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As you sift among the various options for your short-term investments, keep these key items on your dashboard: yield, guarantees, liquidity and your individual situation. The short-term investments that promise the highest yields often come with at least some risk and/or constraints on your daily access to funds. It may be that youre just looking for the highest safe yield and dont care that much about liquidity. Or maybe having ready access to your funds is the name of the game. Also think through whether you value an ironclad guarantee or are willing to go without in exchange for a potentially higher yield. Some cash instruments are fully FDIC-insured, while others are not. On the short list of FDIC-insured investments are checking and savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts (not to be confused with money market mutual funds), and online savings accounts. Certificates of deposit CDs will typically offer the most compelling yields of all cash instruments, and theyre also FDIC-insured. Yet there are a couple of caveats. One is that minimum deposits for the highest-yielding CDs might be $25,000 or even higher. Theres also a trade-off on the liquidity front: Youll usually pay a penalty if you need to crack into your holdings before the maturity date. The longer the term of the CD, the bigger the penalty for cashing out early. Online savings accounts If you want daily liquidity, a decent yield, and FDIC protection, your best bet will tend to be a high-yield savings account through an online bank or a savings account through a credit union. The former offers FDIC protection, up to the limits, whereas credit union accounts are insured by another entity, the National Credit Union Administration. Money market mutual funds Money market mutual funds also offer daily liquidity and the convenience of having those funds live side by side with your long-term investments. But money market fund yields are still generally below those of online savings accounts today. Additionally, money market mutual funds arent FDIC-insured, though in practice most funds have done an excellent job of maintaining stable net asset values. Dont confuse money market mutual funds with brokerage sweep accounts, though both are offered by investment providers. Interest rates on brokerage sweep accounts, which hold investors cash that hasnt yet been invested, have ticked up a bit recently but are still well below other cash options. Stable-value funds Stable-value funds are another example of an investment that offers an often-decent yield in exchange for not checking the liquidity and guarantee boxes. Stable-value funds are only accessible inside of company retirement plans. They invest in bonds, so theyre not FDIC-insured; to protect investors principal, they employ insurance wrappers to help maintain a stable net asset value. Just bear in mind that stable-value funds carry drawbacks. Because you can only own such a fund within a 401(k), youll pay taxes and penalties to withdraw your money before retirement unless you meet certain criteria. So dont think of a stable-value fund as an emergency fund unless youre already retired or close to it. Honorable mention: I Bonds In contrast with the preceding investment types, I bonds are the only safe investment vehicles that will guarantee to make investors whole with respect to inflation. I bonds are Treasury bonds that pay a fixed rate of interest as well as another layer of interest that varies with the current inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. As attractive as that is, it comes with a few asterisks. If you redeem an I bond within five years of buying it, youll forfeit three months worth of interest. Purchase constraints are another drawback for large investors. Christine Benz, director of personal finance and retirement planning at Morningstar This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar.
Category:
E-Commerce
China is moving to strengthen its alliances with other countries as a counterweight to President Donald Trump’s trade war, presenting a united front with Latin American leaders a day after China and the U.S. agreed to a 90-day truce in their tariffs stalemate.China’s leaders have positioned the world’s second-largest economy as a reliable trade and development partner, in contrast to the uncertainty and instability from Trump’s tariff hikes and other policies.On Monday, Beijing and Washington announced their breakthrough on tariffs after weekend talks in Geneva, Switzerland, where they agreed to cut sky-high import duties on both sides for 90 days to allow for negotiations.Still, Beijing’s ire over the trade war remains apparent. Speaking to officials from China and Latin America on Tuesday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated Beijing’s stance that nobody wins a trade war and that “bullying or hegemonism only leads to self-isolation.”Having moved to defuse antagonisms with the U.S., Xi said China stands ready to “join hands” with Latin countries “in the face of seething undercurrents of pure political and bloc confrontation and the surging tide of unilateralism and protectionism.”“There are no winners in tariff wars or trade wars,” Xi said, reiterating a phrase China has used repeatedly when referring to Trump’s policies.When Trump began raising tariffs on Chinese products during his first term in office, China retaliated by diversifying its purchases of key farm products, such as soybeans and beef, away from U.S. suppliers. Brazil and other Latin American countries have benefited from that strategy.Also Tuesday, the head of the World Trade Organization appealed to Japan to fight disruptions to world commerce from Trump’s fast-changing tariffs and other policies.“Trade is facing very challenging times right now and it is quite difficult,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the Geneva-based WTO, told Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba while on a visit to Tokyo.Japan, as “a champion of the multilateral trading system” must help maintain, strengthen and reform the WTO, the Japanese Foreign Ministry cited her as saying.Japan is among many countries yet to reach a deal with the Trump administration on hikes to U.S. tariffs, including those on autos, steel and aluminum.The WTO played a pivotal role in past decades as the U.S. and other major economies crusaded for the more open markets that facilitated the growth of global supply chains, many of which are anchored in China.By dismantling many protectionist barriers to trade, it has aided the ascent of Japan and China, and many other countries, as export manufacturing hubs.Since taking office for a second time, Trump has prioritized higher tariffs to try to reduce U.S. imports and compel companies to locate factories in the United States, doubling down on a trade war that he launched during his first term.The realities of Trump’s global trade offensive overshadowed an initial burst of optimism over the China-U.S. deal among investors, as rallies in stocks and oil prices faded on Tuesday.Speaking to the China-CELAC, or Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Forum, Xi, the Chinese leader, announced plans to build closer ties with Latin America through political, economic, academic and security exchanges.He promised to boost imports from the region, to encourage Chinese companies to increase their investments, and said Beijing plans to expand cooperation in clean energy, 5G telecommunications and artificial intelligence. He also announced a new 66 billion yuan ($9.2 billion) credit line to support Latin American and Caribbean financing.China’s trade with the region has been growing rapidly, exceeding $500 billion for the first time last year, as it imported more farm products such as soybeans and beef, energy resources such as crude oil, iron ore, and critical minerals.Beijing’s investments in the region through Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, have included installing 5G networks and building ports and hydropower plants.Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Monday that his country would formally join the BRIin a vote of confidence after several Chinese projects in Latin America hit snags in recent months.In other pledges, Beijing plans to invite 300 members from Latin American political parties to China annually for the next three years and facilitate 3,500 government scholarships and various other types of exchanges.Five Latin American countries will receive visa exemptions for travel to China, with more to follow, Xi said. It was not immediately clear which countries would become visa exempt. Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed from Tokyo. Simina Mistreanu, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Square, the popular business technology platform known for its Point of Sale (POS) systems, has launched a new device designed to allow sellers to ring up various kinds of purchases and perform other tasks without carrying around the extra weight of bulkier hardware. The Square Handheld, with a screen that is slightly bigger than a cellphone, is less than an inch thick, thin enough to fit in your back pocket. Handheld card readers currently on the market are bulkier, requiring sellers to use lanyards or handstraps to carry them around. The Square Handheld frees up hands for a more seamless integration into the user’s workflows. The device supports a full range of payment options, includes a camera and barcode scanner, and is designed to last. The device is IP54-rated, meaning it can handle water splashes and dust. Users can further protect the device by purchasing a case, offered on the Square online shop and developed in partnership with Belkin. [Photo: Square] At a product event in New York City last week, businesses that have already trialed the Square Handheld discussed both the devices functionality and the connection to customers that the device helps facilitate. Staff at Cisco Brewers, originally established in Nantucket, Massachusetts, use the Square Handhelds barcode scanner to verify customers IDs. Other restaurant owners say the device makes placing orders easier. Its tremendously helpful to place orders instantly at each table instead of waiting at a counter and entering multiple tables orders at once, said Trevor Ledergerber, owner of La Mediterranee, in Berkeley, California, via a press release. Sellers also say they appreciate the connection it creates between businesses and clientele. Maricia Du Plessis, owner of Pollys Cafe in Brooklyn, says that the device operates as a conversation starter as well as being convenient. It helps to be able to be superclose to our customersquite literallyand connect more deeply with them and really understand who they are and what drives their behavior and how we can observe them over time, Du Plessis said. The device is supported by Squares Point of Sale app, which features seven different modes of functionality, including Bar mode, Quick Service mode, and Retail mode, with the option to expand and customize features as a business grows. The Square Handheld includes customer profiles that businesses have already made with Square, and according to a press release, it can fit into any in-store workflow and is especially suited to restaurants and retailers. “Square Handheld fuses Squares industry-leading design with powerful commerce software to deliver a dynamic device that empowers sellers to keep pace with the breakneck speed of modern business, said Thomas Templeton, head of hardware for Block, Square’s owner, in a press release. The device is currently available for $399 on Squares online store, with the accompanying Belkin SheerForce cases available for $39.
Category:
E-Commerce
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