Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: Investment is not being incentivized by QE. Lower interest rates are being used to consume as opposed to invest, and the money created and freed up is elevating asset prices, but corporations are not investing in future production. Asset and currency prices ultimately rest on economic growth, so
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Rising supply from Brazil potentially hurts demand for US beans. Rabobank Intl said Brazil will displace the US as the largest soybean grower this year and may extend that lead as planting is expanded to meet increased demand from China, the biggest buyer. Jasper van Schaik at Rabobank said Brazil’s share of China’s imports
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: An estimated 12 percent of US residents moved in the year ended March 2012, up from a 63-year low of 11.6 percent the prior year. About 1.7 percent moved from one state to another, the most in five years. A lack of migration the past few years
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Professor Frederic Mishkin at Columbia Business School said the Fed has helped save the world. William Dudley at FRB of New York said: The force with which Bernanke has attacked joblessness has distinguished him, and his legacy is in being very creative and aggressive in an adverse economic environment. It’s OK
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mohamed El-Erian at Pimco said: Superstorm Sandy won’t reduce GDP as there is likely to be catch-up activity. There is a 60 – 70 percent probability of a mini bargain over the fiscal cliff – with contraction of 1.5 percent of GDP, which is manageable.” There is a 60 – 70 percent probability that Greece will quit the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The saving rate dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest since November, indicates bigger gains in employment are required to sustain spending. Stephen Stanley at Pierpont Securities said housing seems to have turned, but the drop in the saving rate indicates the gain in spending is not fully sustainable. Mark Vitner at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Europe is missing out on the natural gas boom in the US and Asia, and instead burning coal imported from America. The IEA predicts global gas consumption to rise 19 percent by 2017 from 2010 on demand surges in Asia and the US – Europe will drop 1.6 percent. In Europe,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Chris Rupkey at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said the consumer is alive and well despite fiscal cliff, and a recession is unlikely Watch the full video at http://www.bloomberg.com/video/chris-rupkey-says-u-s-consumer-is-alive-and-well-AZ_SeediTwqTssfgWXYElA.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Legatum Prosperity Index attempts to broaden economic health beyond indicators such as GDP. The latest index shows: The US slid from the top 10 for the first time – to 12th position Norway, Denmark and Sweden were declared the most prosperous The standing of the US economy has
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: IMF growth projections have been revised downward almost everywhere, especially in Europe and the big emerging markets like China. The IMF projects the US to the strongest of the rich economies over the next four years – 3 percent versus 1.2 percent in Germany and France and 2.3 percent in Canada. The
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