Salient to Investors: Gold traders are the most bullish in four months, investors bought 60 percent more this year through gold-backed ETPs versus with 2011. Gold is headed for a 12th consecutive annual gain, the longest run in at least nine decades. Nations from Brazil to Iraq to Russia are buying gold
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds et al lowered net-long positions in futures and options to the lowest since June 26, gold holdings dropped to the lowest since August, silver fell the most since July 24, and turned bearish on wheat for the first time in six months. Simon Ringrose at EPFR Global said money managers last week withdrew
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Americans have missed $200 billion of stock gains by draining money from the market in the past 4 years. Since the bull market began in March 2009, the proportion of retirement funds in stocks fell 0.5 percent versus the average rise of 8.2 percent in rallies since 1990. ICI
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: EPFR Global said the increase in inflows into commodity funds in 2012 was 92 percent higher than the increase in 2011. The S&P GSCI, of which energy comprises 70 percent, fell 0.9 percent in 2012, the MSCI All-Country World Index rose 13 percent, the Dollar Index fell 0.9 percent, Treasuries returned 2.3 percent. Barclays
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John Stephenson at First Asset Investment Mgmt said the Fed basically admitted that they don’t have what it takes to deal with the fiscal cliff, and it dimmed the idea that unlimited money printing will help commodities. Saumil Parikh at Pimco said global growth will slow to near stall speed in 2013
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds and private-equity firms are buying delinquent home loans sold by the FHA, paying an average of 36 cents on the dollar and a low of 26 cents. The FHA doesn’t have the legal authority to use workout tactics like principal forgiveness, and is not allowed to rent homes back to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Allan Conway at Schroder Investment Mgmt said: Emerging-market equities will return as much as 20 percent in 2013 as consumers drive growth, leaving them less reliant on the US and Europe. India and China will drive economic growth among developing nations in 2013 The increasing relative resilience of emerging
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Knowledgeable, cash-rich investors are leaping headlong into buying houses. Private-equity giants and hedge funds have spent billions of dollars on thousands of foreclosed single-family homes. Jade Rahmani at Keefe Bruyette & Woods said they have raised as much as $8 billion to invest The Blackstone Group has spent more than $1
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Morgan Stanley and Municipal Market Advisors says investors should prepare for the first year of muni-bond losses since 2008 Bank of America Merrill Lynch says munis have earned 20 percent since the start of 2011, the best two-year run since 2001. The median analyst expects 10-yr T-bond yields to rise
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Markus Rosgen and Yue Hin Pong at Citigroup said EPFR Global reported stock funds this week had their second-largest weekly inflows in 2012 and more than the inflows into bond funds, while US funds reversed an outflow trend and Asia attracted the second-largest inflows this year. Pong said most economic data have positively
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