Grading the 2019 US Stock Market

Affiliate marketing professional Carmine Fusco promotes financial products by email and SMS through his affiliate marketing company, CLM Global Enterprises, LLC. As an entrepreneur with a background in accounting and finance, Carmine Fusco follows the performance of the US stock market.

Here are some of the important numbers about this year’s stock market performance:

The year looked good for investors since all classes of assets - stocks, corporate bonds, government debt, and commodities - finished the year in green. Oil is up 28.7 percent, and so are the S&P 500 (25.3), treasuries (16.2), corporate bonds (13.7), and gold (13.6).

Many stock investors were winners since a close look at the performance of the S&P 500 reveals that only 64 companies (12 percent) were in the red this year, while all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 end the year with positive returns.

The tech sector had the biggest gains at 41.5 percent. Communication services (28.1), industrials (28.0), financials (25.8), real estate (23.7), and consumer discretionary (22.9) posted double-digit gains.

Ways to Invest in Emerging Markets in Africa

African Patterns
Photo by Eva Blue on Unsplash

Carmine Fusco is head of CLM Global Enterprises, LLC, an investment company focused on global emerging markets. As head of this company, Carmine Fusco assists clients with finding opportunities for investing in emerging markets (in addition to other financial services). As markets in Asia mature, investors are looking toward emerging markets in African countries. There are challenges to investing in the various markets in Africa (including political instability and regime change), but investors do have options.

To begin with, the continent is split into three categories, by region. Northern Africa’s resources are comprised of oil assets, and the continent’s mining industry makes up much of South Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is comprised of lesser developed economies, and is inaccessible to many investors.

Those who are not knowledgeable about investing in the continent or who are risk wary can still invest in two ways. For the novice investor, investing in African emerging markets can be done either through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds. Both funds have built-in diversification and are more cost-effective than building a portfolio through the American Depositary Receipts (ADR) or trading on foreign stock exchanges.