While yields on short-term Indian government bonds are falling like there is no tomorrow, those on longer-term bonds remain sticky. This has led to a steep yield curve the sort that the country has not witnessed at least in the past two decades. A steep yield curve has implications for investors. The country has witnessed steep yield curves twice in the past, and each such occasion was followed by a stunning bull run in equities. To quote a popular saying, history does not repeat itself but it does tend to rhyme.

The first instance: Between 2003 and 2005, yields on short-term government bonds had fallen to historic lows and the yield curve was steep. The spread between short-term bond yields and long-term bond yields was close to 2 percentage points (or 200 basis points). While the three-month government bond yield was at four per cent, the 10-year G-Sec yield was at six per cent. At this point in time, investors were wary of investing in the equity markets. The Y2K bubble had burst and 9/11 had happened. Between 2000 and 2003, bonds delivered double-digit returns. Towards the end of the bond market rally, equity investors booked losses in equities and entered long-duration bond funds at high net asset values (NAVs) at a time when yields had already bottomed out. Over the next few years, it was the equity markets that delivered one of the strongest rallies ever. The Sensex went from 3,000 to 21,000 over the ensuing four years. From mid-2006 onwards, investors booked losses in bond funds (because yields had risen) and shifted large amounts of money into equities. This was a time when the IPO (initial public offer) boom was on in the markets. Come 2008 and equity markets fell off the cliff. Investors thus lost money both in bonds and in equities.

Wrong timing once again: As equities crashed in 2008, yields also declined. So, while equities delivered negative returns, longer-duration bond funds gave returns as high as 40 per cent during the second half of 2008. During this period, investors saw the value of their investments in equities decline at the same time when net asset values (NAVs) of bond funds were rising steeply. In 2009, investors moved out of equities (booking huge losses, of course) and entered long-duration bond funds, when their NAVs had already risen to high levels. By this time, yields had already crashed to levels that were even lower than in 2003. The yield on the three-month treasury bill was at three per cent while the 10-year G-Sec yield was at around 5 per cent. In other words, the difference in yield between these two bonds was two percentage points (or 200 basis points). At a time when retail investors had abandoned equities, the Sensex once again zoomed from 8,000 to 20,000 over the next two years, starting from January 2009. Small investors were bystanders in this rally as well.

Steep curve once again: Currently, the yield on shorter-term bonds is below three per cent. The slope of the yield curve is also the steepest, with the difference between the three-month treasury bill and the 10-year G-Sec being three percentage points (or 300 basis points). The yield curve was not as steep either in 2003 or 2009.

Equity markets are once again on tenterhooks due to the global pandemic. The fear that there may be a second wave of the pandemic, which may be more severe than the first, has dampened investor sentiment. But could 2020, during which we have witnessed a global pandemic, cyclones, locust attacks, earthquakes, and intensification of the trade wars turn out to be another belter of a year for equities? And will retail investors manage to participate in the rally this time?

Unclear picture: It is a tricky situation. The market is deriving its adrenaline chiefly from the injection of liquidity. The system is flushed with liquidity, as can be seen from the fact that every day more than Rs 7 lakh crore is parked in the Reserve Bank of India's reverse repo window. So, while the fundamentals are weak and should, in the normal course, cause equity markets to crash, liquidity support is very strong, due to which the equity markets are holding firm.

GDP data for FY20 was poor, as was widely anticipated. The economy may contract in FY21. This is a development that most investors will experience for perhaps the first time in their lives. The outlook remains bleak across sectors. Not a day goes by without news of some company or the other laying off employees.

In times of such economic distress, it is difficult to justify the current market valuations. But with so much liquidity sloshing around, it is unlikely that the markets will witness a sustained fall for a prolonged period of time. A steep yield curve also means that banks can borrow cheaply for the short-term and lend at higher rates for the long-term. Bank profits could rise. The S&P BSE Bankex is among the worst-performing sectoral indices over the past year.

Looking back at the markets in 2003 and 2009, index valuations were quite low just before the equity markets rallied: The Nifty PE was between 10 and 14 times on both these occasions. Retail investors were averse to equities. Neither of these two conditions prevails today. Equity markets are not trading at very low valuations, nor are retail investors fleeing from this asset class. So, empirically, the equity markets may not have bottomed out yet.

In such circumstances, instead of betting on current valuations, investors should run systematic investment plans (SIPs) so as to average out their cost of purchase. If they don't want the trouble of selecting an active fund, they should go with an index fund. Second, at a time when markets could plunge, quality stocks can provide a good hedge to ones portfolio. High-pedigree stocks tend to weather a storm relatively better. And even if they fall, these stocks tend to be picked by value seekers first. Third, if the portfolio size (including both direct equities and equity mutual funds) is bigger than Rs 25 lakh, the investor should consider hedging his portfolio.

In the case of a large and sudden fall, many retail investors tend to panic and sell their equity holdings. If your portfolio is hedged, you will not need to worry even if the market cracks. It is like having a raincoat while going out: Whether it rains or not, you are not affected.

While it is good to take precautions, we should not forget the lessons of history. Bull markets are born in the depths of pessimism. Staying invested in equities is important. Even if retail investors made mistakes in 2003 and 2009, they should get things right the third time in 2020.

First Published: Sat, June 13 2020. 22:01 IST

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Signals from the debt market: Staying invested in equities is importants - Business Standard

We made it through another winter, yet, with this pandemic, all of us are wondering what is next. As the leader of an organization representing a building trade, I saw the answer right in my own backyard when I notice all the birds zipping around carrying material to build nests. Its construction season. We need to build things too.

When the legislative session was shortened because of COVID our leaders did not have an opportunity to consider and fund many projects on which we were all relying for employment this summer, fall and next winter. The good news is its not too late. Legislators can still go back to Juneau and do what needs to be done to get this economy moving by approving a jobs package that includes projects all over Alaska.

With the legislators reconvening this week in Juneau, we call on Governor Dunleavy to help move job creating infrastructure projects forward as soon as possible.

Our elected officials know what needs to be done in their districts and can probably list items of shovel- ready projects that are planned but not yet paid for. There is a growing list of backlogged maintenance and retrofit projects not to mention items that have grown in importance over the course of the pandemic such as the Port of Alaska and improved broadband access for education and medical reasons.

As oil prices falter on a world scale and producers are forced to slow down exploration and production, Alaska must demonstrate the self-sufficiency that got us all this far.

We see the high value of immediate capital investment and the long-term positive impact that can have. Some projects should include: ports in Anchorage and Nome, the Ketchikan Shipyard, transmission line upgrade and expansion projects along the Railbelt and the Southeast Intertie project, a much needed new Anchorage Health Department, communication fiber upgrade projects statewide for telemedicine, hospital upgrades for more adaptable ICU units, ferries, marine terminals, deferred maintenance at university campuses like UAF, plus roads, bridges, airports and more.

There are also hundreds of projects from this years capital budget that were left behind many from the Governors budget too. We challenge Governor Dunleavy and legislators to take a good look at that list and fund them. These are well vetted, much needed projects that need to get done. A capital budget that puts even a small dent in that $1.8 billion maintenance backlog could put hundreds of Alaskans to work and save the state many billions of dollars more in replacement costs. General obligation bonds will also put people to work, encourage companies to invest in Alaska and shore up facilities like our ports and harbors we cannot allow to fail completely.

These projects will provide significant short-term economic stimulus across the state, as well

as long-term benefits. The short-term economic impact will result from jobs in construction and construction support and all the work it takes to get them to that stage including permitting, engineering, procurement and related work.

Yes. We know there are federal dollars coming to Alaska through the CARES act appropriations, but we are talking about something different, bigger and long term. We need to put people to work and we need to do it now. In addition, these projects will help keep Alaskas highly trained workforce in-state and ready as our economy improves.

With legislators going back to work next week, there is still time to approve a jobs bill funded by a General Obligation Bond (G.O.) package and Alaskans can vote on it if that is what it takes. We need to invest in Alaska and we need to do it as quickly as possible using whatever methods necessary.

The promise of a G.O. bond vote plus a modest yet focused capital budget will demonstrate to investors, residents and our kids we are serious about digging Alaska out of the fiscal hole and building meaningful projects to support our future here instead.

As the birds and all other migrating animals in Alaska know, there is no time to waste. Lets get to work!

Dave Reaves is the Business Manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547, which represents more than 4,000 electrical, communications, construction, government and health care workers across the state of Alaska.

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The time to Invest in Alaska is now - Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman

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Regardless of the dynamics in the electricity market, it is a sure bet in Australia to rapidly expand solar and wind power, new transmission lines and energy storage. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

The Covid-19 recession will bring fiscal stimulus on a massive scale. There are high hopes that the recovery will be green but it could be an uphill struggle. A big opportunity for Australias governments is to keep the renewable energy revolution going.

There will be pressure to invest in anything that quickly brings back jobs and prosperity, never mind long term, social or environmental goals. A return to the world as it was in 2019 will seem a marvellous goal for the many people whose jobs have gone or whose businesses have faltered. In order to improve the economy relative to pre-Covid, to build back better, will need governments to lead.

The forces pushing the other way are strong. Fossil fuel interests see Covid as a chance to push their barrel, all too evident in the push under way in Australia to increase gas production, regardless of the fact that it would raise greenhouse gas emissions for a long time to come. In the United States, longstanding environmental protection rules have been suspended under the cover of Covid, and Brazils government plans to change the rules on the Amazon while attention is on the pandemic. In China, the buzzword is new infrastructure but early indications are that new government spending on projects such as rail and telecoms is still overshadowed by building of coal power plants.

Policy documents released last week suggest that Australias meagre patchwork of emissions measures is now to be amended a little, but carbon pricing remains unmentionable.

Thankfully renewable energy is now by far the cheapest way to produce electricity from any newly built plants. Weve seen a huge boom in solar and wind and power. Even the governments new discussion paper towards its technology roadmap acknowledges that the future is renewables rather than coal, though it also gives a nod to gas.

But the recession could thwart investor appetite in new electricity generation plants. In the east coast electricity market, average wholesale prices are now less than half of what they were a year ago as a result of lower gas prices, more renewables on the grid, and lower electricity demand. While that is great news for consumers including energy-intensive industry, it dampens the case for new renewables investment. It also puts extra pressure on old coal-fired power plants.

Regardless of the dynamics in the electricity market, it is a sure bet in Australia to rapidly expand solar and wind power, new transmission lines and energy storage. It is what will replace the coal power fleet, power electric cars, and provide the foundation for the energy-intensive export industries of the future.

Governments should now step up and accelerate renewables investment. Large renewable energy zones have been mapped out, and New South Wales already has a plan to deliver three of them. The coming recession is the best possible reason to step up the pace.

Renewable energy projects can be built quickly and they can be scaled up over time. Governments can fund and own renewables generators, or provide long-term fixed-price contracts to companies that build and operate them.

And we urgently need new power lines. The usual way would be a lengthy process to plan, contract and build transmission lines and for private companies to build wind and solar projects. With the recovery stimulus imperative, governments can and should make it happen more quickly.

In parallel, governments need to be ready to support the regions where coal-fired plants will inevitably close down. It will not do to wait until the next power plants in the Hunter and Latrobe valley announce closures on commercial grounds. Building alternative infrastructure and supporting new areas of business should start right now.

The fundamental criteria for economic stimulus that stands the test of time are simple: projects need to be able to start soon, use a lot of local inputs, result in something useful for the long run, and be compatible with a net-zero emissions trajectory.

Expanding renewable energy and the power grid scores high on those criteria. Many other infrastructure projects are attractive, including public transport, retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency, and land restoration.

And we have the chance to lay the foundation for clean export industries of the future, such as renewables-based hydrogen and steel. The obvious way to get started on these is a large public investment program in R&D and pilot plants. The governments technology roadmap can identify priority investments. This should then quickly be followed by cash.

Governments will take out big loans to get the economy out of the Covid recession. We must be sure to spend it in a way that benefits our society in the future. That means creating better social fabric, more education and infrastructure. And it means helping build up industries that have a strong prospect in a world economy that acts on climate change.

Todays younger people will be paying the debt back through higher taxes. They should be able to look back at Covid-19 as a time when useful public investments were made that helped protect their future.

Frank Jotzo is the director of the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at the Australian National University

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The coming recession is the best reason to step up the pace of renewables investment - The Guardian

The markets have been rallying since March's crash, but that doesn't mean they're stable just yet. With a lot of uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, stability comes at a premium these days. And one way you can add some of it to your life is by investing in dividend stocks.

While most dividend stocks pay on a quarterly basis, that doesn't mean you have to wait three months for a payment. The three stocks listed below all pay dividends in different periods, and collectively, they can generate recurring monthly income for you.

Merck (NYSE:MRK) is a stable dividend stock that you can buy and hold for years. The drug manufacturer has posted a profit in each of the past 10 years, and the majority of those times, its profit margin was in the double-digits.

That's a trend Merck continued in the first quarter of 2020. It released its latest results on April 28, where it generated $3.2 billion in profit on sales of $12.1 billion -- good for a profit margin of 27%. Sales were up 11% year over year, with the company's cancer-fighting drug Keytruda leading the way with revenue growth of 45% from the prior-year period.

Image source: Getty Images.

Although the company lowered its guidance for 2020 as a result of COVID-19, there's little doubt that Merck can bounce back from the adversity given the essential drugs it provides to patients.

Currently, Merck pays investors a dividend of $0.61 every quarter, which today yields around 3.1% -- well above the S&P 500 average of 2%. Merck also increased its payouts last year by 10.9%. The company typically makes payments to shareholders in January, April, July, and October.

Costco (NASDAQ:COST) is one retail stock that's been doing well during the pandemic. it's been a popular destination for consumers loading up on toilet paper and other day-to-day essentials. But irrespective of short-term fluctuations due to the coronavirus, the company's been a consistent profit and growth machine over the years. While its profit margin is typically not more than just a couple of percentage points, Costco has consistently recorded a profit in each of the past 10 years. And its sales have been soaring, too. From $77.9 billion in fiscal 2010, the company's top line nearly doubled to $152.7 billion in fiscal 2019.

There's a lot to like about Costco stock. Not only is it consistent and growing, but it also pays a modest dividend. The Washington-based company pays out $0.70 every quarter, which, at a share price of around $300, yields a modest 0.9%. Costco normally pays its dividends every February, May, September, and November, although occasionally there are some fluctuations. Earlier this year, Costco hiked its payouts by 7.7%.

Of the three stocks listed here,Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has been hit the hardest as a result of COVID-19. With a possible recession around the corner, the bank is facing challenges -- and their impacts on its financials.

In its first-quarter results, which the North Carolina-based bank released on April 15, it increased its provision for credit losses by nearly $4 billion. That resulted in the bank's profits falling by 45% from the prior-year period, but it was still able to post a $4 billion profit.

It's a bit of a risk investing in financial stocks given that we don't know how long the pandemic will weigh down the economy or how much of an impact it will have on the big banks. But with Bank of America at a depressed share price, now could also be a great time to buy the stock as it's down more than 25% this year. Trading at just 10 times earnings, Bank of America's a cheap buy, and when combined with its dividend, it could make for a solid addition to your portfolio. States are already opening back up, and that's good news for the economy and financial stocks like Bank of America.

Currently, the stock pays a quarterly dividend of $0.18, which yields 2.9% annually. It's an above-average payout that the bank distributes in March, June, September, and December. Last July, Bank of America raised its payouts by 20%.

Here's a quick look at how the stocks have done year to date:

MRK data by YCharts.

Only Costco has outperformed the S&P 500 in 2020, but both Merck and Bank of America will likely recover as the economy gets back to normal.

Either way, all three stocks can be solid long-term investments if you can hang on to them in your portfolio for many years. And since all three have different payment schedules, you could possibly earn dividend payments in every month of the year. Costco and Bank of America overlap with their September payments, but Costco's third payment of the year has fallen in August and even July in recent years.

It's never a guarantee when a company may pay a dividend, so there's the potential for some fluctuations here and there. But for the most part, investing in these three stocks should generate recurring income that will generally come every month -- or at least pretty close to that.

With a good mix of value, growth, and dividends, these are all solid investments you can safely hold on to for the long term.

Excerpt from:
Earn Monthly Dividend Income By Investing in These 3 Stocks - Motley Fool

Investors who have bought and held U.S. stocks over the very long term have historically done very well. In fact, the S&P 500 is up 1,510% over the past 35 years.

While that return is certainly impressive,Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) investors have done even better.

Membership-only warehouse giant Costco was founded in 1983 and made the move to go public just two years later. It priced its IPO at $10 per share on Dec. 1, 1985. At the time of its IPO, the company was valued at $1.27 billion.

The original Costco location was opened in Seattle Washington in September of 1983. By the end of 1984, Costco had nine locations in five different states.

In 1993, Costco rejected a buyout offer by Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) to merge Costco with Sams Club. Later that same year, Costco merged with Price Club, and the combined company had 206 locations generating $16 billion in annual sales. Today, Costco has grown to 785 locations, including 239 international warehouses.

Costco has issued three stock splits in 1991, 1992 and 2000 at a combined ratio of six-to-one. That means Costcos adjusted IPO price based on todays structure was only about $1.67. All the stock prices mentioned below are on this split-adjusted basis.

By the end of the 20th century, Costco shares had traded as high as $98.75 as the dot-com bubble drove the entire market higher. When thebubble burst, Costco shares dropped back down to as low as $25.94 in mid-2000, their lowest point of the 21st century.

Costco finally made new all-time highs in 2012, and has continued its bullish momentum even though much of the retail sector has struggled in the e-commerce era.

In fact, Costco hit its all-time high of $325.26 earlier this year prior to the COVID-19 market crash.

Costco shares have since pulled back to around $305, but the stock has still been a home run for IPO investors.

In fact, $1,000 worth of Costco IPO stock in 1985 would be worth about $182,413 today. In addition, these Costco IPO investors would have earned $15,018 in dividends over the past 35 years and could have gotten an even higher total return had they reinvested their dividends along the way.

Looking ahead, analysts expect Costco to grind even higher in 2020. The average price target among the 26 analysts covering the stock is $329 suggesting 8.2% upside from current levels.

Photo credit: Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Here's How Much Investing $1000 In Costco's IPO Would Be Worth Today - Benzinga

Aashish Somaiyaa

For those who spend a lot of time trying to understand how the markets work, seemingly there is something ironic that played out in the last few weeks. After making a peak near 12,430 on January 20, 2020, we again saw over 12,300 around February 12, 2020, we were still over 11,300 till March 5 and then suddenly we saw a low of 7,583 on March 23, 2020. A collapse of about 40 percent from the peak in a matter of few weeks. And of course all of this attributed to the panic in global markets created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But by March 23, 2020 our lockdown hadn't even commenced and we had barely 500 cases of COVID-19 infection and negligible fatalities.

In fact after the lockdown started and COVID-19 became a serious issue in India, we have seen markets stage a very sharp rally of over 20 percent from the bottom.

Clearly, this can't be about India.

The chart presented herewith clearly shows that in 2008, irrespective of which country you were in, every market fell 50-60 percent and in 2020 irrespective of whether you are Korea or Taiwan which has some control on the virus, or you are Europe or USA which is seemingly out of control or you are India which is not as good as Korea and Taiwan but certainly not as out of control as USA and Europe, it doesn't matter; at the lowest point every market was 25-35 percent down.

Whenever such instances occur it sets us thinking are we in the right funds, are we with the right sectors and stocks, did our advisors give us the right advice? Well, fortunately or unfortunately, depends how you look at it, this is not only or not even directly about your portfolio or mine, this is not about the right sectors or stocks! So the right question is not whether we are in the right fund or portfolio or sector or stocks. Probably the right question is are we on the right planet, in the right asset class?

It's not like someone woke up one fine morning and decided, India is a bad market, let me sell India. If the global equity markets see a withdrawal of $100 billion in March and April, it's not unlikely that we in India would have $8-9 billion of withdrawal from our markets.

2. Don't sell because foreigners are selling

The message still stays avoid panic and remain invested. On the other hand, if you intend to take benefit of the current panic, do not jump in all at one go. Any top-up in equity or a rebalance of your asset allocation from debt into equity should be done systematically step by step between now and September 2020.

The author is MD & CEO at Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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Any investment in equity should be done systematically between now and September - Moneycontrol.com

It takes guts to be a value investor these days. But the top-performing investment newsletters have no shortage of courage. By value, Im referring to stocks that are out of favor, trading for relatively low ratios of price-to-earnings, book value, sales, and so forth. Values opposite is growth: Stocks in this latter category typically trade for high valuation ratios.

Im not kidding when I say that value investing takes guts. According to a recent analysis from Research Affiliates, value has lagged growth now for more than 13 years the longest stretch in recorded U.S. market history. This has led to a seemingly-endless series of pronouncements in recent years that value investing is dead.

Read: Whats happened to value stocks?

Try telling that to the top performing investment newsletters tracked by my Hulbert Financial Digest performance-auditing firm. These four stocks are tied for being the most recommended right now by those newsletters:

Walt Disney DIS, +0.47%

FedEx FDX, -0.45%

IBM IBM, +0.29%

JPMorgan Chase JPM, -2.55%

Notice the absence of any of the so-called FAANG stocks that have been leading the market in recent weeks.

All four of these stocks are instead solidly in the value category: Their average trailing 12-month PE ratio, for example, is 35% lower than the S&P 500s SPX, +0.48% . Their average price/book ratio is 26% lower, and their average price/sales ratio is 10% lower. (See chart below.) And given their status as value stocks, it is not a surprise that they have been lagging of late.

The newsletters recommending these four stocks have excellent long-term performance. I calculate that, over the last 20 years (through April 2020) they have outperformed the S&P 500 by 3.2 percentage points annualized. (These figures take dividends and transaction costs into account.)

A chance to buy good-quality stocks at a discount.

The newsletters rationales for buying these stocks are the same in all cases: Despite shorter-term disruptions because of the coronavirus pandemic, each of the four companies have excellent long-term prospects. Their current struggles give investors a chance to buy good-quality stocks at a discount.

This is, and always has been, the classic refrain of the value investor, of course. Is there reason to believe that the newsletters faith in these stocks will be rewarded, even though value has lagged for the last 13+ years? Yes, and one reason is these newsletters excellent long-term records.

Another is what was found by the Research Affiliates study mentioned above, which was authored by Rob Arnott, the firms founder; Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University; Vitali Kalesnik, a senior member of Research Affiliates investment team, and Juhani Linnainmaa, a finance professor at Dartmouth College. They subjected to statistical scrutiny all the explanations they were aware of for why value has lagged growth for so long, including:

Its beyond the scope of this column to review the statistical tests that the authors used in analyzing each of these explanations, but you should read their report if interested. They rejected those hypotheses that would imply that value is permanently dead and concluded instead that the stage is set for potentially historic outperformance of value relative to growth over the coming decade.

If so, the top-performing investment newsletters will have every right to say I told you so.

(Full disclosure: All the newsletters tracked by my performance tracking firm pay a flat fee to have their returns audited. Note that because all newsletters pay the same fee, my firm had no incentive to report that services recommending value stocks had better long-term performance than those that are recommending growth stocks.)

Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch. His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited. He can be reached at mark@hulbertratings.com

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These 4 stocks are investment pros favorites and not one is a FAANG stock - MarketWatch

Where to invest?. Where is the next good thing as the world starts to look to opportunities and new business models? Looking around the world, and perusing stock markets, there continues to be some traditional businesses failing but others thriving during the Covid-19 era.

Investors look to countries with economical and political stability when choosing to invest money and unveil new businesses. Whilst global depression, drops in GDP, bankruptcy, and a realignment of trade and supply chains swirls around us, there will be emerging opportunities too. According to London Post, CEO World Magazine and the World Trade Group, some countries are very fortified to withstand an economic crash.

They have a lot of internal growth drivers with minimal affiliation with global markets. They will be the least affected. The best countries to invest in 2020 are these fortified countries.

Their report lists four unique factors motivate an individual or a business entity to invest in a country. These are the countrys natural resources, markets, efficiency, and strategic assets.

The London Post has used this information and parameters to compile The 2020 Best Countries to Invest In ranking based on a broad list of ten equally weighted attributes: corruption index, tax environment, economical stability, entrepreneurial freedom, innovativeness, skilled labor force and technological expertise, infrastructure, investor protection, red tape, and quality of life.

Somehow, and perhaps surprisingly to people who run businesses in Thailand, the Land of Smiles has scraped into the Number 2 position. 4 of the recommended Top 10 countries are in south east Asia.

The countrys growth is amazing because in 2019, it was ranked 25 positions lower in this list. The European countrys stable economy, coupled with an entrepreneurial and innovative population, has made foreign investors very optimistic about the progressive business environment. In the first quarter of 2019, Croatia had a whooping foreign direct investment of more than $389 million.

Thailand occupies the second position on the 2020 Best Countries to Invest In ranking. The country has been able to capitalise on trade tension between the US and China. In the first nine months of 2019, the country received a 69% increase in the total value of Foreign Direct Investment applications, as compared to 2018. 65% of these applications were led by the automotive, electronics and electrical, and digital sectors. The growth of the Thai market and momentum indicators remain strong. Forbes listed the country as the 8th best-emerging market of 2020.

The UK is economically stable and has a skilled labour force and technological expertise. It is the sixth country attracting inflow of foreign direct investment. In the first 7 months of 2019, the US and Asian tech firms invested $3.7 billion in tech companies in the country, thus surpassing the $2.9 billion invested in the previous year.

Despite Brexit, the UK remains the fifth largest economy in the world and has an industrialised and competitive market.

With about 650 listed equities and a market cap exceeding $500 billion, Indonesia boasts of one of the largest Asian stock markets. The report claims the Indonesian consumer market is largely undiscovered, hence its huge potentials.

The robust economy and heavy investment in transportation and infrastructure make this country worthy of your investment. The only downside is that non-citizens are limited to only leasehold properties.

According to the UN, India was one of the top 10 countries with the highest inflow of foreign direct investment. India has been in the top 5 of the best countries to invest in since 2019.

The Asian giant has invested so much in research and development and, and she is among the top countries having a comparatively skilled workforce.

Italy is one of the top countries attracting investors in 2020. This level of economical stability, its robust manufacturing sector, and the countrys stable political environment make it a good choice for investment.

Australia boasts of more than 25 years of continued economic growth. It is the 9th country with the most direct foreign investment in 2020. Australia has been in the top 10 for ten years now.

Like Thailand, Vietnam has capitalised on the trade tension between China and the US.In recent years Chinas southern neighbour has gradually risen to become a formidable manufacturing hub. This growth became even more evident when multinational corporations like Samsung began relocating are from China into Vietnam.

Latvia boasts of macroeconomic and political stability as well as good accessibility to large markets and a very business-friendly environment, according to the report. The government encourages investors by offering them a wide variety of advantages. Investors are offered significant cost advantages, including real estate expenses, competitive tax rates, and competitive labor.

Aside from being the 10th best country to invest in 2020, Singapore is also the 10th country attracting the most foreign investments. Singapores strong economic outlook has made many investors very optimistic. The countrys world-class business-friendly environment is one major attribute attracting investors.

SOURCE: London Post

Excerpt from:
Top 10 countries for investment in Covid era World Trade Group - The Thaiger

A decade is a long time. In a world where everything is changing in a matter of weeks, talking about what could happen in the next 10-year stretch, when both the novel coronavirus and the economic lockdown meant to bring it to heel are still wreaking havoc, may seem premature.

But thinking in terms of years rather than weeks and months is key to being a successful investor. Hindsight is 20/20, of course. We can look back on the 2010s and see that mobile tech, cloud computing, and subscription business models were some of the best investment motifs. Many of those trends will continue to build momentum in the 2020s, though, and the COVID-19 pandemic has cemented them and adjacent industries into place -- increasingly less disruptors of the status quo, but rather the new status quo.

To that end, here are four investing themes that are quickly becoming well-established movements for the decade ahead.

Thanks to advances in cloud computing and communications, technology has come to the point where reaching consumers directly at home is now possible. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) proved the viability of the business model -- based on a recurring subscription and consumed via a high-speed internet connection -- as well as demonstrated the massive demand lurking among households.

Many businesses are now tapping into the movement for themselves. Some notable examples are Nike (NYSE:NKE), which has a complete direct-to-consumer ecosystem built out that is increasingly bypassing retailers completely. The sneaker king's operations span its workout app to a shoe subscription service for kids. Another is Disney (NYSE:DIS), which has taken a cue from Netflix and is off to the races with its own direct-to-consumer streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.

The ability to reach customers at home -- or wherever they happen to be -- is set to expand beyond the world of retail and entertainment, though. Healthcare is in the early stages of turning into a consumer-driven industry. Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC) has gotten a big boost from shelter-in-place orders, with quarterly virtual visits with one of its healthcare professionals accelerating 92% year over year to two million in the first quarter of 2020.

Pairing ongoing fear of the pandemic and the convenience of new communications tools, businesses across many industries that can tap into the direct-to-consumer trend should do well in the years ahead.

Image source: Getty Images.

When recession strikes, small businesses are among the hardest hit from contracting economic activity. This go around has been no different, with restaurants, gyms, and other establishments reliant on in-person interaction taking it on the chin. However, while the effects of the lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus are only just beginning to be understood, it hasn't been a total disaster for small business.

In fact, with many households stuck at home, e-commerce has surged higher -- up some 22% year over year in April alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's numbers. And with job losses mounting, many are looking for new ways to make money via their own venture based on the internet. Younger generations of shoppers have also been demanding variety for years, and the internet (and the myriad new businesses on it) has helped satisfy that desire. That has been a boon for website-building and online store management platforms Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) and Wix.com (NASDAQ:WIX), as well as craft and homemade goods marketplace Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY).

While some customers are indeed struggling under the weight of the current crisis, Shopify's overall numbers in Q1 2020 illustrate the power of small business in the digital age. Total revenue increased 47% to $470 million, and new stores built on its platform surged 62% higher during the six weeks from March 12 to April 24. Whether the elevated numbers are sustainable or not, the data shows that shopping is moving online at an even faster rate than before, and small businesses are looking for ways to adapt.

While the recession is sure to lower overall economic activity for an unknown period of time, as that activity comes back, small businesses operating in a digital format are all set to capture the lion's share of the spending.

Digital transaction stocks were huge winners in the 2010s. The world is slowly moving away from cash as the de facto method of exchanging goods and services, but many corners of the globe still rely heavily on the old way of doing business. Thus, digital transactions should continue to benefit in the next decade, especially with e-commerce continuing to gobble up market share.

However, digital transactions are more than just credit card and e-commerce enablers. They can also help businesses reach and sell to new audiences they may not otherwise have physical contact with. PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ:PYPL), which also owns peer-to-peer payments app Venmo, is demonstrating this with its most recent acquisition of Honey Science. The digital coupon and deal finder reportedly had a 180% increase in new accounts in April as social distancing took hold. Paired with PayPal's approval to accept federal stimulus payments to individuals and businesses, it's a powerful combination that is helping rewrite what it means to provide banking services.

Square (NYSE:SQ) is another non-bank provider that was approved to process federal stimulus payments. It too is stitching together all of a banking consumer's financial needs in one place with its small business services via its namesake segment and Cash App for individuals. As for Cash App, it combines a digital wallet (kind of like an online checking account) that can receive and make payments to peers and businesses, a debit card linked to the online account for physical transactions, and investing in individual stocks and cryptocurrency.

What started as a disruptive movement against cash is now tackling the banking world at large and combining it with features of digital commerce. Bringing that kind of simplicity through a single point of financial management is picking up steam during the coronavirus crisis.

Over the last decade, growth in faster telecommunications networks and cloud services helped foster an age of mobility dominated by the smartphone. The cloud should continue to be a high-growth industry in the next 10 years as well, but an explosion of data that needs to be processed closer to the source is leading to the opposite of the cloud: Edge networks.

Data processed at "the edge" of a network rather than in a centralized data center is an easy enough concept. A smartphone that computes information and makes requests via a mobile network for a user is an example of a device operating at a network edge. However, new 5G mobile networks could open the door to new use cases. For businesses, making use of AI is an example. A data center will be responsible for training an AI system, but a device needs to receive and execute those instructions. An example of this could be a manufacturing operation. AI that manages functions of the manufacturing line is trained in the cloud, delivered to the devices and robotics at the facility, and managed via an internal 5G wireless network within the factory.

Image source: NVIDIA.

Verizon (NYSE:VZ) is leading the charge in this iteration of 5G here in the U.S., but one of the most profitable ways to bet on new mobile communications tech are hardware and software providers. NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) has emerged as a leader in this department, steadilyreleasing a slew of devices and software addressing data centers and cloud computing, networking, and edge devices themselves. NVIDIA calls this the "smart everything" movement and thinks that in the next decade, there will be billions of new devices -- from cars to whole manufacturing plants -- that make use of mobile networks and have need of computing data at the network edge.

Effects from the coronavirus crisis will likely be dealt with for some time, but technology is helping bridge the gap and emerging once again as the dominant investment trend of the decade ahead. Social distancing and related practices could be a lingering aftereffect for organizations and individuals to adapt to, but the digital world is well suited to help. Thus, I think direct-to-consumer services, e-commerce for small businesses, digital payments, and new mobile networks will be high-growth areas to invest in in the decade ahead.

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4 Investing Themes for the 2020s - The Motley Fool