The largest asset manager in the world is BlackRock with $7.43 trillion dollars under administration. The fastest rising funds are ETFs and in the 4th quarter of 2019, the company brought in $128.84 billion in new money, most of it went to ETFs. In an article by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed of Reuters, Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said, BlackRock was winning more of our client’s share of the wallet.

BlackRock’s iShares branded ETFs took in $75.2 billion of new money up from $41.5 billion in the prior quarter talking the new inflow for the year of $183 billion.

The 4th quarter net income increase to $1.3 billion or $8.29 a share, up from $927 million or $5.78 a share a year earlier.

In the annual letter, Larry Fink forecast a fundamental reshaping of finance and said companies must act or face anger from investors over how unsustainable business practices may curb their future wealth. Relative to Mr. Fink’s concerns is the three biggest ETFs or Index Funds may have a great deal of say or not, in regards to the shares they vote during annual meetings.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one of the reasons you invest is to increase you wealth or assets under administration. It is worth noting how the public has some investments in Index funds. They play a significant role in investing, it is hope your portfolio also includes index funds.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

For a wide number of reasons, females have been traditionally paid less than males, but as we are in the information economy when it is your brains that makes the difference, companies are slowly beginning to adjust the on going problem. In an article by C Nivedita and Imani Moise of Reuters, Citigroup said its female staff make on average 27% less than males when factors such as title and location are taken into account.

Citigroup is the only bank which discloses its global metrics and as opposed to a new law in England which all companies have to disclose to English authorities.

Citigroup is looking to have at least 40% of its female staff with roles of assistant vp to managing director by the end of 2021.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, companies earning profits do some very good things in the marketplace where the public uses their products and services. The same companies do not often lead on the human scale, unless they are forced to. Presidents can stay all employees are important, but are they paid as they are? There is no easy answer expect for it you expect the “best” talent then changes need to be made, to keep the “best” talent.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you think about Governments around the world, when they need to raise money, they often turn to Goldman Sachs, because they do a very good job. If you raise money for governments, large institutions are not far behind and how the company is doing is a measure how corporate America is doing.

In an article by Anirban Sen and Elizabeth Dilts Marshall of Reuters, Goldman reported for the quarter but expenses were up so profit expectations were missed. In 2017, Goldman said it wanted to increase its revenue by $5 billion every year. Most people know if you want to increase revenues, often expenses increase but not necessary profitability. Goldman has spent more on compensation, technology, occupancy costs and professional fees and its operating expenses went up 42% or for every dollar of revenue it produced in 2019, the company spent 68 cents, up from 64 cents the previous year. This management of Goldman is going to cut expenses.

3 out of 4 Goldman’s business units reported better quarterly results. Global markets which houses the trading businesses was up $3.5 billion in revenue or up 33%.

Investment banking was down 6% or $2.1 billion. Private banking was up. In 2018 Goldman made $2.3 billion or $6.04 a share, in 2019 the corresponding numbers were $1.7 billion or $4.69 a share. Analysts were expecting $5.47 a share.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, for a company similar to Goldman the only concern is how much profit they will make, not will they make a profit. All markets are competitive, but each company will have its market reach to ensure they make a profit. If the company is consistently making profits, as a investor all you have to decide is are they meeting your expectations. If the company is coming to do well and easily paying its dividend, then you can hold on your shares as you do your research if you were to sell what would be the better alternative? Nothing, do nothing.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you live in the northeast or almost anywhere this year, you might wonder about the cost of heating your home? or will gas prices go up?

In an article by John Kemp of Reuters, the expectations by those in the oil and gas industry is the price of oil to be in the range of $65 to $70 a barrel.

Every year, Reuters conducts a survey of energy professionals. The survey went to 9.000 people and 950 responded between January 8 and 11. The people were from oil and gas industry directly, banking, energy consultants, hedge funds and physical commodity trading.

Fewer than 5% thought the price would average more than $100 and 16% thought the price would less than $50.

Since November of 2017, Brent prices have closed between $60 and $75 a barrel on 74% of all trading days.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if the survey is reasonably accurate despite many concerns in the world, the price of crude should be about what it is today. That means it is easier to plan and there will be fewer adjustments in your daily life. It is not that great if you were loading up on energy companies, for you would want the survey to go higher. Companies can still make profits with the consistent energy prices.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Whenever you hear the banks are going to report their quarterly earnings, the first number you should pay attention is loan losses. Did the number go up or down? Banks are in the business of loaning money, are they getting repaid? If the answer is yes, then the profits should be healthy. If no, then the economy is in trouble.

In an article by Anirban Sen, Elizabeth Dilts Marshall and Imani Moise of Reuters, the banks announced they are hopeful they can generate growth this year. There are many issues on the front pages, but the banks have not experienced major disruptions to their core businesses.

JP Morgan Chase reached new profit levels; Citigroup had 16 consecutive quarters of loan and deposit growth and Wells Fargo is adding new depositors.

JP Morgan Chase generated $36.4 billion in profit. All but one business units, revenue grew. Thanks to the new China-US trade deal, JP Morgan opened more than 70 branches in new markets and China.

Citigroup which once was a consumer powerhouse, but now concentrates on institutional clients business expand its reach. Citigroup is reaching consumers through its digital banking.

Wells Fargo which has a new CEO is still cutting costs, but revenue was in line with expectations as well as loans and deposits increased.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, it is hard not to own the large banks because they generate profits, it is always how much? The main aspect to investing in banks is credit quality or loan loss provisions, you want the bank to be both aggressive in getting business but those businesses pay their bills. If the credit quality stays high and the folks who are in charge keep a tight reign in house then the bank is worth holding on to.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

The best performing stocks in 2019 was the technology focused and includes names such as Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Visa and Mastercard. If you are investing, it is hard not to own some or all of them. According to Saqib Iqbal Ahmed of Reuters just 4 stocks – Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon generated more than 20% of the S&P 500’s total return according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The dilemma is the stocks have done well, if you own Index funds you own the companies. Most mutual funds have one or more in their holdings. They are hard not to own, what do you do, besides hope the stocks continue to go up. There are plenty of reasons why they could and there are plenty of concerns they may not. The S&P 500 information technology sector trades at a 12 month forward price earnings ratio of 21.53 versus the rest of the S&P 500 of 18.26.

Kevin Dennean technology analyst at UBS Global Wealth Management gradually reduced exposure to the technology sector but it has gone against us. Valuations only became richer.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, some of the technology stocks pay dividends and if you buy them for their dividends and long term capital gains, then it does not matter as much, if the shares did not continue to rise at 20% a year. The writer owns a couple of the list and some of them have doubled and more which is great. At the moment selling is not on the table, but dividends are and long term growth are on the table. The stocks will rise and fall as they may however if they continue to rise it would be welcomed.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

All large organizations after they achieved their size feel there home towns do not always share the greater glories the company is bringing to their home town. A story about the large employer becoming more involved in municipal politics is not unusual, many large companies consider their payroll part of the benefits of being in the hometown, and want their taxes on their buildings to be as low as possible. The issue to the hometown is if you shrink one pot, who will will make it up? how do you not have all the possible conveniences for all citizens of the hometown?

In Seattle, Amazon has grown and occupies a great deal of office space in the Seattle as well as other space for their other projects. In an article by Gregory Scruggs of Reuters Amazon has donated $1.5 million to pro-business candidates as they are legally allowed to do. The City Council decided to restrict political contributions by saying any company that has over a 5% foreign ownership can not contribute. Amazon shares have 9% foreign ownership. The primary reason why Amazon has contributed more money to political financing is whether housing is a right or not a right. Similar to many cities across the US, Seattle has a housing crisis where people can not afford rent. Part of the problem is the where the minimum wage is, part of the problem is a whole host of other reasons. Seattle has proposed those that are doing very well, should pay more. The average engineer in the Amazon office space makes at least $100,000. The city of Seattle is looking to help the support workers.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are many inequities which need to be dealt with by government and collecting taxes is one method in which they do it. Anyone making money suggests they are willing to pay a fair share, but there share is always less. There is no perfect answer to the problems of inequities, the issue will continue to raise its head in the political space. As investors, one hopes the companies can still continue and make profits to pay dividends and everyone can work on solutions.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Within the world of investing are hedge funds and they are here to stay, although many funds did not beat the indexes, which cost less to invest in. The hedge funds selling premise is they will beat the indexes with their ability to leverage their trading strategies. Sometimes it works wonderfully, sometimes not so well.

One of the higher profile managers is William Ackman who runs Pershing Square Capital Management. In an article by Svea Herbst-Bayliss of Reuters, Mr. Ackman told his investors in 2018 he was going to spend greater amount of time on research.

Last year, the fund returned a 58.1% return making it the best hedge fund return according to Hedge Fund Research. In 2015 and 2016, he had losses, in 2017 and 2018 he had smaller losses and in 2019 he was worth the investment. Currently he has $7.4 billion under administration.

The biggest gains came from Chipotle Mexican Grill which under a new CEO was up 72%. Other stocks such as Starbucks was up 40% and ADP was up as changes to the company were made.

When hedge funds bet the index, investors are happier to pay the fees, but if they do less than the index, why not buy the index?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, trying to invest in profitable stocks which pay dividends should not be the highest return, but the risk level is among the lowest levels. In 2019, the companies and index were up about 20%, with low risk that seems to me, that is good and worth trying again in 2020 and beyond.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When you think about the big cities of the world, you may not think about one of their biggest assets – pension funds. Most governments still have defined benefit plans, while the private sector has moved to more individual plans which are less expensive to administer. The other aspect is defined pension funds pay a “defined” amount of money to the pensioner irrespective of how the funds make money; if the fund does not do well, in this case the government has to come up with the money (taxes); if the fund does well, everyone is happy.

In an article by Rachel Savage of Reuters, the Mayors of London, UK and New York have decided the pension funds under their administration will no longer invest in fossil fuel investments. The number one reason is climate change.

The pension funds of New York City had $189 billion in assets under administration was to take 5 years beginning in 2018 to divest of its investments.

The City of London had already reduced its holdings from 1% in May of 2016 to 0.2% in September, 2019. The London Pension Fund Authority had $8.5 billion in assets under administration.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the fossil fuels grouping are some of the well known dividend paying companies. The issue is do you want to do something from the outside or from the inside? Fossil fuels are going to be part of our economy for a number of years in the future, and the companies are some of the most profitable companies to own. It is possible to follow the lead of the Mayors of New York and London, for their are utilities which earn a good dividend in clean energy.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.