Salient to Investors: James Paulsen at Wells Capital Mgmt said people are finally deciding that this looks more like a sustainable recovery. 75 percent of 341 S&P 500 companies so far reporting have beaten estimates, 67 percent have beaten sales estimates. The S&P 500 P/E is at 15 versus the average of 16.6
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Research finds that, among US-based fund managers, a Brazilian-born manager who speaks fluent Portuguese and is familiar with the country’s business culture had better results when investing in Brazilian companies than a German-born manager. Quoc Nguyen at University of Illinois found: US funds that overweight stocks from the local ethnic
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: Wilshire Associates said: Big government-employee pensions reported median returns of 13.43 percent in 2012 versus 12.47 percent for funds with over under$1 billion in assets. State and local pensions with under $1 billion of assets had a median allocation of 10.6 percent in international stocks and zero
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Stocks in the least-developed markets are producing annual returns at least 7 percent higher than mutual fund managers around the world. Carlos von Hardenberg at Franklin Templeton Investments said their companies are overlooked and under-owned. Sam Vecht at BlackRock Frontiers Investment Trust is much more positive on frontier countries
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Robert Lutts at Cabot Money Mgmt said the economy will be driven by capital being put to work: the glass is definitely more half full than empty. 73 percent of the 254 S&P 500 companies so far reporting have beaten estimates, and 65 percent have beaten sales estimates. Read the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Denise Shull at The ReThink Group writes: When the market or stock is very near all-time highs, psychology plays a bigger role than normal. Research shows that those who think of the market as a poker game are better at predicting price action. The ‘who is in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bloomberg says two-thirds of company takeovers exceeding $20 billion since 1996 generated losses for the acquirer’s shareholders – the 78 buyers lagged behind the MSCI World Index by a median of 13 percent in the 3 years after completion, falling 21 percent. Warren Buffett says acquirers typically
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gina Martin Adams at Wells Fargo said disappointing economic reports are dragging down US stocks and bode ill for the future direction of stock prices. The Citigroup US Economic Surprise Index dropped below zero last week for the first time since September. 75 percent of 193 S&P 500 companies
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jay Wong at Payden & Rygel said continued earnings beats is helping drive the market, which has a lot of momentum. The Index of consumer confidence was the weakest since November 2011 and lower than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey. 75 percent of the 179 S&P
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