BTC iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF

On December 27, 2017, Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) announced the exclusive launch of the generic version of Reyataz, which is a registered trademark of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) in the United States.

Emerging markets have been a go-to place for the international investment community for the past decade.

With global growth still subdued despite loose monetary policy and rock-bottom interest rates, the case for fiscal stimulus has become more compelling.

Fiscal policy has turned more expansionary, with stress on fiscal spending and monetary easing, thereby flooding the financial markets worldwide with huge liquidity.

Given the negative yields in Continental Europe, it would be wise to combine developed markets with good economic fundamentals.

In the past three decades, emerging market (EEM) economies grew rapidly, led by exports, which shifted current account balances from a deficit to a huge surplus.

Over the past few years, China’s economic growth witnessed a significant slowdown. In the first quarter, the economy fell to 6.7%.

The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that average hourly earnings have reached $21.45, up by 2.5% YoY, and represent the highest growth since January.

J.P. Morgan’s analysis states that gold has outperformed equities, bonds, and a broad commodities index in a low interest rate environment.

India is a bright spot within the BRICs and stands out in a world where economic growth is sparse.

Undoubtedly, Russia is the BRIC member with the most to gain from recovering oil prices.

The past few months have seen high levels of volatility in global stock markets (IWD) (IEFA) amid concerns over declining oil prices (IEO) and a slowdown in China’s (FXI) (MCHI) economy.

Even on the earnings yield basis, emerging markets look attractive with a yield of 8.4% compared to 6% for the S&P 500 and 6.7% for the MSCI EAFE Index.

Global equity markets (IEFA) have witnessed an intense bout of volatility in the past year. They’ve had corrections of more than 10% twice in 2015.

Japanese (EWJ) (SCJ) equities have become attractive thanks to relatively low valuations after a 20% fall from highs recorded in August last year.

In this series, we’ll see how investors can best seek to reduce volatility and capture opportunities by following diversification and selectivity as a long-term strategy.

The recent correction in the global (SCZ) equity markets makes valuations very attractive.