Salient to Investors: Barry Norris at Argonaut Capital Partners said: Buy European stocks with the highest potential for earnings growth over those with the cheapest valuations. The big liquidity rush that has made everyone enthusiastic won’t last the year – equities will rally because they are the least-worst option among asset classes. ECB
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: North American energy companies are investing more in railroad terminals than the railroads themselves because swelling output has overwhelmed pipelines. Domestic crude at least 20 percent cheaper than imports. Rail is more expensive than pipelines but reaches into metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and Philadelphia, where new pipes are
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Citigroup said small companies will be a missing element of the current US expansion as their role in driving growth continues to wane. After peaking at 55 percent in 1987, firms with under 500 employees accounted for less than 50 percent of the total workforce for the
READ MORE... →Ben Stein says: The US is borrowing 40 cents for every dollar it spends, a terrible situation. The government has been living beyond its means for years, is spending too much money and heading for default – a real doomsday scenario. The US will have a $20 trillion deficit within 36
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Sydney is the most unaffordable housing market in the English-speaking world. Demographia report Australian homes cost 6.7 times the gross annual median household income in Q3 2011 versus 3.1 times in the US and 5 times in the UK. Apartment ownership is rising as more are being buyers priced out of the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Morgan Stanley said leverage among equity managers climbed to the highest level to start any year since at least 2004. Margin debt at NYSE firms rose in November to the highest since February 2008. James Dunigan at PNC Wealth Mgmt said leverage is increasing among hedge-funds. Gross leverage at hedge
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds et al trimmed net-long positions to the lowest since June 19, and gold holdings fell to the lowest since August. The S&P GSCI index of 24 raw materials has climbed for 5 consecutive weeks. Quincy Krosby at Prudential Financial said data out of China and the US shows we are
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Charles Plosser at FRB of Philadelphia said: The latest stimulus steps do little to boost growth and the record stimulus risks a surge in inflation, and may not speed up the economy but actually prolong it. Low interest rates reduce returns for savers and do little to encourage businesses to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Australian study finds China’s one-child policy has produced adults that with personality traits unsuited for starting businesses or managing companies. Those born after the 1979 one-child policy were more pessimistic, nervous, less conscientious, less competitive, more risk averse, and 23 percent less prone to choose an occupation with
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dr. Aaron Carroll at Indiana University School of Medicine writes: The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council study shows Americans have shorter lives and poorer health, despite spending more on health care than any of the 16 other rich countries in the study. Americans eat too
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