Salient to Investors: Gaelle Blanchard at Societe Generale said there’s a run of risk aversion on concerns for growth. Martial Godet at BNP Paribas CIB said global earnings growth should be stronger than 2012 for emerging-market companies, particularly China, while commodity and oil prices are resilient, which helps Russia. The MSCI emerging-markets
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: At least 20 analysts lowered price targets after Apple reported its slowest growth rates in years and said the trend will continue. Abhey Lamba at Mizuho Securities USA said Apple may more closely resemble a value stock, as growth has slowed much faster than anticipated. Avi Silver at Credit Agricole Securities
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: George Russell at Franklin Equity cut its holdings of Apple to 4.2 percent at the end of 2012 from 7 percent in 2011, saying it lacks a strategy to sell cheaper smartphones in emerging markets such as China and India, with the US market saturated. Russell said Apple hasn’t disclosed a low-end phone market
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Joseph Tanious at JPMorgan Funds said the jobs report shows the labor market is healing very slowly, so not so good that the Fed might pull out of QE. Deutsche Bank said supply chain movements suggest iPhone and iPad production may be declining. Mohamed El-Erian at Pimco said 7.8 percent unemployment shows
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Citigroup, Pacific Crest Securities, Mizuho Securities USA, BMO Capital Markets and Canaccord Genuity have cut price targets for Apple since Dec. 16 over weak iPhone sales and concern for market saturation and the need for new breakthrough products to fend off rivals Google and Samsung. Michael Obuchowski at North Shore Asset Mgmt said the latest iPhone and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Chalupnik at Nuveen Asset Mgmt said market fundamentals are looking better. Scott Minerd at Guggenheim Partners said the fiscal cliff is creating value in equities as too much negativity is priced in – the fiscal cliff is a non-event. Steven Milunovich at UBS cut his price estimate for Apple to $700 from
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Nassim Taleb writes: (Excerpted from “Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder”) Imagining future technologies is unpredictable and won’t be the ones that make it. The futuristic projections made throughout the past 150 years by Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, George Orwell and other scientists and futurists are not tools
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
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Technology companies are expanding and investing in real estate, helping a nascent rebound in US office development from the lowest levels since at least 1960 as default rates on construction mortgages decline from a 2010 peak. Jon Southard at CBRE Econometric Advisors said there is a surprising amount of construction,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Malcolm Polley at Stewart Capital said things won’t improve as fast as people think, and Fed’s actions won’t lead to higher growth. FRB of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said this months new bond buying by the Fed won’t boost growth or hiring and may jeopardize Fed credibility. The Dow is 5.3 percent from its
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