Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is the world's largest dedicated chip foundry, with about 70% market share in 2025. TSMC was founded in 1987 as a joint venture of Philips, the government of Taiwan, and private investors. It went public in Taiwan in 1994 and as an ADR in the US in 1997. TSMC's scale and high-quality technology allow the firm to generate solid operating margins, even in the highly competitive foundry business. Furthermore, the shift to the fabless business model has created tailwinds for TSMC. The foundry leader has an illustrious base of customers, including Apple, AMD, and Nvidia, that look to apply its cutting-edge process technologies to their semiconductor designs. TSMC employs more than 83,000 people.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Global economic growth is expected to dip in 2026 due to the Middle East conflict, but then pick up slightly in 2027, according to the latest World Economic Outlook from the International Monetary Fund. By the numbers, the world economy is expected to expand at a 3.1% rate in 2026, down from the 3.4% rate in 2025 and from the prior, pre-war forecast for 3.3% growth. For 2027, global growth is forecast at 3.2%. How does this compare to historical rates? Current rates are lower than the long-term historical global growth rate of 3.8%, due to the impact in recent years of tariffs and trade wars, onshoring, inflation, and higher interest rates. But that's not to say that there aren't growth opportunities for investors around the world. For advanced economies, growth is forecast at 1.8% in 2026. This forecast has been steady in recent months, as tariffs have not had the expected bite. Among the advanced regions, the U.S. economy is expected to grow the fastest this year, at a 2.3% rate, while Europe's forecast is for 1.1% growth and Japan is estimated at 0.7%. For emerging economies, forecasts call for 3.9% growth in 2026. The clear leaders are expected to be India and China, with average growth for the next two years of 6.5% and 4.2%, respectively. These nations have different drivers: population growth in India, which points toward commodity and industrial-based infrastructure-related products; and productivity growth in China, which suggests spending on healthcare, technology, and financial services as GDP/capita grows. Recent financial market activity reflects the bullish outlook for emerging market economic growth. The Emerging Market Index ETF EEM is up more than 50% over the past year, outpacing the S&P 500 for one of the few times in the past decade.

U.S. stocks are trading near record highs - but despite the strong performance, they are being bested by global emerging stocks. A leading industrialized global stock market index, the ETF EAFE (EFA), is up 6% year to date, while the leading emerging market ETF (EEM) has gained 17%. The S&P 500 is no slacker, up 6% year to date, but still below the global emerging stocks. With continued worries over the state of the U.S. economy and some talk of stagflation, global stocks, and especially those that pay dividends, are an option for investors. The lagging U.S. markets represent a change from the recent record. Over the past five years, the S&P 500 has advanced 70% compared to a 28% gain in EAFE and a 14% gain in EEM. But the underperformance has given global stocks a valuation advantage, particularly in the area of dividends. Consider that the EAFE dividend yield of 3.35% is roughly 225 basis points higher than the comparable S&P 500 dividend yield. We think global dividend stocks continue to offer opportunity. In our view, investing in international income stocks is one way to increase portfolio diversification while reducing sensitivity to volatile U.S interest rates. That said, investing in overseas stocks carries its own set of risks, including the impact of currency exchange and geopolitical turmoil. But there are also a number of positives in this asset class for U.S. investors, including a wide selection of companies that pay dividends, robust industry diversification, and, as we have mentioned, higher yields and lower valuations. We used the sort function in the Argus screening tool using these criteria: stocks must carry and Argus BUY rating, trading just below their 52-week high, and with a dividend yield. The following is the resultant list and offers diversity in sectors and countries.