Salient to Investors: The value of equities globally is at a record $66 trillion versus $25 trillion in March 2009 and $63 trillion at the 2007 peak. The US stock rally is approaching the dot-com bubble in terms of speed, but not in valuations – at 16.8x estimated earnings versus 26x at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mary Daly and Bart Hobijn at FRB San Francisco said during and after the 2007 recession employers left wages higher than they normally would be after a severe downturn so may not now have to offer increases to attract workers as the job market improves. They said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Thomas Simons at Jefferies said new-home sales have no traction whatsoever but overall housing data is encouraging, with everything moving in the right direction, though a little more slowly. New-home sales are tabulated when contracts are signed, and so are a more timely barometer than transactions on existing homes.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: ISIS is the most significant terrorist organization we have ever faced, becoming what al Qaeda always wanted to be – ISIS is developing a very large, deep and sophisticated base with the ability to sell oil and wheat at a bargain. Mao Tse Tung
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The majority of top-ranked women in S&P 500 companies are not in the operational jobs that lead to CEO – 55% are finance, legal or HR chiefs. 94% of S&P 500 CEOs held top operations positions immediately before appointment. Women lack role models and tend to start
READ MORE... →Martin van Vliet at ING said geopolitical tensions will become increasingly critical in the coming months, the big drop in China is consistent with a slowdown in growth, and the recovery in the euro area is too slow to turnaround the global market. Christian Schulz at Berenberg Bank said geopolitical uncertainties, especially Ukraine, threaten to undermine the export-led
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: JD Power said the average term of a light-vehicle loan in Canada is 69 months versus the peak of 72 months in Q3 2013. Canadians continue to buy big-ticket items and ignore warnings about unsustainable debt growth. Regina Malina at Equifax Canada sees little evidence Canadians are struggling to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Joseph Stiglitz at Columbia said: Euro-area austerity policies have been a dismal failure as growth grinds to a halt. Monetary policy cannot substitute for fiscal union – construction of a European banking union is too slow. Mutualization of euro-area debt – rejected by Germany and others – would
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Living costs in China are deterring couples from having more than one child as less than 3 percent of the 11 million couples applied for permission by the end of May. The UN said China’s fertility rate of 1.66 versus the 2.1 needed to sustain population levels
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: There are 4.7 million job openings in the US, the most in more than a decade versus 9.7 million people looking for work. Annual wage increases, around 2%, would be rising much faster if there were a shortage of qualified workers. Peter Cappelli at Wharton School says: The
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