Salient to Investors: Scottish money managers, including Aberdeen Asset Mgmt and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, are investing in US regional banks. James Kinghorn at Scottish Widows Investment said regional banks are more leveraged to benefit from an improving economy than the larger banks, better relative to European banks, and attractively valued. Kinghorn said the US economy
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Author Jeff Matthews said Buffett is elephant hunting when there aren’t a lot of elephants. Bloomberg survey shows the average estimate of Wall Street brokerages is for the S&P 500 to end 2012 little changed from its close on Nov. 2. David Kostin at Goldman Sachs said stocks may end 2012 lower
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors can’t get enough government securities even though rising debt loads are blamed for curbing global growth. For the first time since 2008, all 26 markets tracked by Bloomberg and the EFFAS are poised to generate positive returns on an annual basis. Governments are getting a handle
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 70 percent of S&P 500 companies have beaten analysts’ estimates this quarter. Dow fluctuations this year are the smallest in an election year since 2004, and less than the 112-year average when the incumbents won (13 of 17) and lost (6 of 11). Volatility declines indicate less concern that prices will
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Sowerby at Loomis Sayles said earnings continue to surprise on the upside, plus a slight improvement in manufacturing. 71 percent of S&P 500 companies beaten analysts’ quarterly estimates. Darrell Cronk at Wells Fargo Private Bank said the consumer is showing he is willing to jump back in and seek out a job. Thomas
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Li Jun at Central China Securities said investors think the economy may have bottomed, especially since the PMI showed positive signs, but we need more liquidity for any gains to last. Lu Ting at Bank of America sees increasing evidence for green shoots in China – upped Q4 GDP growth estimate to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The biggest Chinese ETF in the US climbed to a six-month high on expanding factory output. Chinese manufacturing expanded for the first time in three months in October. Audrey Kaplan at Federated Global Investment Mgmt said confidence in Chinese equities is picking up and it looks like the beginning of a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Graham Bishop at Exane BNP Paribas said equities will advance in 2013 as investors who missed this year’s gains try to chase the rally, driven by a reversal of investor pessimism, near-zero US interest rates, accelerating economic growth, and favorable market valuations. Bishop said this phase of the cycle supports a strong
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: Investment is not being incentivized by QE. Lower interest rates are being used to consume as opposed to invest, and the money created and freed up is elevating asset prices, but corporations are not investing in future production. Asset and currency prices ultimately rest on economic growth, so
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John Haynes at Investec Wealth & Investment said markets are fine where they are and people are underestimating the positive momentum that is building. Earnings have exceeded projections at 72 percent of companies that have released Q3 results, while sales have trailed estimates at 60 percent. Read the full article at
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