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Investing Guide at Deep Blue Group Publications LLC - After posting scorching returns in 2013, stocks' flat performance in this year's first quarter seems anticlimactic. Many investors were no doubt expecting the good times to keep on rolling, while valuation-conscious types might have expected an even bigger performance drop-off. With the first quarter receding in the rearview mirror, we decided to get Morningstar readers' takes on the action. What has been the biggest surprise thus far in 2014, and (cue the crystal balls) what do they expect will happen during the rest of the year? Some investors said the first-quarter uptick in stock market volatility was indeed jarring. Others said they were surprised to see decent performance from their bond holdings so far in 2014, given the widespread pessimism that has hung over the fixed-income market for several years running. Looking forward, many posters said they don't have high hopes for stocks for the rest of the year; a frequent refrain was that a still-sluggish U.S. economy will make it difficult to justify higher stock prices when they're already on the lofty side. Read full here

Unlike Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men, we trust that you can handle the truth. No matter your age, securing a comfortable retirement is a huge concern. Folks want the whole truth about their financial outlook, but straight answers are hard to come by. Both sides of the mainstream media habitually present opinion-tainted partial facts. Case in point: the unemployment numbers announced earlier this month. One side is cheering because unemployment dropped to a six-year low, while the other side is calling it pure fraud. I found author and libertarian-about-town Wayne Root's remarks in a recent article for The Blaze particularly telling: The middle class isn't getting richer, it's getting poorer… The only people being hired are your grandparents. 230,000 of the new jobs went to those in the 55-to-69-year-old age group. In the prime working age group of 24 to 54 years old, 10,000 jobs were lost… It means grandma and grandpa are desperate and willing to take grandson's low wage job to survive until Social Security kicks in. The US workforce is now the oldest in history. And if grandpa has to work (out of desperation) until the day he dies, there will never be any decent jobs for the grandkids. Here's the part Root gets wrong: Baby boomers are not working until Social Security kicks in. They're working well past that point, because they feel they must. Smart boomers know they can't afford to wait until robust interest rates return; they're taking action to protect themselves now, lest their circumstances become truly dire.

U.S. stocks declined with emerging-market equities while base metals drove commodities lower as an unexpected drop in Chinese exports fueled concern that growth in the world's second-largest economy is moderating. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (SPX) fell less than 0.1 percent from a record close, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2 percent. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index was down 1.2 percent by 4:52 p.m. in New York, the steepest drop in a week. China's CSI 300 Index fell to a five-year low. Copper posted its biggest two-day drop in 28 months, while lead and zinc also retreated. Corn prices sank the most in three months while 10-year U.S. Treasuries rose for the first time in five days. For more online publication of latest news, visit the following: http://deepbluegroup.org/ http://deepbluegroup.org/about.html

As the third anniversary of the Fukushima disaster nears, tens of thousands rallied in the country's capital Sunday to protest against the nuclear industry and speak out against the government's plans to resume nuke energy production to power the economy. "I felt it's important that we continue to raise our voice whenever possible," Yasuro Kawai, a 66-year-old businessman from Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, told AFP. "Today, there is no electricity flowing in Japan that is made at nuclear plants. If we continue this zero nuclear status and if we make efforts to promote renewable energy and invest in energy saving technology, I think it's possible to live without nuclear," Kawai added. For more topic: http://deepbluegroup.org/ http://deepbluegroup.org/about.html

The rise of social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter has been unprecedented over the last couple of years. LinkedIn now has some 313 million users and in Q2 2014 its revenues rose by 47 per cent to USD534m reported the Wall Street Journal on 31 July 2014. McKinsey estimates that there is a GBP772bn opportunity for business to use social media. All of us use social media in one form or another but when it comes to applying it to the workplace, the asset management industry has remained largely apathetic. This would appear to stem from a fear of falling foul of compliance in what has become a tightly regulated market. One of the pillars of any asset manager's marketing strategy today should include social media but it's important to understand the potential roadblocks. This prompted SEI recently to publish a brief on the subject entitled "Stepping in to Social Media", in which eight tips and considerations are presented for investment managers. "I think it's true to say that all asset managers have been reluctant to get into social media. From a compliance perspective, there's a lot less control over the way information is broadcast and who you, as a firm, are communicating with," says Lori White (pictured), Marketing Regulation Counsel, SEI. "The reluctance has largely been from compliance officers as they look to get comfortable complying with existing regulation." Click here to continue reading

(Reuters) - Europe's and Asia's industrial health will be closely watched in the coming week for an indication of how solid - or weak - a footing the global economy was on at the start of the year. With China's leaders seeking to rebalance the world's industrial powerhouse more toward consumer spending, and with bad weather distorting most United States data since the start of the year, some clarity would be helpful. After private sector business surveys suggesting services activity around the world is on the up, investors and policymakers will shift their focus to industrial production figures for the euro zone, Britain, Japan and China. Industrial output growth in China, the world's second largest economy, is likely to have slowed further in January from 9.7 percent in December, hurt by weaker local and foreign demand. For more topic: http://deepbluegroup.org/ http://deepbluegroup.org/about.html