Tag Archives: Investing: Features

The headline data out of China hasn’t exactly been comforting of late. The country is grappling with the challenges of slowing GDP growth, rising debt levels, and volatile stock markets, to name just a few. But if the macroeconomic statistics seem bleak, the picture is brighter among the country’s entrepreneurial class. The quality of Chinese innovation is increasing, the funding environment is improving, particularly for early-stage companies, and the Chinese government is doing everything...

After a multi-year period of recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, Europe’s economy is finally on the road to expansion. In 2016, Eurozone GDP has returned to above its pre-crisis peak, domestic demand is strong, and employment is growing. The European Central Bank is trying to keep the momentum going with a March interest rate cut and increases in asset purchases.   And yet the continent’s equities are sputtering. As of early May, the MSCI European Economic and Monetary...

At first glance, U.S. equities seem to be turning a corner: They’ve rebounded from their February lows, bolstered by signs that China’s economy is stabilizing, dovish signals from the Federal Reserve, and a recovery in oil prices. And the majority of U.S. companies have beat first-quarter earnings and sales expectations. But that’s all in the past. Looking forward, Credit Suisse believes that several challenges will lead to choppy market conditions for the remainder of the year.  ...

This might surprise you: In the majority of U.S. states – 29 out of 50 – it’s legal for companies to discriminate against their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees. But this probably won’t: Research by Credit Suisse suggests that companies that choose to do so – whether subtly or overtly – are likely doing a disservice both to their business and to their shareholders. Over the past six years, companies that created welcoming environments for LGBT employees handily...

There are opportunities for investors in China if they consider the impact of structural reforms and which factors are driving economic growth, panelists at the Credit Suisse 2016 Asian Investment Conference (AIC) said.   China’s secondary market has been at the “epicenter of skepticism”, remarked Helen Zhu, Managing Director and Head of China Equities at BlackRock. She told participants that market mindsets have shifted and since President Xi Jinping took office, there is a search for...

What’s a company worth? Seasoned investors know that finding the answer to that question is more art than science. One way to do so is from the bottom up, to calculate a firm’s intrinsic value using a discounted cash flow methodology. The other is to come at the question from the top down, by using a relative valuation approach via market multiples. While there are many types of multiples, each reflects the market’s evaluation of a company’s expected operational performance, and can be used...

When Denmark introduced negative interest rates in 2012, it was a pioneer. But the policy has become such an accepted part of central banks’ toolbox in the years since that financial pundits hardly batted an eyelash when Hungary became the world’s sixth central bank to introduce negative rates in March 2016. As the practice becomes more widespread, the question of how low interest rates can go has become increasingly relevant for investors.   While every country (or region, in the case...

How do you spot a nation with high potential for economic growth? Look for countries with very low per-capita GDP and where both institutions and the workforce are undergoing a transformation. Important emerging markets such as China and India met these criteria in the past, paving the way for high growth rates for more than a decade for each. But growth in emerging markets has slowed considerably as of late, and investors looking for high potential growth are increasingly turning to frontier...

Online sales juggernaut Amazon has a toe in the Internet finance business, processing payments and offering loans to the site’s merchants. What about its Chinese counterpart, Alibaba? It does those things, too. It also facilitates peer-to-peer lending, sells mutual funds and insurance policies, and has formed a private bank to lend to consumers. Who’s leading the Internet revolution now?   From a modest start in processing online payments, Alibaba, online media and entertainment firm...

It’s been decades since conglomerates were the toast of American commerce. Many that formed in the 1960s and 70s broke up in the decades that followed, as the trend of diversification gave way to specialization. But in China in 2016, enthusiasm for the conglomerate form is at an all-time high, particularly among Internet companies. Last year, web titans Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent invested a total of $29 billion in 134 businesses.   Alibaba has been the most aggressive of the...