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: 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: Banks, brokers and insurance companies make up 16.8 percent of the S&P 500, almost double the level from 2009 and versus tech companies at 17.6 percent. Banks were the largest US industry during the bull market that began in 2002, and financial firms grew to 18.8 percent of the index in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Weitz Value and Weitz Partners Value funds each have cash stakes close to 30 percent. The Yacktman Focused fund has 19 percent in cash. The Westwood Income Opportunity fund has 16 percent in cash, The IVA Worldwide Fund has 28 percent in cash, the GoodHaven fund has 33 percent in cash. Morninstar
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matthew C. Klein writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that well-to-do young Americans prefer to invest into “safe” luxury real estate rather than “risky” equities. The article could have been written in 2002 or 2003 before the housing bubble and bust. $100 invested at the market peak
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Nouriel Roubini writes: QE is not creating credit for the real economy, but instead boosting leverage and risk-taking in financial markets. The issuance of risky junk bonds is increasing and the stock market is at new highs, despite the growth slowdown. Money is flowing to high-yielding emerging markets.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Foreign investors are adding Treasuries at the slowest pace since 2006 amid the worst rout in 4 years, and own less than 50 percent of Treasuries outstanding for the first time since March 2012. However, China boosted its stake in 2013 to the most on record – adding US bonds in 7
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Suki Cooper at Barclays said commodity assets under management fell to a 32-month low in June driven primarily by a decline in gold-backed ETPs assets to a 3-year low, though other commodity assets have been much more stable. Cooper said gold and silver face the most downside
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Earnings: 73% of 103 S&P 500 companies so far reporting have beaten estimates 53% have beaten revenue estimates. 80% of S&P 500 financial companies have beaten estimates by an average of 8.7%. Banks and insurers are predicted to report earnings growth of 26% this quarter. Excluding financial
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: CB Insights said social-media companies drew only 2 percent of the venture capital headed to Internet-based enterprises last quarter, versus 6 percent each quarter in the 2-year stretch that ended in mid-2012. Anand Sanwal at CB Insights said big data and cloud companies are grabbing the attention of
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