Salient to Investors: Jonathan Golub at UBS recommends overweighting consumer-discretionary stocks. Golub said consumer strength will have a positive impact on a host of industries, whereas businesses remain hesitant to put cash to work. Golub is neutral on industrial and tech stocks. The consumer-discretionary index is the top performer among the S&P 500’s
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Russ Koesterich of BlackRock sees an increased risk of a correction and the best performing sector the defensives are very expensive – this is a very different rally than what people are used to. Koesterich sold smaller companies on concern the US economy is not expanding fast enough. Valentijn Van Nieuwenhuijzen at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Brad Sorensen at Charles Schwab said the economic numbers are holding up really well, and housing rebounding will continue, feeding into consumer confidence. 74 percent of S&P 500 companies so far reporting quarterly results have beat estimates. The index is at 14.8 times reported earnings versus the average
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The MSCI World Energy Index is down 9.6 percent in 2012, more than any other group, and is up 45 percent since the market bottom in 2009, less than any other industry with earnings tied to economic growth. U.S. energy stocks are at the cheapest levels relative to the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bloomberg reports 64 percent of 108 S&P 500 companies had analyst ratings lowered in the past week. Investment Company Institute say American equity mutual funds had $7.2 billion of outflows during the week ended May 23 versus $178 billion of outflows in the previous 12 months. Predictions: Blackstone Group’s Byron Wien says it’s safe to
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