The province of Ontario in Canada is rich in many natural resources. Mining companies there extract a variety of minerals such as Silver, gold, Nickel, Copper, etc. I recently came across an infographic that shows how mining helps us in our everyday lives. For example, copper is used in hospital equipment and devices to reduce the risks of infection.
Click to enlarge
Source: Ontario Mining Association
China is the second largest economy in the world with a nominal GDP of about $18.5 Trillion in 2024. The Chinese economy has had tremendous growth every year until a few years ago. One of the industries that contributed to the growth is the manufacturing sector. Products made in China are found in most of the markets in the world. Chinese companies have not conquered the markets in the developed world but also in most emerging and frontier markets. I recently came across an interesting article at Der Speigel that I had bookmarked last October. The article discussed if the German economic model is in trouble and if this is the end of Globalization. Two charts from the piece caught my eye.
The following chart titled “The Trading Power of China” shows that most countries depend on China for their imports in 2022. Though the US was the largest importer with good worth over $575 billion, most countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia also had huge imports from China. For instance, Brazil imported about $68 billion worth of goods from China.
Click to enlarge
Source: The End of Globalization? Germany’s Successful Economic Model Could Be Finished, Der Spiegel
One factor that is helping China with becoming a major trade partner for many countries in the world is its “Belt and Road Initiative” thorough which China is investing heavily in infrastructure projects around the world. The following chart shows the member countries of this initiative in 2023:
Click to enlarge
Source: The End of Globalization? Germany’s Successful Economic Model Could Be Finished, Der Spiegel
There are many other fascinating details in the above linked article.
In earlier posts we looked at the return charts for emerging markets, developed markets and the S&P 500 for 2024. In this post, let’s review the annual returns chart for asset classes from 2010 to 2024. Last year, large caps were the top performers while the worst performer was high yield bonds with a return of just 1.3%.
Click to enlarge
Source: Novel Investor
Developed stocks outside of the US also had poor returns with a return of 4.4%. For many years in a row foreign developed markets have under-performed the S&P 500. However so far this year they are ahead of the US markets. It remains to be seen if they indeed beat the S&P 500 this year.
Related ETFs:
Disclosure: No positions