Salient to Investors: Bond investors are lowering their outlook for inflation in developing markets to a 9-month low. Alessandro Bee at Bank Sarasin sees moderate growth compared to recent years, which should keep inflation in check and create a really nice environment for local bond markets. Bank of America said investors see
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Richmond Fed researchers estimate that at the end of 2011, 57 percent of financial sector liabilities benefited from perceived government support, versus 45 percent over a decade ago. FRB of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said: The financial system was weakened further in 2007 and 2008 by an ambiguous rescue
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The MSCI World Index dividend yield of 2.7 percent compares with the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Corporate Index bond yield of 2.6 percent and the Barclays Global High-Yield Index yield of 6.1 percent -the gap with the junk-bond index is the narrowest since at least 1995. Jacob de Tusch-Lec at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Global investment banks based in Europe and the US are losing market share in emerging economies to smaller domestic competitors. Freeman & Co. said the share of fees for US and Western European banks in Latin America, the Middle East, China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe fell
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The median analyst expects gold to advance to $1,825 by the end of 2013. Russia is the world’s largest oil producer and gold buyer. The IMF said Russia added 570 metric tons of gold over the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China. Tim Ash at Standard Bank
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: JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley upped Q4 GDP estimates to show a gain. The US trade deficit in December narrowed to the lowest since January 2010 and lower than 73 economist estimates on record petroleum exports. The US met 84 percent of its own energy needs in the first
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein says: Significant reaching-for-yield behavior in corporate credits are early signs of potentially excessive risk-taking, while not posing a threat to financial stability. A decline in the quality of debt through greater subordination or less use of protective covenants also signal reaching for yield. It
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mark Freeman at Westwood Holdings said we’ve moved so far so fast that the market is just looking to take something off the table, and needs a positive catalyst to take it higher. Jeff Sica at SICA Wealth Mgmt said there’s concern that Europe will implode and the contagion effect
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