BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : SEPTEMBER 11, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESSWEEK INVESTOR Around the World in 80 Clicks The best spots on the Net for news and helpful advice A mere two or three years ago it was difficult, if not impossible, to find good global investing information online. You had to rely on expensive research from brokers or subscribe to specialty newsletters. Not so today. There's a wealth of Web sites on global investing--some excellent and some, of course, not so excellent. To map out the useful sites, the first thing BUSINESS WEEK did was find the ones truly devoted to global investing. Sounds easy, but it's actually tricky: Scads of U.S.-based sites claim to be global, but only a quarter or less of their content touches on international investing. Second, we looked for sites that offer comprehensive news coverage, financial info, investing tools, and discussion forums. We also came up with excellent, more targeted sites, such as Nikkei Net Interactive and Canada's Bay-Street.com. Unless specified, the sites are free. A great starting point is the Financial Times' FT.com. This sophisticated site has it all--from breaking global news to market data and country-specific reports, such as ''Nordic IT'' and ''Tanzania 2000.'' It also offers less-conventional features, such as the best global MBA programs and even a global arts guide (great for travelers who want the lowdown on, say, the opera schedule for Florence's Teatro Comunale). FT.com is easy on the eyes and a cinch to use. Its drawback: The offerings are so broad--including even sports--that investors have to search a bit harder for the particular info they need. But FT has you covered there, too. FT MarketWatch, a venture with CBS MarketWatch, is an excellent site that's targeted more to investors. It features global investing news (though its Asian coverage is limited), sector news on everything from energy to biotech, and reports on global IPOs as well as from exchanges around the world. It also features real-time market updates and standard portfolio trackers. But the site is weak on commentary, with the exception of Editor Thom Calandra's insightful ''Stockwatch'' column. Instead, FT Marketwatch offers links to Financial Times pundits. The Wall Street Journal's site is also tops. You can choose the Europe view, the Asian view, or the Latin American edition, called The Wall Street Journal Interactivo, in Spanish or Portuguese. These are paid sites, with an annual subscription costing $59, or if you already subscribe to the Journal or Barron's, $29. The site has breaking news, a separate section for tech news, sophisticated portfolio- analysis tools, and video links. You can also search for country-specific news and stock quotes on exchanges from some 19 countries. Commentary and in-depth analysis--such as the recent feature in the European edition, ''Are Europeans Embracing the Equity Culture Too Quickly?''--are also excellent. Of course, we would be remiss not to point out our own site, BusinessWeek Online. Check out its ''Global Business'' section, which includes in-depth articles on everything from ''China's Feisty Consumers'' to Europe's inflation scare. The Web site features many international stories that our U.S. readers don't usually see--the stories that run only in the magazine's international editions. The BW Investor channel will also link you up with analysis of global economic trends and investments provided by Standard & Poor's, which, like BUSINESS WEEK, is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies. Most of the articles and analysis are free. GlobalNetFinancial.com comprises 11 country sites, including Britain, Italy, and the Netherlands. Their news coverage is strictly bare bones; their value is in their commentary and analysis. UK-iNvest.com is probably the best of the bunch. Apart from the standard portfolio tools and market updates, the site includes a comprehensive database of British stocks. A big selling point: clever, insidey columns, such as ''Mrs. Cohen's Diary.'' Bernice Cohen, who resembles an upper-crust Aunt Bee (remember The Andy Griffith Show?), is a popular financial author and TV personality who's apt to wax on about such topics as portfolio spring cleaning. Worldlyinvestor.com, while billing itself as global, focuses far more on U.S. issues. Sure, it offers nuts-and-bolts foreign news and data on international stock indexes. It also has screeners to select offshore mutual funds. But a glance at the Asian news section found that the most recent articles were two days old. Also, only four of the 20-odd columnists write on such non-U.S. topics as emerging markets. Global Investor (www.global-investor.com) takes a different tack. Instead of supplying its own content, it offers mostly links to global exchanges and other content sites. Global Investor's best original feature by far is its ''Courses and Seminars'' list--one of the largest databases on the Web of global financial seminars and conferences. And for everything you ever wanted to know about ADRs, check out J.P. Morgan's ADR.com. Get in-depth company analysis and news from Dow Jones and Reuters as well as an impressive array of trading data and research tools for individual issues. There are also lots of regional and country sites. A nifty one for European investing is EuropeanInvestor.com, which features breaking news from its own reporters and from news services such as Reuters. It covers high-tech equities, with reports from such markets as Euro.NM, Neuer Markt, Nouveau Marche, and Easdaq. A leading site in France is Firstinvest.com, which provides news, stock info, and analysis (in French) on the Nouvelle Economie. And swissinvest.com is great for folks looking for the dope on Swiss companies--both in English and German. Asia buffs can turn to Mfinance.com, which provides commentary, news, and investing tools for Asia. For tracking Japan's markets, there's Nikkei Net Interactive, a subscription site that offers news in English and a database covering 3,300 Japanese companies. It costs 6,000 yen (about $56) for a six-month trial. STRONG LINKS. For economic analyses, check out such sites as The Bank of England (www.bankofengland.co.uk), the European Central Bank (www.ecb.int), and the U.S./Mexico Chamber of Commerce (www.usmcoc.org). They serve up country analysis on banking trends and monetary policy, mixed with dollops of statistics and links to business trade organizations and university finance departments. A good place to consult, as well, is CyberInvest.com, a kind of atlas of what's available on such sites as those operated by the Bank of Montreal, the newspaper Russia Today, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. With global investing information so bountiful, an online map is becoming indispensable. BY MARCIA VICKERS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The New Global Investor CHART: Global Markets Are Growing Fast...Shrinking the U.S.'s Dominance...And Internet Use Abroad CHART: The Case for Global Sector Investing Conquering a Slice of the World TABLE: Spanning the Globe All Abroad for Exchange-Traded Funds TABLE: How ETFs Stack Up against Their Rivals A Talk with a Global Strategist TABLE: Sargen's Picks VIDEO: Investing in the Global Village So Who Needs Foreign Investing? TABLE: Global Action Around the World in 80 Clicks TABLE: Going Global with the Web INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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