Cigarette Taxes in Europe, 2024: Chart

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Cigarette Taxes in Europe are high and vary widely across countries. In fact, smokers pay more in taxes than on the cigarettes themselves. The EU requires member states to charge a minimum excise tax which is a fixed amount per pack of on cigarettes and other tobacco products. In addition EU countries add an additional percentage of the sales price which raises the prices more.

The highest taxes are in the developed EU countries while the lowest are in the East European countries of the EU. The following chart from the Tax Foundation shows the variance of cigarette taxes in Europe:

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Source: Tax Foundation

For the full data of tax rates on all the countries click on the above link.

The Largest Global Banks By Market Value Change Over Time

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A few years ago I wrote a post on how the largest companies change over time and it was well received by readers. Going back to that theme, in this post let’s take a took at how global banks also change over time. To put it another way, no company or bank tend to be at the top forever. As times change so do the leadership. I recently came across a piece at FirstLinks, Australia by Hugh Dive of Atlas Funds Management. The following charts are from that excellent article.

He noted that in early 1980s four of the top 10 global banks were French. But by 1990s they fell off the list as they were nationalized by the Mitterrand government.

In 1995, Japanese banks appeared in the ranking with Sumitomo, Nomura and Daiwa as shown below. In addition European banks like Llyods(LYG), Deutsche Bank(DB), ING (ING), Credit Suisse and HSBC (HBC) dominated the list. That is no longer the case today as we see later in the post. In fact, Credit Suisse collapsed and was absorbed by UBS.

The World’s Top Banks by Market Cap in December,1995:

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By 2005, US banks started attaining global leadership with Citi(C) at the top. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS ) failed during the GFC and had to be bailed out by UK. Interestingly Spanish banking giant Santander (SAN) was the 10th largest bank at that time.

In 2015, two of Australia’s major banks – Westpac and Commonwealth(CMWAY) – appeared in the world’s largest 10 banks. Canadian banking group Royal Bank of Canada(RY) also reached this list.

As mentioned earlier, leadership does not stay always with the same banks. In mid-2024, we see that American banks dominate the ranking. Westpac has dropped out and only Commonwealth Bank of Australia remain in the list. It should also be noted that one of India’s largest bank HDFC Bank(HDB) is now the 8th largest bank in the world. European banks have lost billions in market caps since the Global Financial Crisis and then multiple crises in the continent including many sovereign debt crisis over the years. No wonder most of them have disappeared from this list.

Source: Are Australian banks headed for a fall?, High Dive, Firstlinks

The key takeaway for investors in banking stocks is that leadership evolves over time and hence they should formulate their investment strategies accordingly.

Disclosure: Long SAN, ING, Westpac, RY

S&P 500 P/E Ratios by Sector: Chart

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The S&P 500 is up a decent 11.52% on price-return basis as of yesterday August 8, 2024 despite the sell-off in the markets last week. The annualized return over the past 5 years is 12.61%. The tech sector as represented by Information Technology and Communication Services accounts for just over 40% of the index as shown in the chart below. Hence in some ways the direction of the index is heavily influenced by tech stocks.

S&P 500 Sectors by Weight:

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Source: S&P 500

With that said the P/E ratio of the Information Technology sector remains elevated and is the highest of all the sectors in the index according to a recent article in Asia Times.

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Source: A tale of two bubbles, Asia Times

As the US economic data continues to give mixed signals and the Fed is ready to reduce the interest rates soon, further volatility in equity markets can be expected. Investors need to be aware of this and act accordingly.

Related ETFs:

  1. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
  2. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV)
  3. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF(VOO)
  4. SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF  (SPLG)

Disclosure: No positions