#investment-risk

#investment-risk

After seizures, sanctions and collapse, can Venezuela ever win back Big Oil's trust? US President Donald Trump says removing President Nicolas Maduro is about reclaiming Venezuela's oil. But as Washington pushes for access, major oil companies are hesitating. Why is Venezuela being labeled uninvestable, and what does that skepticism reveal about power, instability and the future of Venezuela's vast oil reserves?

The latest reading of BDO's Optimism Index, which surveyed over 4,000 executives, shows confidence has dropped to levels last seen during the early stages of the pandemic, with businesses across the services and manufacturing sectors citing persistent inflation, rising costs and weak demand as key factors. The findings come at a fragile moment for the UK, as companies face ongoing uncertainty around interest rates, labour shortages and subdued consumer spending.

As other oil executives lavished President Trump with praise at the White House, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods bluntly said the Venezuelan oil industry is currently "univestable," and that major reforms are required before even considering committing the many billions of dollars required to revitalize the country's dilapidated crude business. Two days later, a miffed Trump told reporters Jan. 11 that he would "probably be inclined to keep Exxon out" of Venezuela. "I didn't like their response. They're playing too cute," Trump said.

The former WWE United States Champion actually used to wear the card-which he says is "the rarest card in the world" and the "Holy Grail"-around his neck during competitions. The card is a PSA-graded 10 Pikachu Illustrator, and only a few dozen copies exist worldwide. But Paul's card is the only one to receive a 10/10 grade from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).

"The goals behind a remake vary from project to project. However, I personally think it's to 'delight fans of the original game,'" Hayasaka tells Inverse. "Of course, acquiring new fans and adapting to current hardware, as mentioned earlier, are also often counted among our goals. However, a remake can only exist because the original game exists, and because there is a certain number of people who love it."

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) dropped sharply after its late-October earnings report, even though the social media and digital advertising giant posted another quarter of strong growth. Investors instead zeroed in on management's latest comments about capital spending, which paint a much heavier investment cycle than the market had been expecting. Meta's third-quarter revenue growth was impressive, powered by higher ad impressions and ad prices across its social media properties.

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son stood next to President Trump, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) founder Larry Ellison when they announced the Stargate project in January. The plan was to invest $500 billion in data centers. Last month, Son upped its company's investment in OpenAI to $30 billion. He sold all of Softbank's Nvidia ( NASDAQ: NVDA) share ownership for $5.83 billion to help pay for that decision.

Ramsey's logic for claiming Social Security at 62 is simple. As he puts it, Social Security dies with you. So the sooner you claim benefits, the more monthly payments you might end up with. Ramsey also thinks that investing those benefits could grow them into a larger sum than what you'd get by waiting to file. But Ramsey's advice is based on three assumptions: You won't live a long life You'll invest your benefits rather than spend them You'll invest your benefits wisely

For a safer wager, you might just buy and hold Tesla ( NASDAQ:TSLA) stock since it's a well-known and widely analyzed company with a stake in the self-driving car market. On the other hand, Aurora Innovation stock is low-priced and under the radar, so it has the potential to explode higher. On the other hand, a recently released financial filing should remind investors that Aurora Innovation is still a "show-me" story.

The great Nvidia ( NASDAQ:NVDA) has had a rather lukewarm year, rising just north of 31% while comfortably topping the Nasdaq 100, which is up close to 20%. I'm sure NVDA shareholders aren't complaining about the market-beating gains on a year-to-date basis. Still, the big question is whether a new wave of AI demand could help propel next-generation GPU sales through the roof again.

It's why the US SEC warns, "Penny stocks may trade infrequently - which means that it may be difficult to sell penny stock shares once you have them. Because it may also be difficult to find quotations for penny stocks, they may be impossible to accurately price. Investors in penny stock should be prepared for the possibility that they may lose their whole investment."

In 2022, the Australian mining and energy company Fortescue signed a deal with E.On, a German energy network and infrastructure operator, to supply up to five million tons of low-emission green hydrogen to Europe annually. "The race for large-scale production and transportation of green hydrogen has taken off," said Robert Habeck, then German minister for economic affairs and climate action, of the deal. Adding that it would be the start of a "future without fossil fuels."

At least one teenage Reddit user, it seems, is going all-in; according to a posting, he's investing his entire $9,300 account in shares of the ULTY ETF. He told the Reddit community that he's 17 years old and asked, "y'all think this is too risky?" He might get the last laugh if his account's value doubles or triples. On the other hand, even with its massive yield, there are drawbacks to the YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF. Hopefully, he'll take some risk-mitigation measures to avoid potential problems down the road.

The Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) has consistently outperformed the S&P 500, delivering a 22.6% annualized return over the past decade compared to the S&P's 13.2%.