Gold Sales From Soros Reveal 12-Year Bull Run Decay: Commodities – Bloomberg 03-12-13

Salient to Investors: Investors sold $5.4 billion of gold ETFs in February, the most since their creation in 2003. Credit Suisse and Barclays say the 12-year gold rally will peak in 2013. Credit Suisse said gold is significantly overvalued and unlikely to return to its September 2011 record of $1,921.15.

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Flowers Joins Ross Rivaling U.K. Banks for Home Loans – Bloomberg 03-08-13

Salient to Investors: US buyout firms are playing an increasingly larger role in the U.K. housing market.  US private-equity investors Wilbur Ross and J. Christopher Flowers are lining up to finance British homebuyers as the country’s biggest banks pull back. The Council of Mortgage Lenders says RBS, Lloyds Banking, Barclays, HSBC and Santander U.K.

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Hedge Funds Boost Stock Bets to ’07 High, Goldman Says – Bloomberg 02-21-13

Salient to Investors: Amanda Sneider and David Kostin at Goldman Sachs said: Net long exposure to stocks in hedge funds rose to 52 percent in Q4 2012, matching the 10-year high reached in Q1 2007. AIG became the most-held position, Apple fell to third place. Hedge funds notably reduced holdings of Apple and gold

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Buyout-Boom Shakeout Seen Leaving One in Four to Starve Bloomberg 02-11-13

Salient to Investors: 4,500 private equity firms manage $3 trillion in assets. Preqin said as many as 708 firms face deadlines through 2015 to replenish their funds for future deals to avoid reduced fee income when the investment periods on older funds run out, typically after 5 years. Preqin said many venture capital

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JPMorgan Joins Rental Rush For Wealthy Clients: Mortgages – Bloomberg 02-04-13

Salient to Investors: JPMorgan Chase Private Bank put individuals and families with more than $5 million into a partnership that bought over 5,000 single family homes to rent in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California. David Lyon at JPMorgan said investors can expect returns of up to 8 percent annually from rental income as well

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‘Mega’ Public Pensions Beat Small Funds in 2012: Wilshire – Bloomberg 02-03-13

Salient to Investors: Wilshire Associates said: Big government-employee pensions reported median returns of 13.43 percent in 2012 versus 12.47 percent for funds with over under$1 billion in assets. State and local pensions with under $1 billion of assets had a median allocation of 10.6 percent in international stocks and zero

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Endowment Returns Fail to Keep Pace with College Spending – Bloomberg 01-31-13

Salient to Investors: Commonfund and the NACUBO said US university endowments lost on average 0.3 percent in the year ended June 30 after gaining 19.2 percent a year earlier. Over a third of the schools reported receiving less in donations than a year earlier. Harvard’s endowment fell 4.1 percent, Yale’s less than 1

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