By BEN LEVISOHN

Since last summer’s market rout, central banks around the world have been more or less on the same page. That is beginning to change—creating opportunities for investors who can spot the signals.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it intends to keep short-term interest rates near zero through 2014, and will take other steps if the economy hits a wall.

Other central banks, however, haven’t been so keen on the status quo. During the past few weeks, central banks in Japan, Australia, Canada, Brazil and India have either made changes to their monetary policy or hinted at changes to come.

As long as the U.S. economy keeps muddling through and the European Central Bank keeps the continent from falling into debt-induced chaos, the differences among central bankers could drive short-term market results.

The key to finding the best opportunities is choosing countries where central banks are cutting rates just as economic growth is beginning to pick up.

On April 3, the Reserve Bank of Australia said it might cut rates if inflation doesn’t become a problem. On Tuesday, Australia reported inflation of just 1.6% during the first three months of 2012 from the same period last year, down from a 3.1% rate during the fourth quarter of 2011. That has some investors expecting a rate cut at the next meeting on May 1. The MSCI Australia Index rose 0.6% during the three days after the inflation announcement.

Economic growth in Australia has been sluggish recently, but that might be changing, says Adam Patti, CEO of IndexIQ, which manages the IQ Australia Small Cap exchange-traded fund. And that could give stocks a continued boost, he says.

The biggest opportunities for investors might be in emerging markets, says Phillip Colmar, a partner at MRB Partners, a research firm. While much of the developed world was either cutting rates or buying bonds to further ease monetary policy, vast swaths of the developing world were increasing rates to rein in inflation. That means they have room to cut now, he says.

“You want to be more favorable toward countries that are easing,” Mr. Colmar says.

Investors should look to Brazil, Russia and China in particular, strategists say. Russia has seen an increase in lending, which should boost economic growth. With inflation low, rate cuts could be on the way. China, too, has the ability to cut rates—and its stock market looks cheap relative to other emerging markets, according to MRB.

Brazil’s central bank has been cutting rates aggressively; it reduced its benchmark rate to 9% on April 18, down from 11% at the beginning of the year. While many observers believe the central bank is finished, Mr. Colmar expects it to cut rates at least once more. That, combined with a pickup in growth, should send stocks there higher, he says.

Investors need to be careful when playing central-bank moves, however. Sometimes the buy signals can change quickly.

In February, for example, the Bank of Japan announced it would boost asset purchases by 10 trillion yen. That helped fuel a nearly 13% gain in the MSCI Japan index since the beginning of the year.

But when the Bank of Japan announced Friday it would boost purchases by another 5 trillion yen, near the low end of expectations, the Nikkei Stock Average dropped 0.4%.

Strong growth might not be enough to keep a market rising if a central bank raises rates sooner than expected. That could be the case in Canada, where the central bank has held rates at 1% since 2010, despite its resilient commodities-based economy.

Now, however, Canada faces a potential housing bubble and overextended consumers. That might force the Bank of Canada to hike rates sooner rather than later, as Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has warned recently. On Friday he urged Canadians to invest their money in businesses, not houses. A rate hike, says Dean Popplewell, a strategist at currency-trading firm Oanda, could be bearish for stocks if it occurs while global economic growth is slowing.

Investors should be most wary of countries where rates have been too low for too long—and economic growth might be slowing. Strategists say it is best to avoid Turkey and South Africa, where growth is slowing but the central banks may be unable to act because inflation has hit worrisome levels and interest rates are already too low.

As MRB’s Mr. Colmar puts it: “When central banks won’t or can’t act to improve growth, you want to be bearish.”

A version of this article appeared April 28, 2012, on page B9 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Opportunities Lurk Amid Central Banks’ Mixed Signals.

By AMIR EFRATI

The dream of using the Web to provide free, high-quality education to the masses has attracted notable backers. One California start-up is making it happen, Amir Efrati reports on digits. Photo: Associated Press.

The dream of using the Web to provide free, high-quality education to the masses has attracted notable backers, including Google Inc. and Bill Gates, but such efforts so far have gained limited traction.

Now Sebastian Thrun, one of the world’s top robotics experts, has given up teaching at Stanford University to transform what he views as a broken college education system from the outside. Last year, Mr. Thrun, also a senior Google executive, co-founded a Palo Alto-based start-up, now called Udacity Inc., to teach large groups of people through free online courses and help them find jobs.

The 44-year-old, who helped develop Google’s self-driving car, is building on his experience in offering a free online course on artificial intelligence while teaching at Stanford last October. The class attracted 160,000 students of all ages from nearly 200 countries. Around 23,000 finished the course, taking the same tests he gave to enrolled Stanford students.

“After that I could never teach at Stanford again,” Mr. Thrun says. He likens the current education model—in which professors lecture several dozen or more students at a time—to “the theater stage before film was invented.”

Udacity is one of several start-ups embarking on the mission of providing high-quality free education online.

Khan Academy, a nonprofit founded in 2008 in Silicon Valley, has created more than 3,000 videos on topics ranging from basic math to biology and has several million active users, including grade-school students who use it in their classroom under the supervision of teachers. Two Stanford professors who also experimented with free courses last year have launched Coursera, which is similar to Udacity. And New York-based Codecademy Inc., which launched last year, has provided free computer-programming courses to more than one million Internet users, says co-founder Zach Sims.

Udacity’s seven-week courses consist of hourlong videos created by the teachers and posted every week, with frequent pauses in which teachers ask students to answer questions and solve problems. For programming classes, for instance, Udacity’s website allows students to type code and instantly be graded. Students learn at their own pace, watching the videos as many times as they want. Importantly, they get access to a heavily-trafficked online forum in which they can discuss the material with other students.

More than 130,000 signed up for Udacity’s first two courses—how to build a robotic car, a follow-up to the AI intro class last year, and one on building a Web-search engine—which began in January.

This month, Udacity is launching six more courses and by June expects to have 14 in total, including those taught by tenured university professors and working professionals such as Steve Huffman, co-founder of Reddit.com, who are paid an honorarium for their time.

Westley Weimer, a computer-science professor at the University of Virginia whose Udacity course on how to build a Web browser begins next week, said he considers it “charity work to help make the world a better place.” He said he flew to Udacity’s office for two weeks of “grueling 9-to-5″ sessions at the company’s video-recording studio.

Mr. Thrun, who will remain an unpaid, nontenured research professor at Stanford, says Udacity—the name is a play on the word “audacity”—is starting with computer sciences but could expand into other areas such as physics and even premed.

Making money isn’t currently a priority for Udacity, a 20-person company that raised $5 million from venture-capital firm Charles River Ventures in December. Mr. Thrun and fellow co-founder and Stanford Ph.D. David Stavens, Udacity’s 29-year-old chief executive, believe recruiters and corporations world-wide eventually will pay for access to recruit from its pool of talent.

“There’s this amazing block of talent we’ve discovered outside the normal system,” Mr. Thrun says. The company also is looking into charging employers to offer continuing education to their workers, he says. “I’m sure eventually we will make money,” he says.

But Jacqueline Reses, who invested more than $2 billion in education firms such as Cengage Learning while working for private-equity firm Apax Partners, says Udacity will need formal accreditation to gain legitimacy as a degree-granting school and will find it hard to sustain its free model because “it’s costly to deliver and maintain fully accredited education.”

Mr. Thrun says it costs Udacity less than $1 a student to produce a course. Mr. Stavens adds that Udacity isn’t currently focused on obtaining accreditation, which could take many years unless it buys an already-accredited school. But Udacity expects to offer its final exams at 5,000 physical testing centers run by Pearson PLC in 165 countries, after which students will receive a certificate that “carries weight,” Mr. Stavens says. A Pearson spokeswoman declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Stanford is continuing to experiment with several free, online science courses but is searching for a “sustainable model,” says computer-science Prof. John C. Mitchell, who oversees the program. He implied there’s a good reason why Stanford’s annual tuition is $50,000 a year. “Nonprofit universities are going to need to be financially viable to do what we do best,” he says.

Some students who took Mr. Thrun’s AI course last year say they’re already on board with Udacity, even if they are skeptical about whether employers are ready to recognize its value. “This is solid, continuing education that I can squeeze into my schedule after putting my daughter to sleep,” says Jon Willeke, a software tester for a database company in the Boston area.

Write to Amir Efrati at amir.efrati@wsj.com

What if God was an analyst?

Earlier this week on MarketWatch, I looked at how scripture is used to reinforce, justify or vilify economic activity from taxation to bank fees.

In researching that column, one passage in the New Testament kept coming up. More than any other, it addressed the financial world. In fact, it is probably the most cited scripture on Wall Street when it comes to validating the investing and trading with the spiritual life.

Perhaps not incidentally, the passage comes from Matthew, whose profession is one of the few among the disciples that was identified. Matthew was a tax collector before he followed Jesus, according to the scriptures.

Not to make light of it, but who better to pass on financial guidance than someone whose legacy institutions include the Internal Revenue Service?

Even those without a biblical background are probably familiar with Matthew 25: 14-30. It’s a parable about a master who, depending on the translation, leaves his “talents” or “money” to three slaves before the master embarks on a journey.

When he returns, two of the slaves have invested and earned a profit. The master is ecstatic, and he gives them promotions and more wealth.

The third slave is worried. He buries the money in the ground. The master is angry.

“Why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it,” the master tells the third slave, according to the New Living Translation of the Bible.

You don’t have to sing in the Sunday choir to get the drift. The message is that God wants us to do something with what we have. He wants us to prosper, multiply and take a little risk.

Nor is it a stretch to think, based on this passage, that almost any Wall Street profession—lender, trader, broker—is practicing what the Bible preaches. Many financial advisers have seized on the Bible, some even on Matthew 25, to market their services. There’s even a registered investment fund called “Matthew 25.”

What’s more, the interpretation of this passage seems to become more finance-focused over time. Older versions of the bible refer to the master leaving “talents.” More recent interpretations say the master left behind “money.”

There is just one problem. Almost everyone I asked, religious, academics and atheists, said that Matthew, and by extension, God, wasn’t talking about money.

The story “advises the faithful to invest wisely about as much as the parable of the mustard seed advises us to plant mustard seeds,” said Harald Thorsrud, an associate professor of philosophy at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga.

“Anyone who finds a justification for profit-seeking here will likely find such inspiration anywhere,” Mr. Thorsrud said.

Kevin Macnish, an assistant professor of theology at the University of Leeds told me that “God’s economy is different from man’s.”

“God values tending the poor, the sick, widows and orphans—the unfortunate and marginalized in society—and so we can store up for ourselves treasures in heaven by investing in these people, rather than in making money.”

Of course, if an individual has a knack for making money, that could be their gift to those less fortunate, Mr. Macnish said. “We all have different things and amounts to give.”

Myles Alexander, a pastor and program director at Kansas State University, agreed and added that a deeper interpretation of the parable asks: “Who is the master, and who is the slave?”

Rev. Alexander argues the master is Jesus, “the slaves are Jesus’ followers who are entrusted with the treasure of the good news, or gospel,” he said “It is up to Jesus’ followers to multiply the good news in his physical absence. Jesus will hold them accountable when he returns.”

Such interpretations aren’t limited to theists. Jen Hancock, an author of several books on secular humanism, said the parable is one of three in Matthew that teach Christians what is necessary to get into heaven. None of them, including Matthew 25 is a financial guide.

Matthew 25 “is about making sure you multiply the good you do,” Ms. Hancock said. “That is why the guy who didn’t use his given talent to multiply his talents was shunned.”

The problem, she said, is that Matthew 25 “has nothing to do with how you should manage your money. To interpret this as financial advice, you would have to take it out of context and decide it wasn’t meant to be read as a parable, even though it is clearly presented as a parable.”

And as for the slave who buried his talent or money, most of those I asked seemed to think he didn’t make a fatal mistake. Rev. Alexander said some theologians consider the “master” to be Caesar. In that reading, the slave’s explanation makes more sense: “I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid.”

Mr. Macnish said the slave was only admonished because he “hid” his talents or money. “Instead of making the smallest, safest investment out of what little he had, the servant hid it,” Mr. Macnish said. “This would be equivalent, to my mind of spending all of one’s time and money on oneself rather than giving any of it to charity.”

In other words, scholars of Matthew 25:14-30 generally agree that the passage isn’t about investing at all, unless you count “working toward an eternal reward” as an investment. Nor is the passage a recommendation on risk-taking. The scholars I interviewed also agreed that the slave was admonished for keeping his money or talents hidden, even putting it to work modestly—say, investing in Treasurys—would have been OK.

God, it seems by these accounts, is a flexible analyst. He is less worried about us meeting expectations. He is worried more that we have expectations of our own.

Write to David Weidner at david.weidner@dowjones.com

Corrections & Amplifications

An earlier version of this column misstated the chapter of Matthew in which the “Parable of the Talents” is found. It is chapter 25.

By EMILY GLAZER in Cincinnati and SUZANNE VRANICA in New York

Marketing advice for start-ups is now available through relatively new “incubator” programs that pairs tech start-up founders with mentors from big marketers like Proctor & Gamble, Emily Glazer reports on Markets Hub. (Photo: Ty Wright for The Wall Street Journal)

In a world where image is key, start-ups often find themselves playing catch up.

Marketing advice for start-ups is now available through relatively new “incubator” programs, like the Brandery, a Cincinnati-based program that pairs tech start-up founders with mentors from big marketers like Procter & Gamble Co.

as well as major branding agencies.

Rob McDonald, the 28-year-old son of P&G’s chief executive, teamed up with a Twitter employee and a former P&G brand manager to create the Brandery, which is open to early-stage entrepreneurs around the country seeking marketing and branding advice as they also try to get their business ideas off the ground.

“We know we won’t be Silicon Valley, but we can leverage branding, design and consumer marketing” talent in Cincinnati, the hub of marketing know-how and home to the ad world’s largest advertiser, P&G, Mr. McDonald said.

RentShare, a Web service that helps roommates easily split shared household expenses like rent, was able to overhaul its logo with the help of a global branding and design firm, when it took part in the Brandery program last summer.

The founders of RentShare moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Cincinnati for a few months for the incubator program, where they were paired with Landor Associates, which has worked with P&G, Diageo PLC and Kraft Foods Inc.

“Our old logo and branding almost felt like RentShare was a company made by ex-bank executives,” said co-founder Chris Toppino. “We wanted to be seen as the movement of the next generation—that played into the mock ups for what our tone and voice would be.”

Landor, which worked pro bono, said the task was worth $50,000.

The Brandery provides $20,000 in seed funding and takes a 6% equity stake in the start-ups it helps.

Marketing guidance for start-ups is growing, with a range of new programs promising to provide start-ups with better access to traditional ad agencies and major marketers. This comes at a time when traditional advertising and marketing executives are under pressure to keep up with the changing media landscape.

Advertising conglomerates such as WPP

PLC have taken stakes in tech start-ups, while Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc.

and Publicis Groupe SA

have experimented with their own incubator programs. Mediabrands, a media buying unit of Interpublic, recently installed a 5,000-square-foot media lab at its office in New York, which houses demos of new products being developed by tech start-ups, for instance, to give its clients a look at the emerging technologies.

“It is nearly impossible for marketers to keep track of all things coming out in the emerging media space let alone find utility in them,” said Matt Seiler, chief executive of Mediabrands.

Traditional marketers and ad agencies are increasingly interested in tapping into new thinking, like start-ups, in order to figure out what the next wave of change will bring and how best to help marketers figure out which technologies they should be paying attention to.

“We look at it as the bedrock of innovation,” said Trevor Guthrie, a director OMD, the media buying arm of ad giant Omnicom Group Inc.

Together with client General Electric Co.,

it is currently recruiting start-ups for a 10-week incubator.

As many as 10 early-stage companies can get space in OMD’s office, as well as a $4,000 stipend for the summer. The founders also get educational programs about marketing; access to its clients that include some of the biggest marketers in the country such as PepsiCo

. Inc.; and the chance to win a $10,000 prize. OMD doesn’t take a stake in the start-ups.

Mediabrands gets a six-month exclusive on a start-up’s technology, in return for giving the technology company the chance to show off its product to companies like Coca-Cola Co.,

for instance. It doesn’t take stakes in the companies it helps.

Of course, factors such as access to capital are far more critical to an entrepreneur’s success than any fancy logo or slogan. Marketing and branding is “one piece of the puzzle, though it’s not everything a business needs,” said Tracy Kitts, acting chief executive of National Business Incubation Association, a network of incubators.

Yet some tech entrepreneurs are oblivious to the importance of branding. They “would tell people about the technology rather than focusing on what problem the technology solved,” Mr. Kitts said.

At the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, an incubator based in Flagstaff, Ariz., sessions on how to market a company through YouTube or properly create a purpose in a Facebook page have soared in popularity among its 35 companies in the last six months, according to Russ Yelton, president and CEO of the program.

The Portland Incubator Experiment, which began as a co-working space sponsored by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, plans to spruce up its branding focus for the next class of start-ups in summer 2012, said Rick Turoczy, the general manager. The incubator, known as PIE, has six to eight start-ups per class, gives $18,000 in seed funding and takes a 6% equity stake. Employees at big-name companies like Google Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. also serve as mentors, in addition to Wieden+Kennedy, the force behind the Nike and Old Spice advertising campaigns.

“Most start-ups think of marketing as ‘Hey, we’ll have a great URL, a funny new name and a logo and hope that word-of-mouth takes off,’ ” said Bob Gilbreath, who leads marketing strategy for venture capitalist group CincyTech. “The best way to do it, the basics of marketing, is understanding what the target audience need really is…doing research, talking to possible customers.”

Through the Brandery, James Dickerson got help from design and branding firm Deskey that led to a custom type face for its logo and a new slate of icons. “Typically start-ups don’t have that kind of access, especially if they’re not venture funded,” he said. His app—called Leap—challenges friends to try new things through photos.

“A strong brand and a strong focus on design really helps you cut through that noise, send a signal to the user on why they should use your product,” he said. Leap now has 20,000 active users after launching four weeks ago and was featured on the iTunes App Store.

Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com and Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared March 29, 2012, on page B5 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Big Firms Mentor Start-Ups on Their Image.