The average retail gasoline price in the U.S. is around $3.50 per gallon this week. After reaching over $4.00 in 2008 prices dipped for a few months. From early 2009 prices have continued to increase steadily despite the recession. This is because the demand for gas is generally inelastic as most people have to buy …
Continue reading ‘Genealogy of Major U.S. Refining Companies’ »
The freight railroad industry in the U.S. is highly concentrated with a handful of full of firms dominating the market. With the passage of the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 which deregulated the industry and sparked an era of mergers and acquisitions, the number of Class I railroads dramatically shrank from over 30 to just …
Continue reading ‘Monopoly Madness in the U.S. Railroad Industry’ »
Some investors have the misconception that one should invest in emerging stocks mainly for capital appreciation. However that need not be the case. Many emerging market stocks pay above average dividends and hence they are attractive for both capital growth and dividend income. According to FT market data, the S&P 500 has a dividend yield …
Continue reading ‘Five NYSE-Listed Latin American Stocks Yielding More Than 5% Dividends’ »
A well diversified portfolio should hold many types of asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, bank deposits, etc. Bonds are particularly important to a portfolio that is heavy in stocks. This is because bonds can help smoothen the portfolio performance when stocks become extremely volatile or perform poorly in year. The chart …
The following chart shows the top 20 Depository Receipts (DR) programs in 2011: Click to enlarge Source: Depository Receipts Year in Review 2011, J.P. Morgan About half of the companies in this list are in the oil&gas and mining industries. British telecom firm Vodafone(VOD), French oil major Total (TOT), and Russian oil company Lukoil (LUKOY) …
Continue reading ‘The Top 20 DR Programs by Investment Value in 2011’ »