The Top Producers of Major Agricultural Commodities

Posted by David Hunkar on 16 March 2016, 3:21 am

Global food prices are impacted by a multitude of factors. One of the main factors that affect food prices is the price of oil. Rising oil prices tend to raise food prices. When food prices rises, usually it is the poor countries that take the brunt of the negative impacts.

Food prices spiked in 2007–2008 and again in 2010–2011. But recently prices have been declining due to the lower oil prices. Among the agricultural commodities, rise in prices of staple grains such as cor, wheat, rice adversely affect poor countries.

The following chart shows the top producers of major staples such as soy, wheat, rice and maize:

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Source: Anticipating and Avoiding Global Food Price Crises, CFR

The US is the top producer of maize and soy while China ranks the highest in the production of rice and wheat.

U.S. Tobacco Companies Have Outperformed The S&P 500

Posted by David Hunkar on 15 March 2016, 4:21 am

Tobacco companies offer some of the best investment opportunities in the sin sector. Generally tobacco, gambling, liquor companies are considered as part of the sin sector. In good times and bad times, people patronize these firms and their products. So its a win-win situation for investors as this industry turns from consumer discretionary to a consumer staples-type industry.

Tobacco stocks have high dividend yields and these stocks have been great performers over the short-term and long-term. Despite legal woes and other issues with the industry, tobacco firms have been consistently able to make solid profits and deliver excellent returns to shareholders. I wrote a review of the global tobacco industry back in 2010. Some of my other articles on tobacco can be found here and here.

A recent research note by Pensions & Investments magazine noted that US tobacco firms have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 20 years in terms of annualized total return.

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From the article:

Over the 20-year period ended Dec. 31, U.S. tobacco companies returned an annualized 15.31% vs. 8.09% for the S&P 500 index. The majority of outperformance was driven by the high-dividend yields of tobacco companies.

Some of the major US tobacco firms are Altria Group Inc.(MO), Lorillard, Inc.(LO) and Reynolds American Inc.(RAI). The complete list of tobacco stocks on the NYSE can be found here.

Among the foreign firms, British-based Imperial Brands PLC (ITYBY) and British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BTI) are good options.

Update (5/1/16):

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Source: WSJ

Disclosure: No Positions

Paid Paternity Leave By Country 2015

Posted by David Hunkar on 15 March 2016, 3:11 am

When a baby is born, parents usually take time off to care of the newborn. In addition to mothers, fathers also take leave to spend time with the baby.

However paid parental leave for fathers by law tend to vary between countries. The following chart shows the Paid Paternity Leave for fathers by Country 2015:

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Source: International Women’s Day: What fathers can do for gender equality, OECD Insights Blog. Mar 9, 2016

A few takeaways:

The US gives no paid paternal leave for fathers. This is not shocking since even most mothers are not entitled to paid leave by law to take care of a newborn.
South Korea and Japan offer a full year of paid leave for fathers but most men seem to make use of them.
It is not just the amount of time off that is offered is important. The percentage of salary paid during the leave also matters. In this regard, Iceland and Sweden offer liberal amounts with paid salary at over 60 per cent of last earnings.

The Number of Listed Companies by Country

Posted by David Hunkar on 14 March 2016, 3:15 am

Update: *** Go to The Number of Listed Companies by Country 2016 ***

The number of publicly listed companies vary widely between countries. Generally the total number of listed companies are higher in the developed world than the emerging and frontier markets. However certain emerging markets such as India, China, Brazil has relatively high number of public companies listed. The following chart shows the number of listed companies by country at the end of December, 2015:

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Notes:

Data shown above is only member exchanges of the WFE

Only stocks listed on major exchanges of countries are included. That is, for China data is from the Shanghai Stock Exchange and does not include the Shenzhen Exchange. Similarly for India, data is from the Bombay Stock Exchange and excludes National Stock Exchange.

Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange* – This exchange is the market for Scandinavian countries

Euronext* * – This exchanges companies listed on many European countries such as France, Belgium, The Netherlands, etc.

Data Source: World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)

A few observations:

With 5,836 firms, India’s Bombay Stock Exchange has the highest number of companies listed even beating the US.
The U.S. has the second highest listings with 5,283 firms in both the NYSE and NASDAQ.
Among the BRICs, Russia has the lowest number of listings.
Frontier markets such as Dubai, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, etc. have less than 100 companies listed on the exchanges.
Though the number of companies are high in countries like India and China, the total market capitalization of these companies are relatively smaller compared to the exchanges in the developed world.
Of the Middle Eastern countries, Israel tops the rank with 461 companies listed.
Due to a larger and vibrant economy, South Africa has more than double the number of listed firms than Nigeria.

Download (in Excel format):

The full WFE Report on listings, market caps, etc. The report has a wealth of info in addition to the number of listed companies.

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