Notes You Need for January 5: INTC, Net Neutrality, Amazon Alexa, VUZI, global debt, ISM services index, factory orders, App store, HAIN, rig count

Notes You Need for January 5: INTC, Net Neutrality, Amazon Alexa, VUZI, global debt, ISM services index, factory orders, App store, HAIN, rig count

In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. A typical post resembles this from today: “11:40 a.m.: Global debt rose to a record $233 trillion in the third quarter of 2017, more than $16 trillion higher than at the end of 2016, according to the Institute of International Finance. Private non-financial sector debt hit all-time highs in Canada, France, Hong Kong, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey. Thanks to global economic growth, though, the ratio of debt-to-gross domestic product fell for the fourth consecutive quarter. The ratio is now around 318%, 3 percentage points below a high set in the third quarter of 2016.”

Don’t forget to harvest your tax losses by the end of the year

Don’t forget to harvest your tax losses by the end of the year

U.S. stocks have had a great year in 2017. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index is ahead 18.66% for 2017 as of the close today, December 23. The NASDAQ Composite, heavy on tech stocks and financials, is ahead 28.2%. But there’s a good likelihood that you’ve got a tax loss or two–not everything you own is up for the year, probably, and not everything you own is up since you bought it way back whenever–and in a year like this tax losses can be especially valuable.