The Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are somewhat insulated from the crises engulfing Europe. These countries are not member of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and hence do not have the Euro as their currency. Staying outside of the Eurozone the Nordics set their own economic policies according to their national priorities. These countries have many positive factors such …

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The S&P 500 Index fell by  37% in 2008 when the financial crisis hit the global equity markets. The index has yielded positive returns since with 26.46% in 2009, 15.06% in 2010 and 2.05% last year. The S&P 500 has shot up by 14.6 % so far this year. In the years since the crisis, the …

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Trading volumes in both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ (NAS) have increased since the start of the 21st century.Some of the the reasons for the rise in trading volumes include high volatility in the markets, investor anxiety, high-frequency trading (HFT), short-term trading by hedge funds, etc.While dramatic fall in share prices in the past few years  have …

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U.S. stocks generally have lower dividend yields than foreign stocks. Compare to the yield of around 2% for the S&P 500 many foreign markets have higher dividend yields. The following charts show the consistent lower yields of U.S. equities. Chart 1: Dividend Yields of U.S. equities vs. Foreign Equities Click to enlarge Chart 2: Historical …

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Equity investors often wonder if stocks are better performers than bonds. This question takes on higher importance especially during times of high volatility in equity markets or when the return on equities is negligible or negative. For the decade ending in 2010, U.S. stocks were basically flat as measured by the S&P 500 while bonds …

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