Global Strategist Jacek Dzierwa has just returned from another research trip to Latin America where he visited Peru, Chile and Brazil. Travel is important for our tacit knowledge because many of the world’s best opportunities aren’t discovered behind a Bloomberg terminal or an earnings report. We venture to visit as many companies as possible before investing in them.

This was Jacek’s first trip to Peru and the country “surprised to the upside.” Another beneficiary of higher commodity prices, Peru has seen a massive improvement in its standard of living in recent years.

The poverty level has declined from a staggering 55 percent in 2001 to 35 percent this year and is expected to fall to 25 percent by 2015. However, there is still much progress to be made. Roughly 71 percent of Peru’s population works in an informal economy,

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In the last few days there have been quite a few commentaries posted that explore the downside to ETFs. Obviously I have been a big proponent for the wrapper for the access they provide and the democratization of certain strategies. Additionally I have tried to point out various drawbacks as I have seen them, noting that no investment product is perfect and no product can be the best single way to access every part of the market. I have also been clear about how I use ETFs for clients while noting that I use more individual stocks than ETFs.We are all starting to learn more about their drawbacks and learning about what appears to be new drawbacks as well. One of the big complaints from investors in the last couple of years has been about correlations seeming to go up, some have even quantified this and for ...

A nice piece in the New York Times on the strength in some of the Latin American economies.  While we focus on Brazil here, we've also discussed Chile in the past; actually a fascinating article about how different the Chile financial leaders were than their American counterparts - saving for a rainy day is actually part of the vernacular. [May 28, 2009: WSJ - Prudent Chile Thrives Amid Downturn] Peru is more of an issue since the ETF ...

June 3 (Bloomberg) — Peru’s first Exchange Traded Fund will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange by the “middle of June,” said the chief executive officer of Global X Management Company LLC, a New York-based asset manager.

“The stock market has risen a lot, investors are bullish, and that’s helping us,” Bruno del Ama, the New York-based CEO of Global X, said in a phone interview. “We’re giving access to the Peruvian market and in the future people can go short in Peru, which is an option that doesn’t exist today.”

Global X and Barclays Plc have been competing to introduce the first Peruvian ETF, aiming to lure global investors to the world’s best performing stock market this year. The funds issue a number of shares and trade throughout the day like stocks. Most are designed to passively

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Investors spent the holiday-shortened Christmas week in an un-merry mood, digesting more gloomy economic data and taking stock of a tumultuous 2008.

With the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Index down by 35.8% and 40.6% respectively for the year to date, many investors would be anxious to wave the old year goodbye. But changing the calendar digits from ’08 to ’09 will regrettably not make an iota’s difference to the perilous nature of the investment environment facing investors as we usher in the New Year.

Come January 1, investors will not only be hung over from 2008’s market rout (and possibly the previous night’s exuberance), but also still be battling with the implications of the credit crisis for the global economy and financial markets,

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Peruvian miner Buenaventura (Compania De Minas Buenaventura S.A.A.) (NYSE: BVN), with a market cap of USD 3.96 billion, is Peru’s largest publicly traded precious metals company. While there are certainly a lot of Gold bulls screaming “Inflation” at the moment, it could in fact be the mining stocks rather than the commodity per se that are in for a positive adjustment heading into 2009. As one commentator on Seeking Alpha noted yesterday: The XAU/Gold ratio is a measure of index of leading gold mining companies (XAU – Philly Gold and Silver Sector Index) relative to gold price. Over the past 25 years, the XAU/Gold ratio has been 0.25. That means the XAU index would be about ¼ the price of an ounce of gold. On Monday (Dec. 8), the XAU closed at 94 while gold closed at $760 an ounce. This makes the XAU/Gold ...

In June, GDP expanded by 11.5%y/y, in line with consensus. This represented an acceleration from the 7.3%y/y seen in May. All sectors presented recovery on the y/y basis with special highlight to commerce (up from 9.6%y/y to 18.9%y/y) and agricultural (up from 3.6%y/y to 10.8%y/y). Peruvian GDP seems to have expanded by something like a seasonally adjusted 1.9% month on month pushing the 3 months average up from -0.2%m/m to +0.8%m/m. In Q2, it looks like GDP rose 1.1% q/q, down from the 2.1% q/q seen in Q1 and the 2.9 q/q in Q4 2007. Accumulated over the last 12months, GDP grew around 9.8% y/y in Q2, up from the 9.1% in Q1 and still above trend GDP of 8.2% y/y.The 3month average of the unemployment rate ending in July rose from 7.9% to 8.1%. Such dynamics do not reflect seasonal patterns that usually show a drop ...

In June, GDP expanded by 11.5%y/y, in line with consensus. This represented an acceleration from the 7.3%y/y seen in May. All sectors presented recovery on the y/y basis with special highlight to commerce (up from 9.6%y/y to 18.9%y/y) and agricultural (up from 3.6%y/y to 10.8%y/y). Peruvian GDP seems to have expanded by something like a seasonally adjusted 1.9% month on month pushing the 3 months average up from -0.2%m/m to +0.8%m/m. In Q2, it looks like GDP rose 1.1% q/q, down from the 2.1% q/q seen in Q1 and the 2.9 q/q in Q4 2007. Accumulated over the last 12months, GDP grew around 9.8% y/y in Q2, up from the 9.1% in Q1 and still above trend GDP of 8.2% y/y.The 3month average of the unemployment rate ending in July rose from 7.9% to 8.1%. Such dynamics do not reflect seasonal patterns that usually show a drop ...

Peru's foreign-currency debt rating was raised to within one level of investment grade by Moody's Investors Service yestreday as the Peruvian government steadily pays down foreign debt. Moody's increased Peru's credit rating to Ba1 from Ba2, bringing it into line with Brazil, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. The outlook for the rating is stable, the New York-based company said in a statement. Earlier this year, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's raised Peru to BBB-, the lowest level of investment grade. Moody's also cited the reduction in the share of dollar- denominated loans and deposits in Peru's banking system. For the first time in more than two decades, dollar deposits account for less than half of all the deposits in the country, Moody's said. President Alan Garcia has taken advantage of a jump in revenue from metals exports, surging economic growth and the strongest exchange ...

Peru's foreign-currency debt rating was raised to within one level of investment grade by Moody's Investors Service yestreday as the Peruvian government steadily pays down foreign debt. Moody's increased Peru's credit rating to Ba1 from Ba2, bringing it into line with Brazil, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. The outlook for the rating is stable, the New York-based company said in a statement. Earlier this year, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's raised Peru to BBB-, the lowest level of investment grade. Moody's also cited the reduction in the share of dollar- denominated loans and deposits in Peru's banking system. For the first time in more than two decades, dollar deposits account for less than half of all the deposits in the country, Moody's said. President Alan Garcia has taken advantage of a jump in revenue from metals exports, surging economic growth and the strongest exchange ...