Most equity markets worldwide are down so far this year. The big sell-off in January was followed by another fall in the US markets yesterday. The S&P 500 is already off 5.76% year-to-date.Other major developed markets are also in the negative territory this year. For example, the broad market indices tracked by S&P 500 for …
One of the reasons for investing in stocks including dividend-paying stocks is earn a return that keeps up with or even beats inflation. Historically stocks have performed well when inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) ranged from -3% to 3% according to a white paper published by DWS Investments of Deutsche Bank …
Continue reading ‘How Does Inflation Impact Stock Returns’ »
U.S. stocks had a great run in 2013 with the S&P 500 index returning 30%. Most of the S&P sectoral indices including the financials performed very well. After such strong gains, the general consensus among professional money managers now is that equity returns will be good but not great this year. Any investors would agree that …
Continue reading ‘Consider Recycling Money From US Stocks Into Canada and Europe’ »
Stock markets in developing countries are small in terms of market capitalization compared to their peers in the developed world. The latest issue of The Economist has the following graphic on emerging market equities: Click to enlarge Source: Shares in emerging markets Scarce, The Economist It should be noted that only the freely traded shares …
Continue reading ‘How Big Are Equity Markets In Emerging Countries?’ »
Dividend stocks were mostly ignored by investors during the dot com era of the 1990s. Soaring stock prices of high-tech companies made dividend-payers of traditionally boring industries such as utilities, consumer staples, industrials, etc. unattractive to most investors. However since the recent global financial crisis, dividend stocks are back in vogue again as yield-hungry investors …