The Top 50 Most Valuable Brands in Latin America for 2020 is shown in the graphic below. The most valuable brand in the continent is Brazilian banking group Bradesco(BBD). Corona beer is the top brand in Mexico. In Peru, BCP bank (BAP) is among the top 3 brands. Similarly in Colombia, Bancolombia(CIB) is also a top 3 brand.
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Source: Brandz
Disclosure: Long BBD
The following graphic shows the rating of countries based on the latest Democracy Index by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Most of Africa are authoritarian regimes. Same for most of the Middle East, Russia and China. Some of the major countries are classified as flawed democracies. These include Brazil, India, Italy, France and the US.
North Korea ranks the last in democracy for obvious reasons. And the most democratic country is Norway followed by Iceland and Sweden.
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Source: RFE/RL Infographic
Technology stocks are on a tear the past few years. In 2019, the NASDAQ index rose over 35%. With the arrival of the pandemic in 2020, the NASDAQ shot up again by over 43%. It remains to be by much it will grow this year.
The top five companies – Facebook(FB), Apple(AAPL), Amazon(AMZN), Microsoft(MSFT) and Alphabet(GOOG) – leading the index have steadily grown their market capitalizations since 2013 as shown in the graphic below. From $1.13 Trillion in total market cap at the end of 2012, these five giants’ market cap reached an astonishing $7.5 Trillion at the end last year.
To put this number in perspective, the US GDP was estimated be over $21.0 Trillion in 2020. So just these five firms have a market value of one-third of the US GDP ! And the expectation is they would continue to rise even further.
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Source: How Big Tech Got Even Bigger, WSJ
Much of the growth in recent years has come from P/E expansion as investors bet on potential growth in the future. For example, Apple’s P/E of around 37 is much higher than what it was three years go. Currently Apple(AAPL) has a market cap of $2.3 T.
Facebook’s P/E is over 26 while Amazon’s stands at an astonishing 80.Microsoft is no longer cheap either with a P/E of over 36.
Disclosure: No Positions
Gold is an important asset to own in a well-diversified portfolio. Gold offers portfolio protection especially during periods of high volatility in equity markets or crises. This is because when equities crash gold generally rises and hence offers stability to a portfolio. Since gold as an asset class does not produce income such as dividends it is not necessary or prudent to assign large part of a portfolio.
Gold has positive co-relation to stocks during equity market expansions according to an article at World Gold Council. During equity market downturns and other crises gold has negative co-relation to equities.
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Source: Gold: the most effective commodity investment, World Gold Council
The chart shows that during the Great Recession in equity markets in 2008 when equities plunged around 50%, gold rose over 45%. In other instances such as during the sovereign debt crises in the last decade also gold performed very well relative to other assets including stocks.
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Disclosure: No Positions
A cool video from Norfolk Southern Railroad (NSC). As one of the major Class I railroads in the US, Norfolk Southern owns a vast network in the country and covers many states of the heartland as well.
Source: Norfolk Southern
Disclosure: Long NSC