The Top 10 Pharmaceutical Companies in the World for 2020 based on their 2019 revenue are shown in the graphic below. The Top 3 firms were Roche, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
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Source: Proclinical
The tickers of the companies shown above are:
Disclosure: No Positions
Stocks perform well relative to other assets in the long run measured in years or decades. This is possible because even if there are bear markets during any given time period, they usually are shorter than bull markets. For example, over a 10 year period if a bull market leads to a 50% increase with a bear market loss of 30%, still it is positive growth of 20%. Schwab Center for Financial Research recently published an article discussing market corrections and bear markets. From the article:
But what if it really is the start of a bear market?
No bull market runs forever. While they can be scary, bear markets are a part of long-term investing and can be expected to occur periodically throughout every investor’s lifetime.
However, it’s important to keep them in perspective. Since 1966, the average bear market has lasted roughly 15 months, far shorter than the average bull market. And they often end as abruptly as they began, with a quick rebound that is very difficult to predict—a case in point is the S&P 500’s pandemic-fueled bear market in early 2020, which lasted a mere 33 days from the previous high on February 19th to the trough on March 23rd. That’s why long-term investors are usually better off staying the course and not pulling money out of the market.
Past bear markets have tended to be shorter than bull markets
Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research with data provided by Bloomberg. The market is represented by daily price returns of the S&P 500 index. Bear markets are defined as periods with cumulative declines of at least 20% from the previous peak close. Its duration is measured as the number of days from the previous peak close to the lowest close reached after it has fallen at least 20%, and includes weekends and holidays. Periods between bear markets are designated as bull markets. Indices are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Source: Market Correction: What Does It Mean?, Schwab
The complete article is worth a read.
The key takeaway is that long-term investors should not sell out during market corrections or bear markets. As much as violent market crashes are scary the sudden rise from bear market depths can equally be dramatic as well.
Related ETF:
Disclosure: No Positions
The Top 10 Global Medical Devices Companies based on their revenue in the devices segment in 2019 are shown in the graphic below. According to Proclinical research, the worldwide market for medical devices reached about $457.0 billion last year. Many of these firms are in the news lately due to the growing market for COVID-19 testing. For instance, US-based Abbott Labs (ABT) offers a rapid test for Covid-19 which is used in The White House.
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Source: Proclinical
The tickers of the companies shown above are:
Disclosure: No Positions
The equity market of mainland China is the second largest market in the world. The market cap of the domestic stocks, known as A-shares is about $10.0 Trillion. The following chart shows the largest stock markets in the world:
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Source: Sizing up Chinese equities – a market too big to ignore by Jie Lu, Robeco
Global investors may want to pay attention to the Chinese market as the economy is projected to grow 3% this year. This is a respectable rate of growth considering most other countries especially in the developed world are in a recession. Moreover, China used to be original epicenter of Coronavirus But that is no longer the case as the country successfully controlled the spread of the virus with just 93,723 cases and 4,634 deaths so far.
How to invest in China stocks?
One easy way for US investors to invest in China is via ADRs. Currently there are about 147 Chinese ADRs trading on the US exchanges. Another 156 trade on the OTC markets.
What major Chinese firms trade on the US exchanges?
Below are some of the big companies trading on the US exchanges:
Disclosure: No Positions
The performance of Dow Jones Index from 1896 to 2016 is shown in the chart below. Till 2016, the index has had four major bear markets and recovered each time. However the worst recovery time lasted 25 years during the Great Depression.
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Source: Virtue of Selfish Investing
