Salient to Investors: For the first time in 13 years, the real, ruble and rupee are weakening the most among developing-nation currencies, while the yuan has depreciated more than in any other period since its 1994 devaluation. Investors are fleeing the BRICs, after Brazil’s consumer default rate rose to the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Qu Hongbin at HSBC said policy easing has been insufficient to stabilize growth. Chinese home values fell in a record 54 of 70 cities in May. New Zealand grew at fastest pace in five years last quarter, almost three times the median estimate in a Bloomberg News poll. Predictions: Credit Suisse cut its 2012 growth estimate for
READ MORE... →Predictions: Esther Law at Societe Generale said the Fed did the bare minimum extending operation twist, which will be perceived as short-term negative for risky assets, including global emerging markets. Law said China’s manufacturing sector, especially small and medium-sized factories, continued to slip. JPMorgan raised Indian equities to overweight from neutral. Read the
READ MORE... →Carl Pope says: Abundant, cheap fossil-fuel energy – that created the modern consumer economies of the U.S., Europe, Russia, Australia and Japan – is not viable in the 21st century due to cost. Coal is geologically more abundant than oil, but cheap coal, close to population centers, is not. Powder
READ MORE... →Predictions: Templeton’s Mark Mobius sees emerging-market stocks in a sweet spot as Chinese economic growth remains buoyant and valuations plunge from historical averages, and is increasing holdings in China, Russia, Turkey, Thailand and Africa. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-19/most-emerging-stocks-decline-on-europe-debt-crisis-oci-rallies.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Rubber shortages to turn into a flood as China, the biggest consumer, grows at the slowest pace in three years. This quarter’s 22 percent decline is the worst since the global financial crisis in 2008 and exceeds a 16 percent retreat in commodities. China accounts for 33
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mexican wages after inflation have risen at an annual pace of 0.4 percent since 2005, lower than Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay. A third of Mexicans work in the informal economy without steady income. Cheap labor has helped Mexico pass China as a low-cost supplier of manufacturing goods to the U.S.,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: A prolonged slowdown in the BRICs threatens a world economy in its weakest spell since the end of the 2009 recession, which the BRICs helped shorten by contributing about half of the international expansion since 2007. Citigroup’s surprise index, which measures how much data miss predictions, is
READ MORE... →Decline of shadow banking together with government moves to rein in a national property bubble are crippling small business. Seven out of 10 businesses in the Wenzhou rely on exports, in labor-intensive industries, leaving it vulnerable to Europe’s crisis. Property in Wenzhou remains out of reach for thousands even after home prices slumped 12.3
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: China’s consumer prices rose the least in two years in May and industrial output and retail sales trailed estimates. Industrial production growth was below 10 percent for a second month in May, the first time in three years. Retail sales rose the least in almost six years, excluding January and
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