Reposted from The Wall-Street Journal
By By Jeyup S Kwaak
As North Korea heads into the time of year when its food supplies run low, it appears to be looking for new donors.
At a courtesy call on the Mongolian president last week, Pyongyang’s new ambassador made a request for food aid, according to the official website for the head of state. More…
Reposted from The Economist
By Buttonwood
THIS week’s leader on the Dow points to the vast gulf between the performance of the US stockmarket and economy on the one hand, and the Chinese economy and the stockmarket on the other. Although it is often assumed that the domestic economy is the main driver of the stockmarket, it usually isn’t. A study by Bank of New York Mellon of the relationship between US GDP growth and the S&P 500 between 1970 and 2012 found virtually no link (an r-squared of 0.0146). More…
Reposted from Bloomberg Businessweek
By Roben Farzad
By all means, countrymen, go ahead and celebrate our Dow Jones industrial average at a record—however nominal that milestone may be. But perhaps you’re looking for a place to put your money that doesn’t move in lockstep with the U.S. market—at a time when just about everything, including mortgage bonds, traditional emerging markets, and bank loans, does. That place would be the universe of booming small developing markets, which you can now access, substantially, with the help of some newfangled exchange-traded funds. More…
Repost from PR NewswirePress Release
Apache Partners LLP, the UK based investment advisory business set up by Paul Forsyth, is launching the Apache Global Frontiers Fund on 22 March 2013. More…
Reposted from Investment Week
By Dan Jones
Frontier markets are less volatile, more diversified and a better bet for dividends than their broader emerging market peers, according to HSBC’s Andrew Brudenell.
The manager of the HSBC GIF Frontiers fund said the asset class remains under-appreciated by investors, even within the context of their allocations to emerging markets. More…
Reposted from Barron’s
By Ben Levisohn
The frontier markets are the new emerging markets, and for investors comfortable with the risks, countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh and Botswana can offer some pretty impressive returns. But about those risks…
Frontier markets are surging this year. Investors, however, should think twice before plunging headlong into stocks from countries as far-flung as Argentina, Bangladesh, Botswana, Slovakia, and Sri Lanka. More…
Reposted from Investors Chronicle
Investible assets come in all shapes and sizes but for Sam Vecht, manager of BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust (BRFI), basic investment principles remain the same. He may invest in some of the racier and more exotic areas of equity markets, but for him one of the central facets of investing is a basic metric: valuation. More…
Reposted from ETF Trends
By Tom Lydon
Frontier markets are economies that are in the beginning stages of capital market growth. Focused exchange traded funds give investors exposure to the growth spurt as the economies begin industrializing.
“Frontier funds’ 24 percent average return last year compares with 14 percent for U.S. funds, 16 percent in both Japan and emerging markets, and 17 percent in Europe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg,” Michael Patterson wrote for Bloomberg. More…
Small businesses are expected to help drive growth in the US in 2013
Companies employing less than 100 workers can be termed as small companies. As far as the United States is considered, there are large numbers of small businesses operating across the country. In fact, these small businesses or companies constitute a major portion of the country’s employers as well as employ more than half of the country’s total workforce. Although many consider the industrial giants as the driving force behind economic growth, the truth lies somewhere else and has to be accepted without the slightest doubt. Small businesses play a very important role in the country’s overall economic growth as well as ensure the living standards of the people of the country continue to remain good. More…
Frontier markets offer a huge pool of natural resources for investors to tap in to, but political and geographical uncertainty add plenty of risk to the potential reward
This month’s hostage crisis in Algeria made headlines around the world. The terrorist attack on the natural gas facility is another reminder of the security issues at many oil and gas sites.
Social and political unrest is also being seen in neighbouring Mali and the ongoing Arab Spring has seen a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests that have forced rulers from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
Despite the unrest, it is impossible to ignore the natural resources such as oil, gas and coal that make these countries attractive to investors who are happy to take higher levels of risk. More…
