Provided by Dow Jones
By Jason Zweig Stocks are near record highs, but they re finally getting cheaper to buy. No longer do investors need to buy a minimum of 100 shares at a time or even one full share, often at prohibitive cost. Fractional-share trading enables you to purchase a sliver of a share with as little as $1, putting a stake in single stocks within anyone s reach. As with any technology, whether that s good or bad depends on how you use it. After a decadelong bull market, buying the average stock has never required more capital. Seven companies in the S&P 500 have share prices above $1,000, including Google s parent Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., AutoZone Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. s Class A stock costs more than $330,000 per share.
Results and Dividends
As shareholders will be well aware, this has been an extraordinary six months, as the world battled the pandemic spread of the COVID-19 virus. After initially imposing draconian restrictions on movement, governments are gradually relaxing social-distancing measures and, supported by unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus, a global economic recovery appears to be underway. Asian markets were surprisingly positive against such a challenging backdrop, with the benchmark MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific ex Japan Index rising by 18.1% in total return terms over the half year to 31 October 2020. In comparison, the Company s net asset value ( NAV ) total return was 21.4%, pleasingly ahead of the benchmark, a testament to the quality and resilience of the portfolio s holdings.