Salient to Investors: Hedge funds are the most bullish on 10-yr Treasuries since 2007. Jason Evans at NineAlpha Capital said it is expensive to fight the Fed – whether yields have begun a structural rise is the multibillion dollar question. Evans says the cost of being under-invested in Treasuries eats you
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: International purchases of US stocks, bonds and other financial assets slowed for the first time in four months in January. Thomas Simons at Jefferies said the stock market trend and better global financial market conditions supports more outflows from Treasuries by private investors. Read the full article
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The private-equity investment of $36 billion in US brick-and-mortar retailers before the recession in 2007 has not turned out well. Of the 8 largest retail private-equity buyouts during that period, only Dollar General has gone public Leon Nicholas at Kantar Retail said there is nothing special about
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors are exiting the BRICs as disappointing profits and growing state intervention cause stocks to trail global shares for a fourth year. Over 59 percent of MSCI BRIC index companies have missed analyst estimates for the fourth-straight quarter in 2013. Peter Dixon at Commerzbank says lower valuations means the time is ripe for
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Knight Frank said English rural land produced some of the best investment returns in Europe since 2007, appreciating by 51 percent versus a 19 percent rise got millionaires’ mansions in London and a loss for rest of the U.K. housing market. Tim Atkinson at J.H. Walter is not expecting an alteration in the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Robert Lutts at Cabot Money Mgmt the underlying support for the labor market is driven by housing and potentially construction finally returning. Lutts said QE and lower interest rates are finally having an impact as signalled by the stock market. Troy Logan at Warren Financial Service said employment has stabilized – key is
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bespoke Investment and Bloomberg say short sales in the S&P Composite 1500 Index fell in February to the lowest in recorded data back to 2007 – the last time at this level saw the Index lose 3.3 percent over the next three months. Bulls say the capitulation by
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Wall Street firms are once again selling debt that may be poised to lose value. Wall Street is selling junk bonds at a record pace after they returned 19 percent in 2012, but says it’s obvious that prices will drop when interest rates rise. The amount of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Amanda Sneider and David Kostin at Goldman Sachs said: Net long exposure to stocks in hedge funds rose to 52 percent in Q4 2012, matching the 10-year high reached in Q1 2007. AIG became the most-held position, Apple fell to third place. Hedge funds notably reduced holdings of Apple and gold
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Einhorn said long positions exceeded shorts 29 percent as of Jan. 31 versus 39 percent on Jan 1, 2013, and has become less enthusiastic as the market rises while the US has slowed – GDP went negative in Q4 2012 and earnings growth has come to a virtual
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