I Wall Street in the 1800s I came across a paper on total returns of bonds, stocks and bills by Dr. Bryan Taylor of Global Financial Data, Inc. The following are some interesting facts from the paper about investing in financial assets during the 1800s in the U.S. : “Most people invested in bonds, not stocks …
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Utility stocks are generally considered to be defensive stocks. However in recent years they have been volatile and many have not recovered fully from the March 2009 lows. The following chart shows the relative performance of SPDR S&P International Utilities Sector ETF (IPU) and WisdomTree Global ex-US Utilities ETF (DBU): Click to enlarge Both …
Most of the emerging market equity indices are down so far this year. In addition to domestic factors, the European debt crisis and worries about the state of the global economy have pulled down emerging markets. Emerging markets such as Brazil, Peru and Chile are off by double digits YTD. The MSCI index returns for …
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Foreign banks have a strong presence in some emerging countries. In a few of those countries they dominate the local banking market more than the domestic banks. The following chart shows the foreign ownership in select Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs): Click to enlarge It is interesting to note that foreign banks own …
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Commodities have become an attractive asset class to ordinary investors in the past few years. Heavy marketing by Wall Street firms and the dismal economic situation have made investors turn to commodities for higher returns. However unlike other assets, commodities are extremely volatile, unpredictable and are affected by a multitude of factors that are difficult …