Morgan Stanley is getting into the “robo-advice” business, where software manages funds instead of people. The service, Access Investing, is aimed at younger investors, and helps them put their money with the businesses they’re most interested in.
“Forty percent of our clients have chosen to invest in a theme, and the most popular ones [are] robotics and artificial intelligence,” Naureen Hassan, Chief Digital Officer for Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley, told Cheddar.
The financial firm rolled out its Access Investing division, which focuses on advising clients online, in December. Hassan says that her team has seen a lot of engagement with from people 45 and under.
Robo-advisers, or digital investment portfolios, are not very new. The field has competitors, such as Betterment or Wealthfront, that have been making strides in the sector.
But Morgan Stanley says it’s betting on its legacy to differentiate itself in the industry.
“We think it’s the Morgan Stanley investing expertise that really differentiates it,” Hassan said. “That’s why we are offering clients choice, it just isn’t only a passive portfolio, we believe in a mix of assets.”
With Instagram offering more ways to shop, experts are comparing the experience to a mall. "You're browsing when you're on Instagram," says Richard Greenfield, media & tech analyst at BTIG. "It's a very different mode than the mode you're in when you're on Amazon."
The cryptocurrency was on the rise Thursday, but experts are skeptical about how long it will last. "We're not going to blast past 10k," said Jonny Dubowsky, cyberneticist and chief technical officer at My Personal Therapeutics.
The company behind XRP, the third highest cryptocurrency by market cap, wants the digital asset to become more than just an investment for consumers and that's been difficult partly because of the confusion around the technology. But Ripple's Chief Market Strategist Cory Johnson says consumers don't need to understand the technology to use it. "Do you actually know what happens when you send a text message and throw some emojis onto it?"
Singapore's competition watchdog is proposing fines on Uber and Grab, saying the recent merger between the two companies stifles competition. The Competition and Consumer Commission, or CCCS, even suggested unwinding the deal between Uber and Grab. Last March, Uber sold its Southeast Asia business to ride-hailing rival, Grab.
Amazon is reportedly planning to roll out a holiday catalog later this year. The catalog would be mailed out to millions of U.S. households and would also be available to customers at Whole Foods locations across the country. The e-commerce giant is looking to attract holiday shoppers from Toys R Us after the toy chain shuttered all U.S. stores.
Business Insider reported that Tesla's CEO Elon Musk asked engineers to halt putting Model 3 vehicles through a standard brake and roll alignment test before leaving the factory floor.
The federal investigation into Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal is expanding. AT&T raising prices on DirecTV Now by $5 a month. Trump’s shortlist for replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court.
The e-cigarette company announced last week it was raising $1.2 billion, which would value it at $15 billion. Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, tells Cheddar that the "valuation is justified on the math," but questions the company's ethics. “Does it want to stop kids from getting these?”
The ride-sharing company is following rival Uber into the bike-sharing business, buying Motivate, the company that owns Citi Bike. The deal is estimated to be worth about $250 million and would give Lyft “exclusive rights” to contracts already existing in some cities, says Patrick Sisson, senior reporter at Curbed. Uber acquired electric bike company Jump Bikes earlier this year.
The SEC, FBI, and FTC are reportedly joining the Justice Department in investigating whether the social network withheld information about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Shares of Facebook were down in early trade on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Elon Musk said the electric automaker produced 5,000 of the mass-market vehicles in the last week of June, finally hitting the target originally set for the third quarter of last year. A day later, the company announced its senior vice president of engineering Doug Field, who'd been on a leave of absence since May, had stepped down from his position.
The day the retail giant announced plans to acquire the online pharmacy company PillPack, competing retail pharmacy companies took a significant blow. Eight companies, including CVS and Rite Aid, dropped $17.5 billion in market cap in just one day.
