There’s a tendency for many writers, analysts and money managers to lump all industrializing nations into a single entity. For better or worse, the popularity of Vanguard Emerging Markets (VWO) and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM) illustrates the way the developed world chooses to invest money. (Heck, Jim Cramer recently described the investing environment in terms of a 4-legged [...] Continue Reading...
In 2011, the S&P 500 began the year with remarkable fanfare. The benchmark raked in 2.4% in January alone. And yet, in 2012, the S&P 500 has been even more impressive, snagging an eye-popping 4.4%. The reasons for the risk-on gains may be easy to identify, from the notion that U.S. economic prospects are improving to the feeling that Europe will contain [...] Continue Reading...
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 SPDR S&P China Fund (GXC) fell -37% from an April high to an October low. That was nearly twice the top-to-bottom devastation for the S&P 500 SPDR Trust (SPY). What’s more, the dramatic sell-off across all China ETFs met the commonplace definition of a bear market — a 20% drop from the peak. Often, commentators [...] 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...
In the dark days of late September/early October, China hinted that it was nearing the end of its monetary and fiscal tightening campaign. At the same time, leaders in the European Union demonstrated several “come together” moments that removed the probability of an imminent collapse. And virtually every fundamental measure of “value” favored stocks over alternative assets. In fact, I extolled the virtues of a [...] 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...
