in these modern markets. Earnings season is a great reminder of that. On the date of publication, Rob Isbitts did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Dave Ramsey lays into guest for asking why even invest if he might not live long enough to enjoy his riches
Dave Ramsey lays into guest for asking why even invest if he might not live long enough to enjoy his riches

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Dave Ramsey lays into guest for asking why even invest if he might not live long enough to enjoy his riches

Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. Sometimes you can get the best advice by poking the bear. One write-in guest on The Ramsey Show found out the hard way after trying to 'make sense' of Dave Ramsey's investment advice. 'You keep saying to invest $100 a month beginning at age 30 and you'll be worth $5 million at 70 years old,' wrote a man named Isaiah. 'That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.' Don't miss Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) You don't have to be a millionaire to gain access to this $1B private real estate fund. In fact, you can get started with as little as $10 — here's how Isaiah pointed out that the life expectancy of a white American male is 72 years old, while for a Black male it's 68, meaning 'most people will never live to see $5 million.' He asked Ramsey to help him 'make sense of this advice.' Ramsey, who called Isaiah 'entitled' and 'belligerent,' said the real issue is the idea 'you're supposed to get rich in 10 minutes.' Here's why investing still makes sense — even if America's lifespan stats suggest many men won't live long enough to enjoy all their savings. Crunching the numbers Ramsey admitted that Isaiah isn't completely wrong about life expectancy, but said he was putting words in his mouth. Ramsey said that saving $100 a month was an example — the idea is to save something every month and start building a 'money mindset.' 'We have never said $100 a month from [ages] 30 to 70 is $5 million — it's not,' Ramsey said, in a recent episode. 'It's $1,176,000, and that would be true of … any 40-year period of time you wanted to pick.' But getting started on that investment journey can be overwhelming, especially if $100 a month isn't possible for you quite yet. The important thing is to start saving with Ramsey's 40-year horizon in mind. With Wealthfront Automated Investing, you can start investing in the stock market with as little as $1. Depending on your risk profile and tax bracket, Wealthfront will create a customized portfolio with low-cost index funds that combines up to 17 global asset classes. You can also opt for automated index investing — helping you build wealth without worrying about short-term market fluctuations. Wealthfront automatically rebalances your portfolio, diversifies your deposits and can help reduce your tax liability by tax-loss harvesting. Even better, up to $500,000 of your deposits with Wealthfront Invest are protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. This means that in the event of a brokerage failure your cash and securities are protected. Get started today and snag a $50 deposit bonus when you open your first investing account and fund it with $500 or more. Once you've established your investment base, that's when you can start ramping up your contributions to move the needle to $100 a month or beyond. Read more: Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — What is a money mindset? A money mindset is 'your unique set of beliefs and your attitude about money,' explained co-host Rachel Cruze in a blog for Ramsey Solutions. That mindset 'drives the decisions you make about saving, spending and handling money' and 'shapes the way you feel about debt.' Cruze pointed to a Ramsey Solutions study of more than 10,000 millionaires, which found that 97% believed they could become millionaires in the first place. 'And having that mindset — not an inheritance, fancy education or wealthy parents — is exactly what caused them to succeed,' she wrote. Some people have an 'abundance mindset,' a belief that there are plenty of opportunities for everyone to grow wealth. Others have a 'scarcity mindset,' the belief that resources are limited and wealth is hard to come by. An abundance mindset focuses on possibilities and potential. A scarcity mindset focuses on limitations and fear, which can lead to unhealthy financial behaviors, such as overspending or hoarding. If you want to begin your wealth creation journey but are worried about market uncertainty, consider opting for assets like gold that can be resistant to market shocks. Investing in gold — often regarded as a safe haven asset — can not only help you grow your nest egg but also offer a buffer against market volatility. Opening a gold IRA with the help of Priority Gold can help you combine the inflation and recession-resistant properties of the precious metal along with the tax advantages of an IRA. Priority Gold offers free account set up and storage as well as free insured shipping for up to five years on their platinum package. Plus, Priority Gold offers guaranteed buyback assurance, ensuring you can sell your precious metals without any fees or added headaches. The best part? You can receive up to $20,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases and a complimentary 2025 Precious Metals Guide when you sign up. Shifting your money mindset Changing your mindset is easier said than done. It often means identifying where your limiting beliefs come from — maybe your upbringing or past money mistakes. Then it takes time and self-reflection to overcome them. An abundance mindset means looking at how to build wealth over time. It's not just about saving $100 a month — it's about how you use that money, whether through growing assets, investing or developing passive income streams. 'Millionaires focus on wealth creation, not just income generation,' wrote business strategist and CPA Melissa Houston in an article for Forbes. She added that they 'don't chase quick wins or get-rich-quick schemes.' Instead, millionaires build sustainable wealth 'through investments that appreciate over time' and make sure their money works for them through stocks, real estate and scalable business models. If you want to start investing now, Brokerages like Robinhood allow you to invest in stocks, options and ETFs 24 hours a day, five days a week, without paying any commission on trades. You can also opt for expert-managed portfolios that are proactively rebalanced depending on changing market conditions. When you sign up and open an account on Robinhood using this link, you can get a free stock from a selection of top American companies. For those looking to diversify beyond the stock market, the real estate sector might be worth considering. Real estate often acts as a hedge against inflation, and it can be used to diversify your portfolio against market shifts. Accredited investors seeking to invest in real estate without the hassles of buying, owning or managing properties can tap into the $34.9 trillion U.S. home equity market through the Homeshares U.S. Equity Fund. With a minimum investment of $25,000, accredited investors can gain direct exposure to hundreds of owner-occupied properties in top cities across the U.S. The fund is designed with a 45% downside protection, providing a bit of safety in the event of defaults. With risk-adjusted target returns ranging from 14% to 17%, this approach can provide an effective, hands-off way to invest in owner-occupied residential properties across regional markets. If you're not an accredited investor, or are not willing to invest large sums, crowdfunding platforms like Arrived allow you to invest in real estate with just $100. Arrived offers you access to shares of SEC-qualified investments in rental homes and vacation rentals, curated and vetted for their appreciation and income potential. Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived handles all the paperwork and management throughout the lifecycle of the investment, allowing you to sit back and become a landlord without any midnight maintenance calls to fix broken air conditioners or burst pipes. Plus, Arrived distributes any rental income from properties as monthly dividend checks, helping you set up a passive income source from the comfort of your home. What to read next Robert Kiyosaki warns of a 'Greater Depression' coming to the US — with millions of Americans going poor. But he says these 2 'easy-money' assets will bring in 'great wealth'. How to get in now Accredited investors can now buy into this $22 trillion asset class once reserved for elites – and become the landlord of Walmart, Whole Foods or Kroger without lifting a finger. Here's how Car insurance in America now costs a stunning $2,329/year on average — but here's how 2 minutes can save you more than $600 in 2025 Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? Stay in the know. Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise sent straight to your inbox every week for free. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. Sign in to access your portfolio

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