VPL News and Press, Vanguard FTSE Pacific From 08/04/21

Capital expenditure expectations appear to have recovered from pre-pandemic levels in most major regions and are trending upwards according to analyst estimates. For the U.S. index, the 12-month forward capital expenditures estimate is currently $885.6 billion, up 13.8% year-over-year...

A marked fall in business optimism in July hints that companies could become reticent to expand capacity while the pandemic continues to hit supply chains. Output growth continued to run behind the growth of new orders for a fifth straight month, meaning backlogs of work rose sharply ...

The Delta variant of the coronavirus is rattling markets and poses real risks, but we should not be distracted from the successful impact of vaccinations. The effectiveness of vaccinations is the reason U.S. real GDP is back to pre-crisis levels amid this still-raging pandemic. Gl...

Stocks are expensive, and people aren’t buying because they want to but rather because they feel like they have to. When people say they are panicking into “the market”, what they really mean is they are panicking out of bank deposits or other safe assets. This pa...

The inflation story in emerging markets remains highly differentiated, but the pandemic caused a sharp decline that was felt across all regions. Food inflation has been rising across major emerging markets. However, several local factors impact food inflation, and the causes of higher...

While no one can reliably predict how any given mutual fund/ETF can do a year or more in advance, I have a long record of long-term success at recommending winners. As a further test of that, I looked at the performance of my long-standing 20 fund recommendations as well as 60 newer r...

The Asia-Pacific region experienced a recession in 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Asia-Pacific GDP contracting by an estimated 1.1%. During the second half of 2020, many Asia-Pacific economies had shown a significant recovery in economic momentum. However, recovery mome...

Global PMI signalled regional divergence deepening. Delta variant driven divergence aggravates as price pressures ease. Divergence in growth performance carries key risks, including for emerging market assets. For further details see: Delta Variant Spread Poses Key Risks...

Logistical bottlenecks, caused by disruptions to ports, shipping lines and domestic transportation, have lengthened delivery times and further weighed on the supply shortage in some regions. Ports in Europe and the west coast of the U.S. remain congested. Congestion has also incre...

As the world convalesced from the pandemic, stocks advanced in the second quarter and earnings rebounded across sectors. With business gains broadening amid complex market risks, we think investors should lean on quality to find stocks that will perform well in a normalizing world eco...