MarketWatch rounds up 10 of its most interesting topics over the past week.
1. What comes after Facebook’s poundingThe 19% plunge in Facebook’s FB, -0.61% share price on Thursday after the company said it expected slower sales growth and faster increases in expenses may already seem like old news. Wall Street analysts may be upset with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but they still love the stock, with 85% maintaining “buy” or equivalent ratings, according to FactSet.
Meanwhile, Facebook is one of a very small number of S&P 500 stocks to show consistently high double-digit sales growth over the past two years.
More Facebook fallout:
• Facebook users have one red line they won’t cross
• Facebook pays for all its mistakes at once, and it is a big bill
• How Facebook’s $120 billion loss ranks among the biggest one-day stock disasters
• Facebook’s plunge drops Zuckerberg down the billionaire ranks — behind a guy many Americans may not know
• Hedge funds are paying a steep price for their love affair with Facebook’s stock
• Facebook’s historic plunge, as seen through the eyes of the internet
• One millennial options trader was killing it, then Facebook cost him $180,000
And: Investors keep underestimating growth in internet advertising at their peril
2. Amazon does it againFollowing Facebook’s debacle, Amazon.com FB, -0.61% gave investors some relief by reporting a record quarterly profit along with a 39% increase in second-quarter sales from a year earlier.
More on Amazon:
• Record Amazon profit is result of less hiring, more ad sales
• Analysts now project Amazon to top $1 trillion in market cap, ahead of Apple
3. Trimming FAANG stock exposure may improve your long-term performanceThe FAANG stocks — Facebook FB, -0.61% Amazon.com AMZN, +1.70% Apple AAPL, -0.17% Netflix NFLX, -0.87% and Google holding company Alphabet GOOG, -1.23% GOOGL, -1.31% — had a combined market value of $3.37 trillion as of the close on July 25, before Facebook’s shares took their hit. That represented a whopping 14% of the total market capitalization of the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.20% If that figure alarms you, here’s a better S&P 500 index fund — it’s long-term performance record may surprise you.
4. Transportation and povertyYou may be familiar with the story of a man who had to walk 20 miles to work and then was given a car by his boss. Heartwarming as the gift is, it underscores a deeper problem.
5. This math spells out how you can become a 401(k) millionaireBen Carlson breaks it down for those starting to save for retirement at 30 or at 40 and then gradually increasing their 401(k) contributions. His caveat: consistently saving money in a linear fashion is probably one of the hardest things to do because life is inconsistent.
And once you have that million bucks? If it’s invested in income investments that yield 5%, you’re earning $50,000 a year. Interest rates fluctuate and everybody’s circumstances are different, but those raw figures can at least help you to understand the kind of money you need to fund your nonworking years.
More on preparing for retirement:
• The states with the highest average retirement savings will surprise you
• Take this quiz to see if you’re as clueless as the rest of America when it comes to your retirement
• At some point you’ll retire. Here’s how to avoid screwing it up
6. Talking about drug pricesPresident Trump’s remarks about medication prices seems to be leading to a change in behavior among drugmakers and their executives.
7. Going for growthHere’s a list of six momentum stocks from Jeffrey James of Driehaus Capital Management, who has an excellent performance record against competing fund managers.
8. Stocks that are trade-war-proofPresident Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker worked to patch up trade differences this week, but nobody knows how far Trump’s rounds of tariffs with China will escalate. Here are seven stocks of companies with luxury brands that should withstand any trade war.
9. The decision to let Lehman Brothers failThe bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers signaled the worst days of the 2008 financial crisis. Laurence Ball, the author of “The Fed and Lehman Brothers,” says the investment bank could have been saved and that the reasons given for its failure by Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner are “simply not true.”
10. Hacking out a livingThis 18-year-old hacker has put his computer hacking skills to very good use while being paid handsomely.
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