jim awad, investment strategist at zephyr investments. hi, jim. >> hi, susie. >> susie: let's get right to it. a lot of people are saying what does this mean to me. what would you say? >> well, what i would say is that if greece were to default, it's not only would affect the financial system and the banks and the liquidity in europe, it would negatively impact their economies, it would flow right back to the u.s. financial system and the u.s. economy. so it matters a lot to us if greece defaults or if other countries, other peripheral countries end up defaulting. >> susie: and another thing a lot of people might not realize is that their money market investments, many of them, money market funds, are invested in european banks which have made loans to greece. so the question is, how safe or how vulnerable are those money market investments? >> well, left to their own they would be vulnerable, because if greece defaulted there would be a lot of banks that would have capital hits, and there's a question as to whether they would be able to r

strategist jim awad says right now big is beautiful. >> large cap stocks are more conservative. they can weather a downturn better. they've gone up less than the more aggressive small-cap stocks so they're priced cheaper. many of them have dividends, and they have exposure to the fast- growing emerging markets. >> suzanne: tomorrow, i'll take a look at what the pros say stock investors should avoid if the economy continues to slow. >> tom: here are the stories in tonight's "n.b.r. newswheel." the european central bank today left its interest rate unchanged, but a rate hike could be coming. the bank's president, jean claude trichet, said the e.c.b. will remain vigilant against inflation threats. he used that same wording in march, just ahead of the bank's last rate hike. more weakness in the u.s. labor market: jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week, jumping by 1,000 to 427,000 claims. economists thought they'd fall by that much. and citi credit card customers, listen up: citigroup will issue thousands of replacements after hackers got customers' personal information. the secu

strategist jim awad explains those stocks will fall faster as the economy slows. >> i would sell stocks of companies that would suffer if the u.s. went into a double dip or a sustained period of low growth. so, you would sell cyclical stocks in the united states. you would sell small-cap stocks in the united states, you would sell companies with leveraged balance sheets. >> reporter: these recommendations are based on the assumption the u.s. economy is slowing down. if that forecast changes, experts say so will their advice to investors. suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. newswheel: oil prices followed stocks lower, falling almost 3% to $99.29 on signs saudi arabia is boosting production. meanwhile, a tight supply outlook pushed corn prices to another record high, trading just shy of $8 a bushel in chicago. toyota figures its profits will drop 31% this year thanks to production delays from japan's massive earthquake and the strength of the yen against the dollar, but it sees production and sales rebounding in the second h

our good friend, jim awad, is managing director at zephyr.any people say you should invest internationally. it does seem there's more uncertainty about that today than ever before. sit still a good thing to do? >> absolutely. you accomplish several things. first you diversify your portfolio. second, you can position yourself for areas that are growing faster than the united states. third, you get balance with a global footprint. i would make the case that those characteristics actually lower your risk. >> hard for people to understand. but when you spread your risk, you lower it. very often you talk about ways for the average investor who invest using extraining traded funds. when it comes to more specific areas, you may want a mutual fund with an active manager. >> yes. in this case, you should pay a little bit more so that the managers can pick good geographies to invest in and good companies within those geographies. there's a lot of corruption and places where there's no growth internationally, places where there are not liquid capital ma