Salient to Investors: Carl Icahn said: BlackRock have fueled a bubble in the high-yield debt market through the sale of ETFs filled with risky bonds, akin to the banks selling billions of dollars of faulty subprime mortgage bonds in 2007. The ETFs offer the appearance of liquidity and make the high-yield bond
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The median Wall Street forecast predicts the 10-yr T-yield to rise to 3.01% by the end of 2015, the 2-yr to rise more than double to 1.53%, and the 30-yr to rise to 3.70%. Wall Street calls for higher T-yields in 2015 are the most aggressive since 2009,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Peter Hayes at Blackrock said nobody really expects rates to rally significantly from here and everybody is waiting for a pullback. Hayes said the muni market is overpriced and said sell into strength and wait for better opportunities. Munis have rallied in each of the first 9 months
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Andrew Swan at BlackRock said: Blackrock has an overweight position in Korea stocks as a lot of negativity is already priced in and the market is so cheap. The South Korean equity market could be in the early stages of bottoming. A recovery in domestic demand may help
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Stephen Antczak et al at Citigroup said: Each of the 5 times since 1980 that the Fed started raising its benchmark rate, the extra yield on corporate bonds over government debt narrowed in the following 6 months as accelerating growth boosted optimism. Spreads will tighten this time also,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Owen Murfin at BlackRock said: Bond investors have been too hasty to bet the ECB will buy sovereign debt The ECB’s target of increasing its balance sheet by $1.29 trillion is ambitious and the poor take-up of new cheap loans offered to banks is no guarantee of QE –
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: BlackRock said: The corporate bond market is broken and needs improved liquidity. Corporations should be encouraged to issue debt with more standardized terms. The dangers of price gaps and scant liquidity have been masked in a benign, low interest-rate environment. New rules prompted Wall Street bond dealers
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Calpers’ exit from hedge fund investing underscored that there is no magic bullet to dealing with mounting pension fund costs. Chris Mier at Loop Capital Markets said the problem cannot be fixed very rapidly. Wilshire Consulting said that in 2013, state pension plans had 75% of what they
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Russ Koesterich at BlackRock said volatility is very low because monetary conditions are easy but when investors see the US and UK central banks tighten then we will get a long-awaited rise to normal levels, but not to those of 2008 with the VIX at 90. Pimco expects a new
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Sam Vecht at BlackRock says Russian stocks are very cheap, carry a high dividend yield, and earnings downgrades are absent. BlackRock’s Emerging Europe Trust was 50 percent invested in Russian stocks at the end of May. JPMorgan upgraded Russian stocks in June, The Micex is at 5.6
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