Emerging markets are already looking forward to 2019, glad to see 2018 nearly behind them. It turned out not to be a good year for emerging markets as a whole, after being on top of the world in 2017. Factors beyond their control—such as the monetary-tightening regime in the United States and high-flying dollar, trade wars and market corrections in developed economies—are largely to blame, but recognizing this will not erase the pain.
When looking at the performance of major markets such as US equities and oil, 2018 has so far provided much for bulls to cheer. But one market that has clearly underperformed year-to-date is gold.
The name of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 describes its purpose: slashing the US corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent would result in executives investing the resultant savings into growing their companies, increasing productivity, creating jobs, equalizing wage inequalities. If only the executives were on the same page. Instead, many are funnelling the lion’s share of the windfall into share buybacks, benefiting their investors.
By Samantha Barnes, International Banker On February 5, the US stock market the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its largest…
2017 has been a good year for US stock-market indices, in large measure due to the staggering performances of the Big Five of the technology sector, which are hitting levels not seen since the dotcom boom 20 years ago. Characterized by unmatched success in such areas as platform strength, innovation reinvestment, acquisitions and talent attraction, these technology giants seem guaranteed to keep on winning.
Stock markets have undergone some fairly seismic structural changes over the last 10 years or so. Arguably the most ground-breaking of these changes has been the advent of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Given the tepid performance of global equity markets so far this year, the situation has opened up opportunities for investors to delve into stocks that appear to be bargains.