“Investing is no different. It is a game of repetition where hundreds of small actions result in one larger result. But most importantly, it is a game of risk management. It is not the home run hitter who wins in the long-run. Rather, it is that strategist who devises the best long-term plan who ultimately wins. While hitting home runs is sexy it is rarely a recipe for success in the investment world. Aim high, but play small. Over time, good risk management and patience wins. Power is no substitute for precision and patience. The same is true in the world of investing.” – The Prag Cap

1. Vodafone to Launch a New Mobile Payments Service with Visa — Vodafone is developing a new mobile payments service with Visa (NYSE:V) which will allow for contactless payments via SIM cards embedded with NFC technology. Launching the service later this year, Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD) will probably be beaten to the market by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which is expected to integrate mobile payments into its new iPhone due to be unveiled this week.
2. GM to offer connected car, automated driving technology in 2016 — Reuters, General Motors is planning to launch cars by 2016 with a hands-free automated driving system and vehicle-to-vehicle communications designed to help avoid collisions. While commercializing a fully automated vehicle may take until the next decade, the new GM (NYSE:GM) vehicles will still require drivers to pay attention to the road. One company which targeted this technology is Mobileye (MBLY).
3. EBay’s PayPal Unit to Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments — Bloomberg, eBay will start processing payments in bitcoin at its Braintree payments subsidiary, part of its PayPal (NASDAQ:EBAY) unit. Braintree will roll out the capability in the coming months, and will work with bitcoin exchange Coinbase to enable payments in the virtual currency. The move could potentially allow PayPal’s 152M accounts to use the currency as payment.
4. Visa and Apple Opening a New Era of Payments on Mobile Devices — Visa has announced it will debut a new payment service in conjunction with Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) launch of Apple Pay. The new payment system will be available on all devices Apple unveiled last week, including the curved 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 and Apple Watch. Visa (NYSE:V) says Token Service will allow Visa cards to be added to Apple Pay through the use of a digital account number (token) which can be stored on devices.
5. U.S. retail sales rose in August as Americans bought automobiles and a range of other goods — Reuters, “core sales” – which strip out automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, increased 0.4 percent in August. July sales revised upward to 0.4 percent, which was previously reported as a 0.1 percent rise. The increase in retail sales, which account for a third of consumer spending, was in line with economists’ expectations.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

Tags: Apple Pay, Mobile Payment, NFC

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2014 at 11:30 am and is filed under Weekly Summary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.