Salient to Investors: Joseph Gagnon at the Peterson Institute for Intl Economics the jobs report was what proponents for QE were almost hoping for and consistent with sticking with QE for the whole year. Roberto Perli at the Intl Strategy & Investment Group said the job market has far to go before achieving the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The dollar advanced to the highest level in 3 1/2 years versus the yen on speculation an improving labor market will compel the Fed to slow stimulus even as Japan pledges to extend easing. Sean Callow at Westpac Banking said the greater the momentum in the US economy, the sooner the Fed will taper off
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Copper imports by China fell to the lowest level in 20 months. Louis Kuijs at Royal Bank of Scotland said data in the first two months of 2013 are distorted by the timing of the Chinese New Year holiday. Fang Junfeng at Shanghai Cifco Futures said the holiday is the main factor for
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Cities, counties and hospital districts in Texas raised 10 percent of their issuance using certificates of obligation which don’t need to go before voters, unlike GO bonds. The issuance faces tighter restrictions under bills in Texas, North Carolina and New York that would make it tougher to borrow without
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Stephen Schork at Schork Group said WTI climbed strongly for the first 6 weeks of 2013, then gave it all back in 2 weeks. Schork said there was no traction to the downside below $90, and $100 is too high to justify, so short-term expects near $95. Stefan Wieler
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics said businesses have shrugged off the effect of the tax increases and the spending cuts and are hiring as job growth has improved, stock prices are aT record-high, housing values are surging, and gas prices have started to decline. Gregory Hayes at United
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Robert Lutts at Cabot Money Mgmt the underlying support for the labor market is driven by housing and potentially construction finally returning. Lutts said QE and lower interest rates are finally having an impact as signalled by the stock market. Troy Logan at Warren Financial Service said employment has stabilized – key is
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Net worth for households and non-profit groups in Q4 2012 increased to the highest level since Q4 2007 on a recovery in home values – $66.1 trillion versus $67.4 trillion in Q3 2007. Paul Edelstein at IHS Global Insight said households have acquired a lot of financial
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ex-trader Chris Arnade writes: The asymmetry in pay is the engine behind many of Wall Street’s mistakes and rewards short-term gains with disregard to long-term consequences. The result is over-reliance on excessive leverage, banks loaded up with opaque financial products, and flawed trading models. Wall Street’s pay
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Prashant Jain at at HDFC Asset Mgmt sees value in India’s biggest lenders on prospects of fewer bad loans that have made them Asia’s worst-performing bank stocks in the past year. Banks account for 29 percent of his HDFC Top 200 Fund. Jain said the worst of
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