Fortune Watch

A big rate cut by the Federal Reserve this week, or at a hint more cuts are coming, coupled with this weeks sub prime rescue plan could lift investor confidence and inspire a pre Christmas rally.

While most investors are banking on a cut of at least a quarter percentage points in the bench mark fed funds rate, many think a deeper reduction is needed to unfreeze credit markets and boost confidence.

On Thursday, President George W. Bush announced a plan to stern US home foreclosures, sending stocks surging on optimism it would keep the economy from sliding into a recession.

“The big focus next week is on the Fed meeting” The market was pricing in an interest rate cut, there was still speculation about how big such a cut would be and whether the Fed would also cut the discount rate.

Encouraging data this week, including a resilient payrolls report on Friday, eased some concerns about the economy, decreasing the likelihood of an aggressive 50-point-basis cut in the fed funds rate.

And with just a few more weeks left in the year, the Dow is up 9.3% so far in 2007. The S&P 500 is up 6.9% for the year to date and the Nasdaq is up 12%.

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A remarkable number of investors are deeply concerned about the size of the company to invest in. Unfortunately, unlike some other kinds of prejudices, not having a prejudice about size is not good. Let me explain. A few days ago I was talking to (or rather, I was being talked to) by a group of very enthusiastic investors. These were people who had dropped in to extract investment advice from me, despite my strong protestations that I had no advice to offer about any specific stocks.

However, it did not really matter because what they were interested in was displaying the high quality of the research that their brokers had provided them with. This research consisted, in its entirety, of a list of stocks that were about to go up. No actual reasoning and logic accompanied the list. In the olden days of the stock markets, this kind of research went under the term ‘tips’ but it has been re branded now

Anyway, one of things that struck me about the research-led investment strategies that they were discussing was the utter lack of any consideration for size. They consider the stock of a large company, with a high market value, and that of a company with a lower market value as alternatives to each other. This is so because the ‘research’ they are going by says that all these are likely to rise. This is deeply misguided way of evaluating stocks.

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Disability Income Insurance protects your most valuable asset, your ability to earn an income. It’s easy to forget that your income is dependent on your ability to earn it.

When a disability leaves you unable to work for an extended length of time, you lose the ability to earn an income- the one thing you’ve always relied on to provide for yourself and your loved ones. Meanwhile, your living expenses continue-in fact, they’re likely to increase for a number of reasons.

You could need help around the house or have higher medical expenses, for example. That’s where disability insurance comes in. It’s designed to help you maintain your standard of living when you cannot work. If you don’t have much in the way of assets for a financial cushion, you need enough to cover costs and supplement your income until you can go back to work.

Individual disability insurance is truly a basic concept. It is an insurance product designed to replace anywhere from 60-70% of your gross income should a sickness or illness prevent you from earning an income in your occupation. All disability insurance quotes and coverage from every insurance company are very different; this is not a product to simply shop for the most competitive rate.

If you became sick or hurt and couldn’t work, how would you pay your bills? How would you maintain your living standard? If you’re like most people, your ability to get up each day and earn an income is one of your most valuable assets. Furthermore, your chances of becoming disabled at some time during your working career are probably higher than you would expect, so you also need more disability insurance information.

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In your lifetime, you will use plenty of banking products that were previously not available to the ordinary person. Whether you are starting out with a small company or whether you run an established business it is important to ensure that you have the right business account in order to aid the smooth running of your company’s finances.

You can enjoy a choice of popular Business Banking accounts these days from a range of banks and financial institutions, so finding the right business account to suit your needs and those of your business should not prove too much of a problem. Business accounts offer increased convenience and financial support for commercial businesses, and you can enjoy a range of benefits when you open a business account.

Due to laziness alone, we often do our Business Banking with the same people our personal bank account is held with. If you shop around, you wont get much of a better deal financially (rates and services are generally almost identical) but you will find banks who offer better service, better personnel and advice. Depending on the size of your business a large part of Business Funding products are tailored to suit your business needs.

Banks are confident that through their Free Business Banking schemes you can save your business a lot of money. With a simple online calculator you can see how much you can actually save.

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Recent changes made by many travel insurers expand the cover offered by their policies in case of terrorist acts, but there’s a wide variation in what expenses are covered.

Many insurers reviewed the terms of their travel insurance policies and/or the way their policies are applied to specific events after terrorist attacks in early this decade. The definition of terrorism and the nature of cover for terrorism may vary from insurer to insurer.

It is worth taking the time to understand how terrorism is dealt with in your travel insurance policy if you are considering buying travel insurance for a future trip or you already have travel insurance and are about to travel or are considering canceling a trip because of the threat of terrorism.

Speaking of not being covered, if a policy you are considering says that it covers acts of terrorism but then has a huge laundry list of exceptions, you might want to look elsewhere. If you are considering buying a policy you should find out exactly what it does and what it does not cover by asking for a copy of the document and reading it carefully, paying particular attention to the exclusions or contacting the insurance company directly.

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Credit cards can be an excellent tool to help you manage your finances. But sometimes we make poor choices, or sometimes the events in life take us beyond our expectations and we are left to foot the bill. Perhaps you have had a few months of extra, unexpected expenses that you are now paying for. What can you do? Bank of America is known to help you manage your money successfully. If you see their terms and conditions they can assist you with you money management program.

Credit cards can be an excellent tool to help you manage your finances and buy the things you want or need. But when things go on a ride and your bills get out of hand, which happens to even the best of us, choosing a personal loan as a way to consolidate those bills will help you reduce your interest rates and set up a fixed amount of payment. Reduced interest rates will ultimately increase the amount of money you keep and a fixed amount due every month will help you plan your budget.

Gather together all of your credit card bills and add up the amount that you owe. Factor in the extra expenses you haven’t heard on your credit cards since you receive those bills. Add to that about ten or twenty per cent, which is the “whoops, I forgot about that” factor. Then, with that figure, start shopping around for a loan.

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If you do not have car insurance in place you will be driving your car illegally, and the consequences of this can be severe. It is therefore vital that you take out car insurance on your vehicle before you take it out on the road. The good news is that there are different levels of car insurance cover available, so you can find the right cover to suit most needs, circumstances, and budget. Its primary use is to provide protection against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents.

It can be a daunting task, making sure you receive the right coverage for you and your car. There are three types of car insurance to choose from – comprehensive, third party fire and theft, and third party only.

Several factors influence the cost of car insurance quotes. Youth means inexperience in the motoring world, and can be a disadvantage whilst searching for inexpensive coverage. On the other hand, people over age 25 will often find that their car insurance premiums decrease greatly from their younger driving days.

An excess payment, also known as a deductible, is the fixed contribution you must pay each time your car is repaired through your auto insurance policy. Normally the payment is made directly to the accident repair garage when you collect the car. If your car is declared to be a write off, your insurance company will deduct the excess agreed on the policy from the settlement payment it makes to you.

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Bush Economic Adviser Joins Aides Leaving White House As President’s Term Winds DownAl Hubbard, chairman of President Bush’s National Economic Council, will announce on Wednesday that he’s leaving his post, joining a growing line of top presidential advisers exiting the White House as the Bush administration heads into its final year.

Hubbard’s departure comes as Bush faces one of the biggest economic challenges of his presidency, a severe slump in housing and a credit crisis that have roiled financial markets and triggered fears of a recession.

Hubbard, assistant to the president for economic policy, will submit a letter to the president later in the day to make official his decision to leave the White House after three years, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

His departure, by the end of the year, continues an exodus of key Bush aides and confidants. Earlier this month, Fran Townsend, Bush’s terrorism adviser, announced she was stepping down after 4 1/2 years. Top aide Karl Rove, along with press secretary Tony Snow, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior presidential adviser Dan Bartlett, have already left.

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Elvis Presley would judge the recording quality of his songs by whether the sound “moved him or not,” says music producer Elliot Mazer.

Recently it was revealed that Britain’s love affair with gadgetry is stronger than ever, with over £74bn worth of gadgets currently owned and that figure is predicted to grow massively following Christmas. Before you start checking out specific models, you should have a basic understanding of the types of MP3 players available.

It may be hard to believe, but you can actually find a decent MP3 player for a decent price. In fact, we may see more and more devices start to hover near that price point if flash memory costs continue to fall the way they have been over the past couple of years. Of course, there’s no sense in dropping even a buck on a complete piece of junk, which is why we’ve sought out some price comparison options

The sound you get from the earphones is pretty standard (but that isn’t a bad thing). I’ve never encountered any “sound-related” problems. You can change the sound settings to match your style of music. The different settings are bass, pop, rock, jazz, and flat. The bass setting obviously enhances the bass and is without a doubt my favorite setting. The pop, jazz and flat all tune down the sound which may prevent maximum audio enjoyment. The rock does the exact opposite as the other 3.

But what I’m happy with may not be what you’re happy with, so don’t feel scared to test out the different settings.

For religious reasons, Islamic mutual funds shun nearly half of the stocks in the market, yet they still are among the top-performing U.S. funds. With Annual Growth rate of 15% and more in the recent years, the Islamic banking and Investment Industry ranks as one of the faster growing segments of the world’s financial services industry.

Estimates of the total value of assets managed according to Shari’a-compliant principles range as high as $750 billion, in other words Islamic finance is now a worldwide phenomenon.

The Islamic funds market has developed at a slower pace, but its potential is clearly huge. There are now more than 400 Islamic funds – four times the number at the turn of the century.

On the whole, the performance of Equity funds has been positive. Studies have shown that excluding financials, defense, tobacco, alcohol, leisure and entertainment stocks – as these funds must do if they are to remain Shari’a compliant – is no big disadvantage. The range of asset classes has mushroomed; a few hedge funds have also been launched.

The pace of product innovation has picked up in recent years; there are now a number of multi manager products on the market. Unit linked savings and retirement plans began to emerge few years ago, but the market is expanding fast and as many as 39 Banks have applied to distribute insurance in Saudi Arabia alone.

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