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Over the next 10 years, some of the greatest growth in health-care spending is projected for emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil. For many reasons, growth opportunities are abundant in developing economies, but selecting health-care stocks, particularly among the smaller-cap companies based in these regions, is not without its challenges.
Developments in European sovereign debt markets have taken a significant turn recently, and the risk that the crisis could affect financial markets has increased.
With political unrest and natural disasters around the world in recent weeks, investors rushed to gold as a safe haven and sent prices soaring. But while investors choose gold for many reasons, they may find that some gold-mining companies are a more attractive investment than the bullion itself.
On March 20, AT&T announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier. This deal highlights the future investment potential unleashed by demand for mobile data.
Inflation has popped back up in the headlines after a long absence. In January, prices measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) were up 1.6% from a year earlier, the biggest increase in eight months.
The convergence of many types of high bandwidth content — especially video — on mobile devices, tablet computers, and Internet–connected television is generating rapid growth in data traffic on telecommunications networks. Forecasts suggest traffic may grow more than 30% annually over the next several years. Telecom companies may be able to translate data traffic into
Dogged by lingering memories of the 2008–2009 bear market, many investors remain cautious about increasing their exposure to equities — even though equities today offer compelling value relative to most fixed-income asset classes. At the same time, many bond investors are finding it necessary to assume greater credit risk to capture higher yields amid a
One of the key strategies that several Putnam fixed-income funds have successfully employed is the use of non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). As the name would imply, these securities are backed by residential mortgages and have been securitized not by a government agency — such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac — but by a
While overall consumer spending continues to fluctuate this year between marginal growth and zero growth, luxury spending is experiencing a rebound. Often considered a harbinger for consumer spending in general, global luxury goods sales rose 15% in the first quarter of 2010 alone, compared with a year ago. And many individual luxury companies have reported