MarketWatch rounded up 10 of its most interesting topics over the past week.
1. Facebook pile-on
Over the past 2 1/2 years — 10 earnings seasons — investors have been thrilled to see Facebook Inc. FB, -3.34% report quarterly sales growth of more than 40% over the year-earlier period. But the stock has skidded 7% over the past week, as users, government officials and investors react to the apparent misuse of Facebook user data by Cambridge Analytica. Here’s a sampling of MarketWatch coverage:
• Facebook CEO Zuckerberg’s apology tour — too little, too late
• Why Facebook shares are ‘dead money’ for rest of 2018
• How to get Facebook to stop using your data
• The Facebook controversy could be good for Apple
• Web’s creator expresses sympathy for ‘devastated’ Mark Zuckerberg
• WhatsApp co-founder who made billions from Facebook now says to delete it
2. Regulating companies that collect personal data
This Michigan State University professor believes that regulating Facebook wouldn’t prevent a similar data breach. That's because this misdeed was caused by “a wild violation of academic research ethics.”
Read about European efforts to protect peoples’ privacy on the internet:
• 5 things to know about Europe’s new data rules
3. Why are you giving away your personal data?
One reason there can be a breach of Facebook data is that users of the social media giant freely give away their information. Here’s how little it takes to motivate people to give up their privacy.
4. ‘Warrior’ president stops bragging about the stock market
President Trump was quick to take credit for the stock market’s strong performance during his first year in office, but things have changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.77% is on pace for its worst March performance since 2001. Early this month when his plan for tariffs on steel and aluminum was announced, the president described his international trade policy this way:
When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2018
Trump loves to begin negotiations by taking an extreme position and then backing off. But many investors don’t believe it will be easy to win a trade war with China.
Here are some differing opinions about trade conflicts:
• ‘I don’t think this is a trade war,’ says veteran Wall Street strategist
• With China tariffs, Trump barks but doesn’t bite
• U.S. soybeans would be China’s biggest weapon in a trade war
• EU plus six other nations get temporary U.S. tariff reprieve
5. AbbVie’s painful trial
Shares of AbbVie Inc. ABBV, -0.65% plunged 13% on Thursday after disappointing trial results for a long cancer drug under development that the company paid $5.8 billion to acquire in 2016. And the footnotes of AbbVie’s announcement made the trial results look even worse.
6. Enthusiasm for driverless cars may need to be curbed
Car manufacturers and others have been waxing poetic for years about the brave new world of driverless cars and trucks that is just around the corner. There is potential to save tens of thousands of lives annually in the U.S. with the right technology, but this week’s fatality in Tempe, Ariz., shows the need for a deliberate, well-regulated approach, according to Tarun Wadhwa.
7. Evolving thinking at the Fed
Rux Nutting describes how U.S. economic cycles run from recession to recession and concludes that the Federal Reserve under Jerome Powell continues to show a willingness to let the unemployment rate continue to fall before hitting the brakes.
8. Good news for aging workers
Technology has led to continual disruption of labor markets, but demographic trends might make it easier for more people to keep working well into their 70s.
9. Beware target-date funds
If you have an employer-sponsored retirement plan, chances are that the plan administrator is touting target-date funds with investment risk tailored to a five-year increment within which you plan to stop working. The idea is to limit risk as you get close to your retirement date. But target-date funds may have their own risks, as Mitch Tubman explains.
10. A millennial writes about how you can make your money work for you
Danielle Town, the author of a new book on investing, shares her “billionaire-style” approach inspired by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.
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