Right now, many quality European multinationals are cheaper than their U.S. peers, as investors’ concerns about Europe’s economy have lowered share prices. The S&P 500 currently trades at 2.14 times book value and 12.4 times projected 2013 earnings, compared with 1.5 times book and 10.8 times estimated earnings for the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, an index for Eurozone blue chips. The EuroStoxx 50 also yields more than 4.5% — double… Read More

Right now, many quality European multinationals are cheaper than their U.S. peers, as investors’ concerns about Europe’s economy have lowered share prices. The S&P 500 currently trades at 2.14 times book value and 12.4 times projected 2013 earnings, compared with 1.5 times book and 10.8 times estimated earnings for the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, an index for Eurozone blue chips. The EuroStoxx 50 also yields more than 4.5% — double the S&P 500’s 2.25%. Yet even with all the negative headlines about Europe, I’ve had great success with several European stocks in my High-Yield International portfolio. Take Sanofi (NYSE: SNY), a French pharmaceutical company that’s up nearly 90% in the few short years I’ve owned it. Or U.K-based National Grid (NYSE: NGG), an electric distribution utility that has been paying a steady dividend since I added it in 2008 and is up 27% in two years. And now, I’ve pinpointed another European company worth considering for your… Read More

In the late 1980s, Japan’s economy was the envy of the world. The country’s meteoric rise to become the world’s second-largest economy coupled with the dominance of Japanese brands such as Sony, Toyota and Kubota gave rise to the term “Japanese Economic… Read More

In the late 1980s, Japan’s economy was the envy of the world. The country’s meteoric rise to become the world’s second-largest economy coupled with the dominance of Japanese brands such as Sony, Toyota and Kubota gave rise to the term “Japanese Economic Miracle.” Managers around the world sought to emulate the nation’s manufacturing techniques. Japanese companies and consumers, enriched by their nation’s rapid economic growth, bought up prime real estate and other assets in the United… Read More

In the late 1980s, Japan’s economy was the envy of the world. The country’s meteoric rise to become the world’s second-largest economy coupled with the dominance of Japanese brands such as Sony, Toyota and Kubota gave rise to the term “Japanese Economic Miracle.” Managers around the world sought to emulate the nation’s manufacturing techniques. Japanese companies and consumers, enriched by their nation’s rapid economic growth, bought up prime real estate and other assets in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. #-ad_banner-#But Japan’s miracle was built in part on a bubble. In 1989, at the height of the property bubble, choice commercial property in Tokyo sold for more than $20,000 per square foot. Average Japanese homes near the nation’s six largest cities cost the equivalent of 30 to 50 times the median Japanese income, an unsustainable level. Gains in residential and office properties between 1986 and the top of the property bubble in 1991 were even more dramatic than home price gains in the United States during the mid-2000s. The economic miracle came to an abrupt end… Read More

Financial stocks have been out of favor for much of the period since the financial crisis. In the United States, the S&P 500 Financials Index rallied just 9% between the end of 2008… Read More