Salient to Investors: JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley upped Q4 GDP estimates to show a gain. The US trade deficit in December narrowed to the lowest since January 2010 and lower than 73 economist estimates on record petroleum exports. The US met 84 percent of its own energy needs in the first
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein says: Significant reaching-for-yield behavior in corporate credits are early signs of potentially excessive risk-taking, while not posing a threat to financial stability. A decline in the quality of debt through greater subordination or less use of protective covenants also signal reaching for yield. It
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mark Freeman at Westwood Holdings said we’ve moved so far so fast that the market is just looking to take something off the table, and needs a positive catalyst to take it higher. Jeff Sica at SICA Wealth Mgmt said there’s concern that Europe will implode and the contagion effect
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim Rogers Says: The Age of Wall Street – which drove 25% of the US economy – is over. Tomorrow’s economy will be driven by food, energy, real goods, people who make real things. In 1958 we produced 500 MBAs, we now produce 200,000 every year. More
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Banco de Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens said: A perfect storm may be forming as risk appetite has returned and the search for yield is in full force: concerns of asset-price bubbles fed by credit booms are starting to appear. Japan is actively pursuing a depreciating real exchange
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: US interest-rate swap levels at their highest in 4 months relative to T-yields suggests investors are seeking refuge in government bonds. Ali Jalai at Scotiabank said it is definitely not time to short Treasuries because thinking that the Fed is going to tighten is just silly because
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Climbing home prices are lifting household wealth and boosting the purchasing power of consumers. Declining mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures are giving banks greater leeway to lend. Rising property-tax revenue is alleviating pressure on state and local governments to cut budgets. Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics said the housing
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: JPMorgan Chase Private Bank put individuals and families with more than $5 million into a partnership that bought over 5,000 single family homes to rent in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California. David Lyon at JPMorgan said investors can expect returns of up to 8 percent annually from rental income as well
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The MSCI World Index rose 5 percent in January, the most since 1994, on individual investor inflows, US profits, interest rates at record lows, and improving growth from Europe to China. The Index rose 6.4 percent at the start of 1994, and GDP increased 7.7 percent that year, and rose
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Derivatives traders are signaling little chance of a bear market in bonds for the next three years, because the Fed continues to flood the financial system with money to boost the economy. William O’Donnell at RBS Securities said the focus of the Fed is still unemployment, which it sees as not
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