Salient to Investors: 20 analysts expect gold prices to fall next week, 11 to rise, 3 neutral – the highest proportion of bears since Dec. 30, 2011. Gold is below its 200-day moving average, indicating more declines may follow. Gold fell in March in 6 of the last 9 years. Hedge
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Meghan O’Sullivan at Harvard writes: Many analysts anticipate North American energy independence by 2020, while our rising energy fortunes strongly counter the now-common global narrative that the US is in decline. Europe, China, Japan and other large economies face futures of ever-growing dependence on imported energy. montaukplayhouse.org/www/ The
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Governments from Singapore to Dubai to Hong Kong are moving to cool overheated property markets and avert property bubbles. discovered Switzerland is having its biggest property boom in two decades, with prices pushed higher by the influx of 50,000 people a year. The UBS Swiss Real Estate Bubble Index remained in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds et al boosted net-long positions across 18 US futures and options last week, marking the longest stretch of gains in more than 6 months. Michael Strauss at Commonfund said economically sensitive commodities will do well in a favorable global environment for commodities. The Intl Copper Study Group and Johnson Matthey estimate the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: China surpassed the US to become the world’s biggest trading nation in 2012. Jim O’Neill at Goldman Sachs said China is becoming rapidly the most important bilateral trade partner for many countries – Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Banco de Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens said: A perfect storm may be forming as risk appetite has returned and the search for yield is in full force: concerns of asset-price bubbles fed by credit booms are starting to appear. Japan is actively pursuing a depreciating real exchange
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William C. Dudley at FRB of New York said the international economy is gradually improving in a trend that benefits US growth. Dudley said Europe is considerably brighter as political support for fixing budgets is holding up, the ECB has provided a credible backstop, and it’s very clear countries want to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: A. Gary Shilling at A. Gary Shilling & Co writes: In periods of prolonged economic pain, international cooperation gives way to an every-nation-for-itself attitude, including competitive devaluations. Decreasing the value of a currency, by creating and selling unlimited quantities, is much easier than supporting it, by selling
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Handing monetary policy to independent central bankers appears to have worked. The Cleveland Fed says markets expect US inflation over the next 10 years to stay below 1.5 percent, while the IMF expects below 2 percent in advanced economies and 6 percent in emerging markets for the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Prof Dame Sally Davies said the rise in drug resistant infections is comparable to the threat of global warming – we are not using antibiotics effectively in countries. Davies said routine infections could become lethal because we’ve run out of antibiotics: there is only one useful antibiotic
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