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Markets are on the alert to which sectors will buckle under the sharpest jump in interest rates in decades, with big rate moves this month in Britain and Norway a reminder that the tightening is not over.

Britain said on Friday it had tightened protections in its Online Safety Bill that will prevent children from viewing pornography in an update to long-delayed legislation that is being closely watched by the tech industry.

The Metaverse is here to stay, as evidenced by Apple’s ( NASDAQ:AAPL ) recent entry into the VR/AR space. The Apple Vision Pro is unique from previous attempts because of its focus on productivity, which is quite timely. The possibilities of using metaverse and VR for education and training are astounding. As with any new technology, there’s often a lot of hostility to the growing phenomenon of the Metaverse, which essentially involves experiencing virtual worlds powered by Virtual or Augmented Reality goggles. Critics often focus on the Metaverse as an escape from reality -- a place to do things you’d never be allowed to in the real world. For people struggling in their real life, the Metaverse could be a destructive escape, similar to alcoholism and drugs. However, this overly-negative interpretation misses all the many ways in which the Metaverse can help augment and improve our “real-world” lives. Specifically, there’s a large number of ways we can leverage metaverse environments to improve our understanding of the world. Simulating Real-World Situations to Practice In the Matrix movies, when Neo has to learn how to bend the simulation to his will, he first does it through special training programs that recreate particular situations. These are low-stakes environments that are specially made for this purpose. They were disconnected from the main Matrix and allowed Neo and Morpheus to practice absurdly long jumps, martial arts, and many other skills. It will be a long while before the Metaverse can reach that level of realism, but in the meantime, there’s no reason why we can’t use it for more mundane training. A good example is to practice various social interactions and soft skills. For example, most people aren’t really born as leaders and may need some time to feel confident in their new shoes of a management position or similar. With the Metaverse, it’s possible to create a “game” of communication where the player must face an emotionally charged situation. The benefit of the Metaverse is that the situation will feel very immersive and real but won’t have any real-world consequences. This can be done both with fully-simulated training with Non-Playable Characters (NPCs), which could be powered by AI, or with other real-life humans who are looking for the same kind of practice. The Metaverse can also kick our immersion capabilities up a notch for historical or cultural settings.  For history buffs, there is nothing more satisfying than a well-made game or TV show set in a particular era. Metaverse-powered platforms can help the user feel as if they’re there, recreating historical and geographical settings with full 3D vision and interactivity. This will obviously require high-quality rendering engines, but it is well within the realm of today’s technology. Similarly, language learners may have the perfect practice setting. It is well known that the best way to learn a new language is by being fully immersed in it. In essence, to move to the country where that language is spoken. But moving to new countries isn’t really practical to most due to immigration laws and life circumstances. It’s a luxury only afforded to the wealthy and/or young, who can, for example, join student exchange programs. Enter the Metaverse; by recreating a dynamic and interactive context in the target language, the learner can practice listening and speaking without ever leaving their bedroom. Masterclass, Turbocharged The Metaverse can be a place to learn skills from experts in their field, be they regular teachers or “celebrity” experts. Sure, video calls can be an “easier” way to take long-distance communication, but they’ve always felt off and awkward compared to a real-life meeting. They’re ok for remote business meetings, but building true relations and rapport is nearly impossible. The primary reason for that, according to psychologists, is the lack of body language cues and immersiveness.  This is where an immersive metaverse can dramatically help with building true two-sided interactions between teacher and student, as well as co-workers. The immersiveness benefit is clear, and with time, we should be able to recreate a good portion of the body language cues we use in communication. With the Metaverse, we can also create unique celebrity-fan encounters that are easier than physical travel and more fulfilling than a basic video call. Think Gordon Ramsay setting up cooking challenges, Quentin Tarantino talking about some funny behind-the-scene events, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson chatting with you about black holes. By the way, Ramsey has already stepped up to the plate in The Sandbox (a virtual-gaming world)! What’s more, by combining the Metaverse with AI deep-learning models, the same experience can be achieved for masters of their domains that are no longer with us, like in the case of the video game Byte City “bringing back” Bruce Lee to teach his fans martial arts.  To honor the 50 years anniversary of his passing, Byte City has collaborated with Lee’s daughter to give fans the chance to interact with a detailed avatar of the legendary fighter in their metaverse, creating a unique social gathering that wouldn’t be possible in real life and a learning experience. The Future of Learning Much of the narrative around the Metaverse has been shaped by COVID-era thinking -- when it was common to think that it was “the new normal” and that social interactions would never be the same. Because of that focus, when it turned out that we could and would indeed go back to normal, the Metaverse’s popularity steeply fell off.  But the Metaverse goes beyond that, and with recent advances in technology, these unique experiences could go mainstream in just a few years. The Metaverse has great educational potential, and those taking advantage of it can learn new skills in a more interactive, immersive, and accessible environment than ever before. Finding Metaverse-Related Stocks If you're bullish on the Metaverse, check out the top metaverse stocks comparison page on TipRanks, where you can compare numerous stocks based on key criteria. Click on the image below to learn more. Disclosure

When scouting for stocks, a standard metric that comes into focus is free cash flow. In its simplest form, free cash flow is the total cash a company keeps after operating costs and capital expenditures.

The NASDAQ 100 After Hours Indicator is up 2.62 to 14,942.57. The total After hours volume is currently 71,853,032 shares traded.The following are the most active stocks for the after hours session: Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PCG) is unchanged at $17.07, with 5,215,437 shar

U.S. stocks were mixed and benchmark Treasury yields jumped on Thursday as robust economic data helped stave off recession fears, but also raised the likelihood that the Fed will keep its restrictive policy in place for longer than expected.

Apple will on Friday seek to fend off a revised EU antitrust charge and possible hefty fine linked to claims it prevents music streaming companies such as Spotify from informing users of other buying options outside its App Store.

Markets are on the alert to which sectors will buckle under the sharpest jump in interest rates in decades, with big rate moves this month in Britain and Norway a reminder that the tightening is not over.

World shares and the dollar inched higher while gold hit a three-month low on Thursday as focus flipped between the battle to lower inflation, the health of the U.S. economy and banks, and possible currency market intervention in China and Japan.

Wall Street was set to open higher on Thursday, as bank stocks rose after major lenders cleared the Federal Reserve's annual stress test, while economic data pointed to a resilient U.S. economy in the face of aggressive interest rate hikes.

Astute investors and market pundits were expecting the stock market returns to take a beating this year primarily due to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening measures to tackle stubbornly high inflation.

Below is Validea's guru fundamental report for APPLE INC (AAPL). Of the 22 guru strategies we follow, AAPL rates highest using our Twin Momentum Investor model based on the published strategy of Dashan Huang. This momentum model looks for a combination of fundamental momentum an

U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Thursday, as bank stocks rose after major lenders cleared the Federal Reserve's annual health test, while megacap stocks extended gains as investors shrugged off hawkish messages from the central bank chief.

Artificial intelligence (AIs) stocks and the related exchange traded funds remain among this year’s best-performing assets. However, in recent days, some AI equities and ETFs cooled off a bit. Analysts don’t expect that thaw to last long. In fact, some market observers believe that already-hot AI stocks could be drivers of broader market upside in [...] Read more at ETFtrends.com.

Shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have climbed 43% in the first half of 2023, a stark improvement from the 27% it lost last year amid a market wide sell-off and macroeconomic headwinds. Investors have rallied over the company's long-term prospects in virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR

PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Block (NYSE: SQ) are leaders in the lucrative digital payments industry. Each has carved out a valuable niche in the broader sector, and they have proven to be pioneers in displacing cash. Shares of both are down big from their peaks, presenting investor

Apple will on Friday seek to fend off a revised EU antitrust charge and possible hefty fine linked to claims it prevents music streaming companies such as Spotify from informing users of other buying options outside its App Store.

U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Thursday as most banking stocks rose after clearing the Federal Reserve's annual stress test, while megcap stocks looked to extend gains despite the prospect of further interest rate hikes.

Tech stocks returned to favor this year after the market suffered a dramatic sell-off in 2022. Many of the industry's companies have enjoyed solid recoveries as advances in sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) have created bullish invest

The Invesco QQQ Trust ( QQQ ) ETF is a popular exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the NASDAQ 100 Index ( NDX ). Holdings of the QQQ ETF are dominated by big tech companies such as Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon ( AMZN ), and Meta Platforms ( META ). This ETF enables investors to invest in the largest 100 non-financial companies. Remarkably, QQQ has gained about 38% in 2023 so far, and based on technical indicators, QQQ is still a Strong Buy near its current levels. QQQ ETF’s Technical Indicators According to TipRanks’ technical analysis tool, the QQQ ETF stock’s 50-Day EMA (exponential moving average) is 341.90, while its price is $364.54, making it a Buy. Further, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) also signals a Buy. At the same time, QQQ’s price rate of change (ROC) of 2.68 points to a bullish trend. Meanwhile, based on  Pivot Points, the QQQ has the next resistance near $368.29. Overall, in the one-day time frame, the QQQ ETF stock is a Strong Buy, based on TipRanks’ easy-to-read technical summary signals. This is based on 15 Bullish, six Neutral, and one Bearish signals. Is Invesco QQQ a Good Buy? As per 1,210  top Wall Street analysts providing ratings on the  QQQ’s 102 holdings, the ETF is a Moderate Buy, and the average price target of $386.92 implies a 6.14% upside. It is noteworthy that these top analysts have an impressive history of helping investors generate massive returns from their recommendations. Moreover, according to TipRanks’ Smart Score System, the  QQQ stock has a smart score of eight, which indicates that the ETF could outperform the broader market over the long term. Ending Thoughts The QQQ ETF has a commendable history of beating the S&P 500 Index ( SPX ) in nine out of the last ten years, with the trend continuing in 2023 so far. Additionally, the QQQ ETF stock has delivered an average annualized return of 17.7% in the past decade, ending in March 2023. These factors, along with analysts’ expectations of upside potential, are encouraging. Disclosure