Salient to Investors: Copper futures ended the longest slump in 14 years, on prospects for increased Chinese demand. Wang Zhongkui at Beijing Antaike Information Development said total Chinese demand may gain an average 6 percent a year from 2011 to 2015. Tobias Merath at Credit Suisse said there is a supply deficit, and Chinese
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: German unemployment rose twice as much as economists forecast in October and the jobless rate increased for the first time in three years. Business confidence has dropped to a 2 1/2 year low. Christian Schulz at Berenberg Bank said today’s report is another sign of economic weakness even
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The saving rate dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest since November, indicates bigger gains in employment are required to sustain spending. Stephen Stanley at Pierpont Securities said housing seems to have turned, but the drop in the saving rate indicates the gain in spending is not fully sustainable. Mark Vitner at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mark Dowding at BlueBay Asset Mgmt said investors should sell government bonds from the euro-region’s periphery, including Spain and Italy, because of a complacency on the part of policy makers, complacency in Spain, and no progress in sight. Dowding sees rising political risk in Italy. Read thef ull article at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Europe is missing out on the natural gas boom in the US and Asia, and instead burning coal imported from America. The IEA predicts global gas consumption to rise 19 percent by 2017 from 2010 on demand surges in Asia and the US – Europe will drop 1.6 percent. In Europe,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Chris Rupkey at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said the consumer is alive and well despite fiscal cliff, and a recession is unlikely Watch the full video at http://www.bloomberg.com/video/chris-rupkey-says-u-s-consumer-is-alive-and-well-AZ_SeediTwqTssfgWXYElA.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Lenders say leveraged loan volumes in Asia may drop in 2013 as Europe’s debt crisis and China’s slowdown limits mergers and acquisitions while private equity firms avoid selling businesses at discounted prices. Lyndon Hsu at HSBC said banks in the region have plenty of money to deploy and there’s a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Legatum Prosperity Index attempts to broaden economic health beyond indicators such as GDP. The latest index shows: The US slid from the top 10 for the first time – to 12th position Norway, Denmark and Sweden were declared the most prosperous The standing of the US economy has
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: IMF growth projections have been revised downward almost everywhere, especially in Europe and the big emerging markets like China. The IMF projects the US to the strongest of the rich economies over the next four years – 3 percent versus 1.2 percent in Germany and France and 2.3 percent in Canada. The
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ding Shuang at Citigroup said China’s fiscal policy will be neutral in Q4 as spending won’t be higher than a year earlier – policy effects from previous months will ensure a modest recovery, but the rebound is restrained. Professor Song Guoqing at Peking University said the fiscal money left for spending
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