Salient to Investors: Most analysts say OPEC needs to conform better with the limit to keep supply from overwhelming demand. Societe Generale says the necessary reduction could be substantial. The Centre for Global Energy Studies says prices may tumble without output curbs. OPEC accounts for 40 percent of global oil supply. Seth
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria writes: Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal says Americans are about to repeat the lessons of the 1930s, when isolationism led to Hitler and WWII. Yet America spends more on defense than the next 10 great powers put together. Obama’s worldview is rooted in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: The data is increasingly convincing that the Keynesians have been right, cutting spending in the kind of recession we have gone through will only hurt growth not help it. But spending on its own is not enough. For sustained growth in the long-term, countries
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said it is premature for the Fed to reduce monetary stimulus despite little evidence it has helped the economy, which is not back to normal. Stiglitz said the stimulus may have contributed to asset price bubbles and to a weaker dollar. Zhu Min at the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 12 analysts expect gold prices to rise next week, 9 fall and 8 neutral, the highest proportion of bulls since April 26. Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach at Degussa Goldhandel said gold purchases outpaced sales by 9 to 1 versus 4 to 1 in Q1. Daniel Briesemann at Commerzbank said gold should
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Akamai Technologies said China accounted for 41 percent of the world’s computer-attack traffic in Q4 2012 – more than 3 times a year ago and versus 33 percent in Q3 2012 – followed by the US with 10 percent. Verizon said China accounted for 96 percent of all global espionage
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Kevin Cummins at UBS Securities said we are moving in the right direction, and the data is consistent with an improvement in the labor market and income. The median selling price increased 14.9 percent in April from a year ago to a record $271,600, reflecting increases in sales of homes
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John Williams at FRB of San Francisco said: Any move to reduce the pace of the Fed’s bond buying could be followed by an increase should the economy weaken again – this is uncharted territory. The Fed could begin slowing its purchases as early as this summer and end the program late
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Barry Knapp at Barclays predicts the Fed will maintain its current rate of asset purchases into 2014, as the labor market is again the Fed’s focus. Knapp said an improving labor market rather than accelerating inflation made the Fed end its last 3 easings – May 1983, February 1994, Feb-to-August, 2004. In
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Zillow says: 22 million homeowners lack enough home equity to move, keeping property listings tight and limiting sales as the housing market recovers. Values have to climb further to ease the shortage. Over 13 million homeowners were underwater in Q1, or 25.4 percent of those with a mortgage.
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