Salient to Investors: International regulators are concerned that record sales of high-yield payment-in-kind bonds will cause losses for investors when central banks tighten monetary policy. PIK bond sales more than doubled in 2013 from 2012. BIS said 30 percent of issuers before the 2008 financial crisis have since defaulted. BIS
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show the extra yield investors demand to own corporates instead of similar-maturity Treasuries has narrowed 31 basis points this year to 200 basis points, the lowest since October 2007. ICI data shows fund managers favoring corporate debt over government-backed securities
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: Payroll growth in November signals at least a 50 percent chance the Fed will taper in December as it clearly wants out, but must be careful given the tepid growth of 2 percent. The median analyst predicts the Fed will taper to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Luby at Luby Asset Mgmt said people are back to pricing in no big surprises until the beginning of 2014. The median economist expects the Fed to wait until March to taper. Eric Augustyn at Wells Fargo Private Bank said tapering will be very gradual and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Paul Montaquila at Bank of the West said the jobs number was expected but not a blockbuster number, and the steady diet of better numbers are not enough to give the market the clarity they want. Sean Simko at SEI Investments said the market was pricing in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Individuals pulled $52 billion from muni-funds in the first 11 months of 2013, the most since at least 1992 when data began – outflows through year-end would extend the worst losses in the muni market since 2008. Jamie Pagliocco at Fidelity Investments and Chris Alwine at Vanguard
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: The unprecedented cash added to the financial system by central banks is raising the risk of a slide in global asset prices. Global economies and their artificially priced markets are increasingly at risk, but the unwinding may occur gradually.” The Fed, BoJ,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Resistance to hiring will help push S&P 500 Index profit margins above 10 percent next year, the highest ever. The 5-year rally has restored $14 trillion to share prices, yet US payrolls remain 1.5 million below the level in 2008. Michael Holland at Holland & Co said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill O’Neill at UBS Wealth Mgmt said the story is still the combination of easy money policies and expectations of growth into 2014 and that growth is on the horizon. The Investment Companies Institute reports individual investors gave $30 billion to managers in 2013, the first net
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim Rogers said: Fed policy is incompetent and the Federal Reserve should be eliminated. The world has survived just fine without central banks for most of its history, America has had 3 central banks – the first two disappeared – and this one will self-destruct because it
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