Salient to Investors: Joseph Lupton at JPMorgan Chase is not expecting a boom in Europe, but sees a momentum shift in markets and the world economy, citing a change in perception from no way out of the crisis to seeing growth. Lupton says the euro area is 1/5 of global GDP. Lupton said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 50% of surveyed economists say non-performing local-government and corporate debt will significantly impact China’s credit and economic growth, and expect China to deal with bad loans at local governments in the next 18 months by expanding the muni-bond market and letting localities refinance with direct bond sales. JPMorgan
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds et al increased their net-long position in gold futures and options for the 4th consecutive week and the longest streak since October, while more than doubling bets on lower corn prices to a record net-short holding. Jeffrey Currie et al at Goldman Sachs said gold will decline
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Vincent Reinhart at Morgan Stanley said investors are the little white lab rabbits in the central bank experiments. Gilles Moec at Deutsche Bank said the potential for the dialog between the central banks and the market to fail is significant. Nathan Sheets et al at Citigroup said the UK
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Demand for physical precious metals is increasing among Asia’s wealthy even as silver leads declines this year. Investors in silver are mostly private individuals, investors in gold are mostly institutions. 50 percent of silver is used in industry, versus 10 percent for gold. Cap Gemini and Royal Bank of Canada
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The New York Times reported that every time an American opens a can of soda, beer or juice they pay a fraction of a penny more because of a maneuver by Goldman Sachs and other financial players that ultimately costs consumers billions of dollars. The allegation is that investment banks
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jeffrey Currie et al at Goldman Sachs said: They cut their 12-month commodity return forecast for the S&P GSCI Enhanced Commodity Index to 0.1 percent, maintained a neutral recommendation on raw materials, while precious metals and agricultural commodities may drop 8 percent and base metals will gain 6 percent.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The median estimates of 10 importers, jewelers, analysts and trade groups expects gold imports to drop 22 percent in half2 2013. Goldman Sachs predicts gold will reach $1,050 by end of 2014, and Credit Suisse predicts $1,150 in a year. Rajesh Mehta at Rajesh Exports said demand will
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: After a decade as rock stars, hedge fund managers seem to be fading just as quickly as musicians do. Generating “alpha” is slipping further out of reach. Goldman Sachs said in May that hedge fund performance lagged the S&P 500 index by 10 percent this year, while
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Louis Kuijs at RBS said the liquidity crunch has increased downside risks and estimates China will reduce aggregate credit by 1.8 trillion yuan in 2013, but as long as policy makers cushion the impact through fiscal and exchange-rate measures, the damage to the economy could be quite modest. Kuijs
READ MORE... →