Salient to Investors: Banks are offering jumbo mortgages – too big for government programs – at rates at or below taxpayer-backed loans, while the extra cost of 30-yr fixed jumbo loans averaged a 6-year low of 0.16 percent in June. Paul Miller at FBR Capital Markets said bigger loans are becoming relatively cheaper
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicate that California is losing ground in the number of business establishments – 5.2 percent fewer at the end of 2012 than in the previous year or 73,000 fewer versus second-place Massachusetts which lost 5,200 businesses. Nebraska added businesses at 11.9 percent, the fastest rate.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim Rogers says international investors prefer open, exciting and dynamics places. Malaysia has opened up and is one of the most attractive, with huge reserves, abundant natural resources. Read the full article at http://www.jimrogers.info/2013_07_01_archive.html Click here to receive free and immediate email alerts of the latest forecasts.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Lawrence Bowdish at American Military University says 66 percent of students borrow to attend college, and 31 percent of Americans age 25 or older hold bachelor’s degrees versus 5 percent in 1950. Bowdish said the supply of university slots has increased, but not enough to meet demand. Read the full
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Evan Soltas writes: The delay until 2015 of the enforcement of the employer mandate to provide insurance to employees may create stress on the implementation of the individual insurance exchanges and the individual coverage mandate. Employers should not sponsor insurance as it masks the true cost of care
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Michael Hsu at Ipsos says the share of Canadian households with debts greater than or equal to 250 percent of gross income reached a record 13.5 percent in 2012 then dropped to 11.4 percent in Q1 2013, though most of the debt is going into real estate
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Economists at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and UBS expect unemployment to fall to 7 percent in Q4 2013. Drew Matus at UBS Securities said the drop will pose more communication problems for the Fed, again of its own making. Matus said bond-market volatility will increase even
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The share of yet-to-be-built dwellings was 36 percent in May versus 26 percent a year ago and versus 14 percent in September 2008. Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research said there is clearly more housing starts activity in the pipeline, while the economic outlook is improving and there
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Chinese landlords are forgoing rent and paying to outfit stores for mass-market fashion brands to blunt the impact of a boom in shopping-mall construction that threatens to push up vacancies. Big mall operators can withstand the slowdown at the expense of smaller ones as smaller cities add retail space
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Brian Jacobsen at Wells Fargo Advantage Funds maintains an overweight rating on tech stocks because their gains show a “hand off” is starting, as investors move into industries that could outperform benchmarks later in the economic expansion. Jacobsen says higher interest rates historically bode well for tech stocks,
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