Salient to Investors: Mark Mobius at Templeton Emerging Markets said: Developing-nation equities will climb in 2013 on low debt levels, high foreign exchange reserves, economic growth that may average 5 percent in 2013, central banks adding money to the financial system. Low interest rates make equities very attractive. sending institutions et al on an incredible hunt for returns, including frontier
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Paul Ballew at Dun & Bradstreet said the bigger question is that after four years of aggressive monetary policy, whether or not anything else will really make a material difference on the direction of the recovery. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research said its index of investor and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Carson Block at Muddy Waters said he stopped betting against Chinese companies this year after government agents hindered his analysts and harassed workers at his storage company in Shanghai. Block says China is protecting frauds by making it difficult to research short sale candidates, and has used intelligence and police agencies to deter
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bloomberg and Strategas Research Partners report the average S&P 500 company cut interest expenses to 2.39 percent of sales in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, the lowest since at least 2002. With borrowing expenses at record lows, companies are finding it harder to squeeze costs, causing profit margins to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Shane Oliver at AMP Capital Investors said economic data looks OK and has been supporting the share market, but we will have to see a resolution of the fiscal cliff for the rally to continue. The MXAP trades at 14.2 x estimated earnings versus 13.6 x for the S&P 500 and 12.6 x for
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mary Brinton at Harvard said Japan suffers from a play-it-safe mentality which focuses more on potential downsides rather than on opportunities. Brinton and Toshio Yamagishi at Tamagawa University say the breakdown of the lifetime employment system may be the main anxiety that leads people to play it safe – there’s still a prejudice against hiring
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff said: the economy is stuck in the mud and it will be a wageless recovery – the fiscal cliff would trigger a recession. Housing is bottoming out. and banking is on the mend and banks are more willing to lend money. likes gold-mining stocks and utilities, dividend-paying healthcare, utility and consumer-staples stocks. likes
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mao Sheng at Huaxi Securities said investors see a clearer direction and roadmap for government reforms. The OECD said as many as 300 million people will move from the countryside to the cities by 2030. The proportion of China’s population in cities rose to 51 percent by the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ted Farris at Dorsey & Whitney said more US-listed Chinese companies are under threat of going private or being delisted after US regulators accused accounting firms’ affiliates of blocking probes into potential fraud. The Bloomberg Chinese Reverse Mergers Index has lost 60 percent over the past two years.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jeffrey Gundlach at DoubleLine Capital says: The first phase of the coming debacle was the 27-year buildup of corporate, personal and sovereign debt to 2008. The third phase will be deeply indebted countries and companies defaulting sometime after 2013. Buy gemstones, art and commercial real estate and other hard assets. Chinese
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