Salient to Investors: Sarah Ketterer at at Causeway Capital Mgmt said: Buying energy stocks very incrementally as oil prices eventually reach a floor and rise again but no idea when. Looks for companies with tremendous financial strength that can continue to pay dividends. Smart companies will use their balance sheet strength to buy
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The flow of funds into the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF turned negative for the year following its biggest withdrawal last week since 2009. Its short position is the highest since June 2002 Todd Rosenbluth at S&P Capital IQ said investors should have less exposure to financials than
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: Joseph Carson at AllianceBernstein said: Household finances are in the best shape in decades, and the US is entering a new, stronger growth phase as healthier finances revive borrowing, spur consumer spending, generate business investment and jobs. Household wealth measured by net worth rose to $70.3 trillion in Q1,
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: Alexander Friedman at UBS says: What Fed has done is not unexpected and the market reacted because it was ahead of itself. All the Fed was saying was that the US is doing OK, that the data is trending as it should, and that it has confidence
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Marc Faber at the Gloom Boom & Doom Report says: High-end assets from stocks to art to real estate are in a bubble caused by central bank money-printing. This money doesn’t increase economic activity and asset prices in concert, instead creates dangerous excesses in countries and asset
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Trading in US equity markets is spread across 13 stock exchanges and 50 dark pools. A third of US volume occurs away from exchanges. Justin Schack at Rosenblatt Securities said that from 2008 through 2010, big banks expanded their dark pools by using them as the first destination to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William D. Cohan writes: We were either naive or stupid to believe Obama’s “change you can believe in” included Wall Street. Robert Rubin protegés were appointed to the three most important economic positions in Obama’s first term: Treasury secretary, national economic adviser, and director of the OMB. Other
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Miller at Legg Mason said because housing has done so well, the next move there is in financials. Miller said an improved housing market means banks’ mortgage origination businesses will improve. Miller’s fund had 40 percent of assets in financial stocks as of Sept. 30, and
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