Cement is one of the most important materials in the world second only to water. Since millennia cement has been used in construction. Recently we looked at the astonishing durability of cement. The following infographic shows how cement is made:
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Source: World Cement Association
Related:
Investing in equity markets comes with a variety of risks. One of the risks that investors have to deal with occasionally is the risk of political crisis events. Unlike other factors, these are beyond the control of any investors. Hence it is important to analyze and determine how to react to such events. Panicking and selling out during crises is not a wise strategy. According to research by Vanguard, past equities have performed well in the past geopolitical crises. After the initial sell-off stocks recovered and were in the positive territory after 6 months and also 1 year as shown in the chart below:
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Source: Vanguard UK
So the key takeaway is that geopolitical events are to be expected in our highly interconnected world and selling equities such events should not be a strategy. Instead it is wise to ride out political storms and focus on the long-term goal of an investment. To take it further, it is smart move to acquire some companies on the cheap when other investors panic and liquidate their holdings. For instance, during the Brexit saga a few years ago many quality stocks were trading at throw-away prices.
Related ETF:
Disclosure: No positions
The top performing stocks in the S&P 500 change over time. It is impossible to identify the winners among these 500 constituents of the index. This is one of the solid reasons to own a S&P 500 index fund instead of trying to pick the winners. The following table shows the best performing stocks (i.e. based on total returns) over different time periods:
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Source: Charlie Bilello via Market Index
A few observations:
Overall the key takeaway is that winners rotate and the best way to capture the gains of those stocks is to own the whole index via a fund.
Disclosure: No positions
The equity markets in the have recovered strongly so far this year. The S&P 500 is up about 10% YTD. But not all sectors are performing well. For instance, tech stocks have had a great run but the banking sector is having one of the worst years since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009. Among the banks, the regionals have been hit pretty hard with the KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index plunging by about 28% YTD. The regional bank ETF SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) for example is down even more with a decline of 33%. This ETF tries to track the return of the S&P® Regional Banks Select Industry Index.
Many of the individual banks are down deep in the red. Below are the YTD returns of a few banks:
Have foreign stocks performed better or held up relatively well compared to the poor performance of US bank stocks?
The following table provides the answer. It shows the year-to-return of foreign banks trading on the US exchanges:
| S.No. | Bank Name | Ticker | Stock Proce as of May 19, 2023 close | Year-to-date Change (%) | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HSBC | HSBC | $38.25 | 22.98% | United Kingdom |
| 2 | Grupo Financiero Galicia | GGAL | $11.53 | 19.22% | Argentina |
| 3 | Banco Santander Chile | BSAC | $18.80 | 18.94% | Chile |
| 4 | Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria | BBVA | $7.04 | 16.81% | Spain |
| 5 | Banco Santander | SAN | $3.42 | 15.93% | Spain |
| 6 | Itau Unibanco | ITUB | $5.43 | 13.38% | Brazil |
| 7 | Banco Bradesco | BBD | $3.18 | 12.15% | Brazil |
| 8 | Banco Santander Brasil | BSBR | $6.04 | 11.32% | Brazil |
| 9 | Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. | BBAR | $4.30 | 10.51% | Argentina |
| 10 | Itau Corpbanca | ITCL | $3.51 | 7.67% | Chile |
| 11 | Banco Macro | BMA | $17.31 | 7.61% | Argentina |
| 12 | UBS Group AG | UBS | $20.09 | 5.96% | Switzerland |
| 13 | Lloyds Banking Group | LYG | $2.29 | 5.45% | United Kingdom |
| 14 | ICICI Bank | IBN | $23.07 | 5.03% | India |
| 15 | Banco de Chile | BCH | $21.84 | 4.27% | Chile |
| 16 | Grupo Supervielle S.A. | SUPV | $2.25 | 4.17% | Argentina |
| 17 | Bank Of Montreal | BMO | $87.36 | 4.04% | Canada |
| 18 | NatWest | NWG | $6.68 | 4.02% | United Kingdom |
| 19 | Mizuho Financial | MFG | $3.04 | 3.87% | Japan |
| 20 | ING Group N.V. | ING | $13.01 | 3.75% | The Netherlands |
| 21 | Bank Nova Scotia Halifax | BNS | $49.26 | 3.34% | Canada |
| 22 | Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce | CM | $41.57 | 2.59% | Canada |
| 23 | Barclays Bank | BCS | $7.92 | 2.44% | United Kingdom |
| 24 | Sumitomo Mitsui Financial | SMFG | $8.33 | 1.12% | Japan |
| 25 | Royal Bank Of Canada | RY | $94.20 | 0.57% | Canada |
| 26 | Mitsubishi UFJ Financial | MUFG | $6.87 | -0.45% | Japan |
| 27 | Woori Financial Group Inc. | WF | $26.93 | -0.94% | Korea |
| 28 | HDFC Bank | HDB | $66.67 | -2.81% | India |
| 29 | KB Financial Group | KB | $37.14 | -3.54% | Korea |
| 30 | Credicorp Ltd. | BAP | $132.75 | -3.89% | Peru |
| 31 | Toronto Dominion Bank | TD | $60.92 | -5.04% | Canada |
| 32 | Shinhan Financial | SHG | $26.18 | -5.48% | Korea |
| 33 | Intercorp Financial Services Inc. | IFS | $21.98 | -6.27% | Peru |
| 34 | Deutsche Bank | DB | $10.58 | -7.99% | Germany |
| 35 | Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A. | AVAL | $2.17 | -11.07% | Colombia |
| 36 | First BanCorp. | FBP | $11.35 | -11.74% | Puerto Rico |
| 37 | OFG Bancorp | OFG | $24.23 | -12.43% | Puerto Rico |
| 38 | Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited | NTB | $25.14 | -16.70% | Bermuda |
| 39 | Bancolombia | CIB | $23.80 | -16.85% | Colombia |
| 40 | Credit Suisse | CS | $0.87 | -70.72% | Switzerland |
Some observations:
Note: The returns noted above are excluding dividends
Source: BNY Mellon & Google Finance
Disclosure: Long BCH, CIB, GBCI, ING, ITCL, ITUB, BBD, BBVA, SAN, BNS, BMO, RY, CM and TD