Salient to Investors: Justin Urquhart Stewart at Seven Investment Mgmt said the coming year depends a lot on the German elections, and the end to the boom in the bond markets is a matter of when rather than if. The fudging of the fiscal cliff issue means a few more crises
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Rob Haworth at US Bank Wealth Mgmt said 2012 saw much liquidating by hedge funds, but there’s an incentive to reverse that because of growth in emerging markets and especially China – it’s going to be a good year for commodities. The median economist expects China to accelerate for at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Crispin Odey at Odey Asset Mgmt said the UK lacks leadership. Odey said history doesn’t allow precise identification of inflection points, but to ignore its lessons dooms one to repeat its mistakes. Phil Irvine at PiRho Investment Consulting said the biggest risk is not to take a risk.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jay Schwister at Baird Advisors said Pimco underestimated how big the policy response would be and what type of positive impact it would have on financial markets, despite the new normal they forecast is playing out. Saumil Parikh at Pimco said policy distortions cannot continue indefinitely, so 2013
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Joseph Tanious at JPMorgan Funds said the jobs report shows the labor market is healing very slowly, so not so good that the Fed might pull out of QE. Deutsche Bank said supply chain movements suggest iPhone and iPad production may be declining. Mohamed El-Erian at Pimco said 7.8 percent unemployment shows
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Obama and Congress are heading for an even bigger confrontation over raising the nation’s debt limit, yet US Treasury bond investors aren’t alarmed. Matthew Duch at Calvert Investments says the market is much more concerned about growth than if the US will be able to pay its bills. Zach
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jane Coffey at Royal London Asset Mgmt said we are not yet over fiscal cliff problems, but expects equities to produce good returns in 2013 and valuations aren’t stretched. Moody’s said the budget agreement won’t reduce the deficit enough to avoid a US downgrade, and the ratio of government debt to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Winners in the Fiscal Cliff deal: Rich people because raising the threshold for higher taxes from $250,000 to $450,000 because taxes are assessed on marginal income. Red State Democrats because they duck partisan controversy, which is right where they want to be. The unemployed people. Doctors because
READ MORE... →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: The US nursing home industry overbills Medicare $1.5 billion a year for treatments patients don’t need or never receive. 30 percent of claims sampled from for-profit homes were deemed improper versus 12 percent from non-profits. At least 6 government and academic studies in the last 3 years
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