JOF News and Press, Japan Smaller Capitalization Fund Inc From 06/18/21

IHS Markit's PMI business surveys showed the economic recovery gaining momentum in May as output growth accelerated to the fastest for 15 years. Although growth of new orders accelerated globally in May to reach the highest since 2006, employment growth slowed marginally compared to A...

Last year's pandemic crisis U-trip took just 128 days - significantly less than the long-term average, despite a once-in-a-generation healthcare crisis. While the recovery speed has varied, the global economy is clearly on the mend. We believe that the next phase of the reopening/...

Relative valuation discounts typically reflect higher volatility, slower earnings growth and/or less predictable earnings. If you go back a decade, the average dividend yield of U.S. small-cap value stocks was higher than that of Japanese small caps. Japanese small caps may deserv...

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway made a surprising investment in five Japanese general trading firms, known as "sogo shosha." Japanese equities have had a strong stretch of performance since the end of August. Japan's recent challenges on the virus front have created opportunit...

With greater clarity on the sustainability of the economic recovery, we also saw the opportunity set across markets broaden to include sectors beyond those seen as the primary beneficiaries of an economic reopening. As expected, the recovery hasn't been smooth sailing for all, with su...

In the week ahead, the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve meet. The US and the eurozone provide the first estimates of Q1 '21 GDP, and the preliminary April EMU CPI will be reported. The market is skeptical that the economic conditions will allow the Fed to wait until 2024 to lift ...

The pace of recovery has begun to diverge across economies, with vaccination progress and the scale of government stimulus among the biggest swing factors. Macro disparities have also begun filtering into EPS growth expectations. Cyclically sensitive sectors have dominated the upg...

The Bank of Japan has implemented strict yield curve control in the 2-10-year area of the JGB curve since 2016, in an attempt to prevent financial conditions from tightening and to boost Japanese inflation to 2%. Other government yield curves, where central banks have not targeted any...

Global PMI highest since August 2014. Manufacturing reports robust expansion despite supply delays, services boosted by easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Consumer services show signs of steadying after steep downturn. US leads upturn, Brazil lags. For further details see:...

Surge in Chinese exports drives noticeable rise in global exports over first two months of 2021. Statistical noise makes annual comparisons challenging but data add to view that global economy continues to recover. Pick-up in trade has exacerbated logistical difficulties, especial...