Popular emerging markets in the BRIC configuration – Brazil, Russia, India, China – suffered through severe bear markets in 2011. Yet far too many writers attribute the 20%-33% declines to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis alone. It is true that the debt mess sent the U.S. dollar higher at the expense of the ruble, “real,” and the rupee. Contagion containment has also damaged the prospects for emerging market [...] Continue Reading...
In 2004, South Korea and Australia began exporting more to China than they did to the United States. By year-end 2008, Japan and Brazil exported more to China than to the U.S. Not surprisingly, when the Chinese government expressed an intention to rein in rampant inflation through tighter fiscal and monetary policy (November 2010), many countries that depend on their exports to [...] Continue Reading...
I represent hundreds of families as the president of my Registered Investment Adviser, taught financial concepts to classrooms around the world, spent years as the CFP on a national talk radio show and receive countless e-mails from wisdom seekers. Yet I would not be able to tally the number of investors who I have encountered in my lifetime. However, there [...] Continue Reading...
The troubles in Italy, Portugal and Greece are shockingly serious. How serious? Many insist that these 3 little piggies will eventually succumb to disorderly bankrupties, causing Armageddon for world stock markets and the global financial system. For the doomsday crowd to be right, however, everything has to go wrong. Ev-er-y-thing! For instance, coordinated Eurozone plans for aid to Greece would have [...] Continue Reading...
The willingness of Greek leadership to throw salt into the wounds of the global financial system is the only thing on Mr. Market’s mind. It follows that the ongoing European debt crisis continues to steal all of the headline space. Yet there are a number of economic data points that investors should not gloss over. For [...] Continue Reading...
Factual headlines are often misleading. For example, a popular financial portal offered, ”October consumer confidence weakest since March 2009.” Most people might interpret this to mean that consumers aren’t spending and/or won’t be spending their money, resulting in less revenue for economically sensitive corporations. However, actual consumer spending has been on the rise… 1.1% in September alone. Equally important, Retail ETFs [...] Continue Reading...
Here’s a disclaimer from the get-go. If the European Union fails to persuade the world that they’ve got a workable, TARP-like plan on Wednesday, feel free to disregard these 3 reasons to add more Stock ETFs to your current allocation. 1. 2008 Or 1998? Endless comparisons have been made between 2011’s sovereign debt toxicity and 2008’s subprime loan [...] Continue Reading...
The bear has been ruthless to investors in Chinese companies. For example, from an early November 2010 multi-year peak to an October 2011 valley, the iShares FTSE China 25 Fund (FXI) plummeted -36.6%. Since those October 3 lows, however, several facets of the Chinese “story” have become more favorable. First, analysts worldwide began upgrading China stocks [...] Continue Reading...
The U.S economy has been faltering. Politicians have been blaming one another. And confidence is about as bad as it gets. However, what you read or hear in the media about recessions and economic progress will not explain the success or failure of stock assets. For example, Australia boasts a mere 5.3% unemployment, the highest interest rates among [...] Continue Reading...
Last month, the mere rumor that China was looking at purchasing Italian bonds sent stocks surging higher. However, it is far more likely that China will take a ”wait-n-see” approach. Consider the contentious nature of international trade and currency disputes between China and the developed world. In response to a widespread belief that China keeps its currency artificially low, the U.S. Senate has been advancing [...] Continue Reading...
