Oil prices have declined dramatically in the past year and continue to fall further. West Texas Intermediate crude is trading at around $36 a barrel compared to over $50 a while ago. Last week crude prices reached the lowest level in six years. A confluence of factors are attributed to the oil price collapse some of …
Continue reading ‘A Review of Exchange-traded Foreign Oil & Gas Sector Stocks’ »
Europe is home to some of the world’s top healthcare firms. Though all European countries have national healthcare systems, healthcare is still a big business worth billions of Euros. Drug firms for instance sell their products at a significant margin to health agencies. In addition, many European drug firms have substantial presence in emerging and …
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Dividends paid out by companies in the UK and Europe is concentrated among a few firms. In fact, only five large names generated 45% of all UK dividends in 2014 according to a report by Schroders. These companies were Royal Dutch Shell(RDS-A, RDS-B), HSBC(HBC), BP(BP), GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) and Vodafone(VOD). A few of the European large companies drive …
Continue reading ‘UK vs. Europe: Dividend Yield and Concentration Graphic’ »
Countries have tax treaties with one another for offering preferential tax rates for investors and companies. Canada also has such tax treaties with many countries. For example, US investors get plenty of benefits for investing in Canada. For example, withholding taxes are NOT charged for interest paid out to US residents by Canadian banks and also …
Continue reading ‘Canada Non-Resident Withholding Tax Rates for Treaty Countries’ »
The Brazilian economy and equity markets have been on a downward trend for the past few years. The benchmark Bovepa index is down 9.5% year-to-date. Ever since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09 Brazilian stocks continue to be poor performers. This is in sharp contrast to views held until a few years ago when the …
Continue reading ‘One Structural Flaw in the Brazilian Growth Story’ »