The S&P 500 is up 3.13% and 4.78% year-to-date in terms of price and total returns respectively. Total return is higher since it includes dividends. The index has given up much of the gains recently from the peak reached earlier this year as markets around the world have become extremely volatile due to a variety of …
Continue reading ‘S&P 500 Annual Total Return By Year From 1927 To 2013’ »
Investors looking for dividend income from equities must consider adding foreign stocks. Going overseas not only provides potentially higher dividends but also other benefits such as diversification, higher capital growth potential, etc. As I have mentioned many times before the dividend yield of the S&P 500 is around 2%. This rate is low compared to many …
Continue reading ‘Why Own Global Stocks With High Dividend Payout Ratios’ »
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” – Vladimir Lenin The S&P 500 closed at 1,977 yesterday. The index has more than doubled from the lows reached in March 2009 at the peak of the global financial crisis. For the first time it crossed the 2,000 mark in …
Continue reading ‘On The Impact of Inflation on Equity Returns’ »
In an earlier article I discussed about the decline in the dividend payout ratios of U.S. companies. In this post let us take a look at how dividend payout ratios in the emerging markets compare to that of U.S. dividend payout ratios. Many investors in the developed world have the misconception that emerging market equities …
Continue reading ‘Comparing Emerging Market Dividend Payout Ratios To U.S. Dividend Payout Ratios’ »
The equity markets of major European economies have lagged the performance of the U.S. market so far this year. The year-to-date returns of the main European markets as of Sept 22nd are listed below: UK’s FTSE 100: 0.4% France’s CAC 40: 3.4% Spain’s IBEX 35: 10.4% Germany’s DAX: 2.1% U.S. stocks have performed very well relatively …