Knowledge is Power: Fossil Fuel Subsidy, Asia Growth, Robot Revolution Edition

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Why the free market fundamentalists think 2013 will be the best year ever (The Guardian)

Fossil fuel subsidies: billions up in smoke? (OECD Insights)

Why US winks at illegal migration (The Hindu Business Line)

The 40 most unusual economic indicators (Financial Post)

Gold stocks’ time to shine (Canadian Business)

Fired America (Economic Populist)

HSBC: Asia’s ‘worrying’ debt-led growth (Beyond Brics)

Why the Canadian dollar’s decline isn’t over yet (The Globe and Mail)

Investing in the Robot Revolution: Part 1 (AllianceBernstein blog)

Investing in the Robot Revolution: Part 2 (AllianceBernstein blog)

Malaysia-Trip-1

War Memorial, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

S&P 500 vs. FTSE 100 Returns

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Reinvestment of dividends can enhance the return of an equity investment. Instead of simply focusing on price returns only investors should focus on the total return of an investment which includes price return plus dividend reinvestment return.

Over the past decade, UK’s FTSE 100 has consistently beaten the S&P 500. The FTSE 100 has had a total return of 171.87% compared to just 89.12% for the S&P 500 in British Pound terms according to a report in FE Trustnet.

However just looking at price charts will give misleading results. In the 10-year and 5 year charts below, the S&P 500(in blue) was ahead of FTSE 100 in US $ terms. But this is only based on price return. When reinvestment of dividends is included the charts will look entirely different with the FTSE beating the S&P by a wide margin. This is because the dividend yield on the S&P 500 is around 2% whereas the FTSE 100 has a much higher yield as British firms traditionally have higher payouts than US firms.

S&P 500 vs. FTSE 100 – 5 Year Return:

Click to enlagre

SP500-vs-FTSE100-5-Years-1

Source: Yahoo Finance

S&P 500 vs. FTSE 100 – 10 Year Return:

SP500-vs-FTSE100-10-Years-2

Source: Google Finance

 

Source:  “Lost decade” a myth for equity income investors,  FE Trustnet

Related ETFs:

iShares MSCI United Kingdom Index (EWU)
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

Disclosure: No Positions

U.S. Unemployment Rate Since 1948

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The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 7.9% in January this year. This rate has not changed much since September of 2012. Based on this official figure, currently there 12.3 million unemployed individuals in the country. The actual unemployment rate is much higher since the official rate drops out many unemployed persons such as those that stopped looking for work.

The labor-force participation rate was just 63.6% in January. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was about unchanged at 4.7 million and accounted for 38.1 % of the unemployed according to BLS data.

Here is a chart showing the U.S. unemployment rate by month since 1948:

Click to enlarge

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Source:  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

At the height of the global financial crisis in 2009, the rate reached 10%. Though the unemployment rate has slowly declined it is still stubbornly high at over 8.0%. The rate exceeded 10% during the 1980s as shown in the chart above.

Breakdown of an Apple iPhone 5 Component Costs

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Apple(APPL) has sold millions of its famous iPhone over the years with the most recent model iPhone 5 selling like hotcakes late last year although sales volumes was not as great as expected. In China, the company sold over 2 million units in the first weekend alone.

The iPhone 5 was designed in the U.S. just like so many other Apple products but assembled in China. However assembly costs account for only 4% of the total cost of an iPhone 5. The various components of an unit come from different countries as shown in the chart below. In fact, by one study 90% of a phone’s components are from countries outside of the U.S. Apple’s iPhone 5 is also a representation of the success the globalization and the East Asian electronics production chain.

iPhone 5 Component Costs by Supplier Headquarters Location and China Assembly Cost:

Click to enlarge

Apple-iPhone 5-Component-Costs-Split

Source: DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI), DHL

Update:

Global iPhone Supply Chain

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

Disclosure: No Positions

The Top 4 Greek Yogurt Brands

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Greek yogurt was introduced to the U.S. market 15 years ago by Fage, the Athens-based privately-held yogurt company according to a recent article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Since then Greek yogurt held a small share of the multi-billion dollar yogurt market in the country. However in the past few years that has changed with consumers buying Greek yogurt more and more as they became health-consicous. In addition, the success of Chobani, a new Greek yogurt brand founded by Turkish immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya has made Greek yogurt a household product today. From working moms to high school teenagers to senior citizens, Greek yogurt has become a modern-day craze.

From At Chobani, the Turkish King of Greek Yogurt in Bloomberg BusinessWeek:

Chobani has made Ulukaya a billionaire, according to Bloomberg data. Five years ago Chobani had almost no revenue. This year, the company will sell more than $1 billion worth of yogurt, says Ulukaya, who’s the sole owner. Once a niche business, Greek yogurt now accounts for 36 percent of the $6.5 billion in total U.S. yogurt sales, according to investment firmAllianceBernstein (AB). Upstate New York, with its 28 plants owned by Chobani, Fage, Yoplait maker General Mills (GIS), and others, has become something like the Silicon Valley of yogurt.

The Top Four Greek Yogurt Brands in the U.S. are shown in the chart below:

Click to enlarge

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Source: At Chobani, the Turkish King of Greek Yogurt in Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Fage is a private company based in Greece and sells its products in many countries including the US, Greece, Italy and Germany.

Yoplait Greek brand is owned by General Mills (GIS). France-based Danone SA(DANOY) owns the Dannon brand. It is truly amazing to see that Chobani now holds 40% of the market share.

Disclosure: Long GIS