Salient to Investors: The MSCI All-Country World Index of equities increased 16.9 percent in 2012 including dividends, versus 0.1 percent for the S&P GSCI Total Return Index of 24 commodities, 0.5 percent for the US Dollar Index, and 5.73 percent for the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Broad Market Index. James Dunigan at PNC Wealth
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds et al reduced net-long positions across 18 US futures and options last week to the lowest since June 19. Gold holdings reached a 4-month low, copper holding dropped for the first time in five weeks, and investors were the most bearish on natural gas since May. Walter Hellwig at BB&T
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Billionaire hedge fund managers have been heavily buying gold. John Paulson has been accumulating gold and gold mining stocks at a fevered pace. George Soros, Louis Moore Bacon, Julian Robertson et al have been buying gold, mining equities and ETPs. Bill Gross at Pimco has urged investors to buy precious metals. George
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John Stephenson at First Asset Investment Mgmt said the Fed basically admitted that they don’t have what it takes to deal with the fiscal cliff, and it dimmed the idea that unlimited money printing will help commodities. Saumil Parikh at Pimco said global growth will slow to near stall speed in 2013
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors said the S&P lowered outlook for the UK’s credit-rating will have little impact. Stuart Thomson at Ignis Asset Mgmt doesn’t see the downgrade as significant for gilts – a move from AAA to AA+ has lost its impact, if it ever had any, and the impact on default is virtually
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Saumil Parikh at Pimco said: Global growth will slow to 1.3 percent to 1.8 percent from 2 percent in 2012 as the private sector isn’t healthy enough to step in and extend credit amid deleveraging. The average economist expects growth of 2.5 percent in 2013. Central banks are effective
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Stephen King at HSBC said inflation is not the central banks’ highest priority, and as long as people believe they are committed over the longer term to price stability, there is leeway to play for other objectives. HSBC said the MSCI All Country World Index will return 9 percent in 2013 on aggressive
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mayra Rodriguez Valladares at MRV Associates said being big and global isn’t what it used to be, and sees global banks jettisoning divisions abroad and at home. UBS, Citigroup and RBS are reversing decades of global expansion. Charles Dallara at the Institute of International Finance said globalization of financial markets said reversing decades of going
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jeffrey Gundlach at DoubleLine Capital says: The first phase of the coming debacle was the 27-year buildup of corporate, personal and sovereign debt to 2008. The third phase will be deeply indebted countries and companies defaulting sometime after 2013. Buy gemstones, art and commercial real estate and other hard assets. Chinese
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Chris Rupkey at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said the economy is growing moderately, and the disappointing pace of consumer spending is less worrisome as other sectors of the economy are doing better, like housing. The median economist expects consumer spending to be at a 1.9 percent pace in Q3, and GDP to
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