BKF News and Press, iShares MSCI BRIC Index Fund From 11/09/21

IHS Markit's PMI surveys track input costs at manufacturing and service sector companies around the world, as well as the average prices charged for these goods and services. The Global PMI's selling price index hit an all-time high of 60.3 with record highs seen for both goods and se...

The interesting thing is that, depending on how you define “global stock market capitalization”, the US stock market is not nearly as big as we think. If we use the actual full market capitalization the US stock market is just 41% of global equities. But if we use the in...

The major US equity indices moved in concert, but the big disappointment so far this year has been small caps. Energy is clearly where the action is this year. After spending years at the bottom of the tables, Natural Gas, Gasoline, and Crude Oil now lead the pack. For furth...

Low Vol has been in the doldrums for most of the equity rally from the pandemic lows of March 2020, as would be expected based on its historical return patterns. Well-established academic research has found that stocks with lower volatility (or beta) tend to generate higher risk-adjus...

Consensus remains cautiously positive on the economic and market outlook for the coming year, but for the first time in 18 months, we have started trimming risk in our views, advocating building dry powder to take advantage of opportunities that arise due to potential short-term market vo...

Investors have shifted focus from the immediate COVID-19 threat to the prospect of a cyclical slowdown and secular stagflation. Investors may also need to process a longer-term adjustment, because of the lasting impact of COVID-19’s shocks to both supply and demand. Markets...

The economic healing from the effect of Covid continues. The economic recovery in emerging markets (EM) countries remained strong throughout September 2021. One frustrating aspect of new regulation in China is the method by which changes to industry rules happen. So far this year,...

As public debt rises to record levels, countries need to calibrate fiscal policies to their own unique circumstances. With the pandemic, global debt in 2020 jumped by 14 percent to a record high $226 trillion. This figure includes both public and nonfinancial private sector debt. ...

Market sentiment has deteriorated since earlier this year amid still elevated financial vulnerabilities and mounting concerns about risks to inflation. Amid the prolonged and painful pandemic, risks to global financial stability have remained contained - so far. To an unprecedente...

The global recovery continues but momentum has weakened, hobbled by the pandemic. Compared to our July forecast, the global growth projection for 2021 has been revised down marginally to 5.9 percent and is unchanged for 2022 at 4.9 percent. The dangerous divergence in economic pro...