Salient to Investors: Roger Loh of SingaporeManagementUniversity and René Stulz of Ohio State found that analysts’ upgrades and downgrades from 1993 to 2011 had a greater probability of influencing a stock when market conditions are bad. Read the full article at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-16/analyst-calls-matter-under-these-market-conditions#r=lr-sr Click here to receive free and immediate email alerts of the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Wall Street strategists are the most cautious in almost a decade. The average of 20 estimates predicts the S&P 500 will rise 5.8 percent in 2014 versus the average projection of 11 percent over the last 5 years. The mean estimate is 1,955. 116 S&P stocks are
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Doug Short writes: US stock indexes are significantly overvalued, a serious concern in a more normal market environment of business cycle, Fed policy, interest rates and inflation. CAPE is at 24.9 and the year-over-year inflation rate is 1.18%. The inflation range that has supported the highest CAPE
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Doug Short writes: The S&P 500 is at 18.7 times reported earnings versus the average since the 1870s of 15. In times of critical importance, the conventional P/E ratio often lags the index to the point of being useless as a value indicator because earning can fall
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bloomberg and Birinyi Associates data show stock buybacks have increased each of the last 4 years and were 6.4 percent of daily trading in the Russell 3000 Index by value through September, exceeding 2007’s level of 4.1 percent and reflect a seven-year decline in equity volume. Birinyi
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gary Shilling at A. Gary Shilling writes: The Fed usually starts raising the federal funds rate before economic expansions are very old but this time will wait until the wave of de-leveraging, and the related slow growth, has ended. De-leveraging after major financial crises usually takes a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gary Shilling writes: In May, when the Fed first started talking about tapering, 10-yr yields jumped to 2.72 percent in early July from 1.64 percent on May 1 and 30-yr yields to 3.68 percent from 2.83 percent. Most investors hate Treasuries because they believe that serious inflation
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Barry Ritholtz says that since 1897: Double-digit gains occurred in 75% of the positive years and single-digit gains occurred 25% of the positive years. 20 percent or greater gains occurred in 29 percent of the years. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-05/bull-or-bubble-ritholtz-chart-.html Click here to receive free and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds returned 7.1 percent in 2013 through November versus the 29.1 percent return of the S&P 500 Index, with reinvested dividends, and are headed for their worst annual performance relative to US stocks since at least 2005 and underperforming for the fifth year in a row.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Robert Gorman at TD Wealth said: The 3-yr period of sharp underperformance for Canada is coming to a close Dividend stocks will continue to rule but resource stocks will do comparatively better after showing signs of bottoming out. The S&P/TSX Composite Index and the S&P 500 will
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