Salient to Investors: Bill O’Neill at Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt said: He owns gold for diversification and catastrophe insurance, and expects prices to rise above $2,000 in 2013. Prospects for industrial metals are dim due to a lack of clarity on demand from China, their inventory levels. Global growth will improve slightly next year to 3.2
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index indicates the share of households projecting the economy will improve rose to 37 percent in November, the highest since March 2002. Index manager Gary Langer at Langer Research Associates said the gain is largely political, occurring very disproportionately among Democrats – gains need to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Pawel Swieboda at the Demos Europa Center for European Strategy writes: Prospects for survival of the euro area are looking up – logic dictates there will emerge a banking union, a new federal budget, and a joint commissioner to reconcile national budgets. The UK has started disassociating itself from the rest of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jason Rogan at Guggenheim Partners said we are being driven by Europe, where people are showing initiative. Tom Tucci at CIBC World Markets said it’s a short-lived sell-off because of austerity – they will continue to have weak economic growth. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-21/treasuries-fluctuate-as-jobless-claims-decline-match-forecast.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Martin Feldstein at Harvard said: The US economy would still be perilously close to a recession in 2013 even if we don’t go over the fiscal cliff. The end of payroll tax cuts will reduce GDP by 1 percent, and other tax increases and spending cuts may bring over 2
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Chinese wind-turbine makers have broken into the South American market, the world’s fastest-growing, by offering government-backed loans at interest rates as much as 50 percent lower than local offerings. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-20/china-grabs-share-in-latin-america-wind-with-cheap-loans.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said concentrations in the atmosphere of the three main gases blamed for global warming all rose in 2011 to their highest since records began. The additional carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere for centuries, causing further warming and impacting all aspects of life on Earth
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jan Techau at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said Moody’s downgrade increases pressure on France big-time and gives Germany more of an edge over France. French debt remains close to the record low reached Aug. 3, showing investors don’t share German concerns. The spread between French and German government
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The World Bank said the world risks cataclysmic changes caused by extreme heatwaves, rising seas and depleted food stocks as it heads toward global warming of 4 degrees Celsius this century. Current national pledges to reduce greenhouse gases won’t do much to change the current trajectory of temperatures.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Rightmove said London asking prices in London’s 9 most expensive districts increased 3.4 percent in November versus a fall of 2.6 percent nationally. Miles Shipside at Rightmove said the prime central London property market continues to attract wealthy foreign buyers, especially the City of Westminster, where a Mayfair or Belgravia address is a
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