It’s Friday, which means it’s time for our weekly recap of three interesting articles we’ve read throughout the week. This week features an article about investing in Europe, a Quarterly Market Overview and an article about young doctors dealing with student loan debt.

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Favoring Euro Stocks in a Global Restart – Blackrock

Wait a second. Did they say Euro stocks may be in favor? Call me skeptical, but you are reading the perspective of a guy who has been scarred by international investments over the last decade. It is prudent to include international stocks as part of a diversified portfolio; however, it has been painful to maintain that discipline. The S&P 500 had such a strong run over the past 11 years and the international side of the diversified portfolios was not even close to keeping up. It is quite frustrating as a steward of people’s capital to see that part of the portfolio underperform for an extended period of time when you know you’re doing the right thing for the people who have trusted you to manage their money. Blackrock makes some good points though. You can’t argue that Europe appears to be lightyears ahead of us as it relates to the virus. Maybe it is their time to gain some ground on us. Time will tell.

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Quarterly Market Overview – First Trust

This article makes some interesting points about the dollar as it relates to commodity prices on the first page. The chart is a powerful one in that it highlights the correlation between commodities and the dollar. The dollar weakened from 2000-2014 and commodity prices benefited from it. The dollar strengthened from 2014 through the first half of this year and commodity prices decreased. The dollar has weakened in recent weeks and many are calling for that to continue. If it does, that could be good news for the gold bugs and those that have not given up on oil.

The second half of the article deals with growth vs. value. It wasn’t nearly as interesting as the first half to me. Maybe because I’m sick of hearing the growth vs. value discussion. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, give it a read. He concludes at the end that value stocks should come back when there is a clear path to ending the virus.

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The Budget Breakdown of Young Doctors with High Student Debt – CNBC

This article was interesting to me because I can relate to it from what I see with different clients and friends. Everybody thinks that becoming a doctor or a lawyer is a lottery ticket. The fact of the matter is that they struggle in the beginning with high debt relative to their income. They basically graduate with a mortgage on an intangible property. Eventually, they do well, but they have to carefully budget. This article has some great points for a young doctor or lawyer who may be in that position as the referenced couple does a nice job of budgeting what they have.

Last week, we received some feedback that people were not able to see all of the articles so we are limiting the weekly post to non-subscription articles going forward. As much as we would like to share our logins, I’m sure the providers wouldn’t be too happy with us. Enjoy your weekend!

Disclosures