Aug 15 2008

Dollar Turn-around Has Analysts Questioning Emerging Markets

Posted by Sara Nunnally

When the U.S. economy fell off a cliff, a bunch of investors fled to the “safety” of booming emerging markets, like China and Brazil.

Turned out to be a good bet for a while, until our credit crisis became a global disease… and even stellar markets had their corrections.

But now, on the slightest bump up in the dollar, some analysts are now questioning whether emerging markets is the best place for your cash. Some say that U.S. stocks are a better bet than foreign stocks.

What’s really going on is that other major currencies, like the euro and the British pound, are being hit by recession fears and the possibility of more bank write-downs.

The dollar hasn’t really risen that much on its own yet. We’re still seeing poor housing numbers and sky-high inflation. There have been bright spots in the U.S. economy, and I won’t deny that things are starting to look better, but a major shift back to holding only U.S. assets in your portfolio is a big mistake.

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May 19 2008

The Real Brazilian Supermodel


Mention Brazilian supermodel and the name that immediately comes to mind is Gisele Bündchen.While Ms. Bündchen remains hopelessly out of our league, there is another supermodel far more accessible to us mere mortals. It’s Brazil’s stock exchange, the Bovespa (^BVSP).

Year-to-date, ^BVSP is up 56.5%. The 12-month gain for ^BVSP is 186.1%. And the five-year rise is 81.7%.

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