Salient to Investors: A shift by household investors from bonds into equities is being muted as pension funds and insurers boost fixed-income assets to match future obligations. JPMorgan Chase and Milliman said US companies with the largest defined-benefit pensions raised allocations to fixed-income to 41.3 percent from 36 percent in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The NACUBO and the Commonfund Institute said US college endowments allocated 47 percent of their investment portfolios to alternative assets in the year ended in June, versus 54 percent the prior year. NACUBO-Commonfund said colleges earned an average endowment investment return of 11.7 percent in the year
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Nippon Individual Savings Account program opens for applications tomorrow and will allow individuals to buy $10,143 a year of risk assets – stocks, ETFs and investment trusts – that are exempt from taxes on dividends and capital gains for 5 years. Nomura Research Institute estimates the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The S&P 500 Index return in 2013 is tracking day-to-day price moves in 1954 almost identically – a correlation coefficient of 0.95. In 1954 the S&P 500 rose a record 45 percent to reach a new high for the first time since 1929. Jim Paulsen at Wells
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Don Hodges at Hodges Funds said the noise is disruptive to people doing anything with great confidence, and any market this strong over the last few weeks is capable of a pullback that shakes people a little. A Bloomberg poll counted 44% expecting the economy to remain
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Templeton Frontier Markets Fund closed its fund to new money, as record cash inflows turned frontier markets into the world’s best performers in 2013 – the MSCI Frontier Markets Index is up 13 percent in 2013 versus a 4.6 percent drop in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds et al cut long contracts to the lowest since June 25. EPFR Global said money managers added the most since October 2012 to gold funds last week, while inflows for commodity funds were the most since November 2012. Evestment said assets managed by commodity hedge
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mohamad Nasir Ab. Latif at EPF, Malaysia’s largest pension fund, said they were net buyers of Malaysian stocks during recent declines as foreign investors cut their holdings, and are looking at real estate in Europe and the US to diversify risk. The fund also plans to raise
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John McGrath at McGrath Estate Agents said: Home prices in Sydney could rise 5% to 10% by as much as 10 percent over the next 12 months, because as much as 80 percent of homes in parts of Sydney are being sold to Chinese buyers, driven by
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jeffrey Currie and Damien Courvalin at Goldman Sachs said: Gold will fall into 2014 as the Fed tapers on the back of an acceleration in US activity and a less accommodative monetary-policy stance. Goldman’s economists expect tapering next week. Goldman maintained 3 and 6-month targets for gold at $1,300,
READ MORE... →