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: Ronan Carr at Morgan Stanley said they are tactically overweight Russian stocks – upped to Buy from Sell – and that the situation is not deteriorating and that worst case outcomes, like additional sanctions, now appear less likely. JPMorgan Chase said Russian stocks are likely to extend
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Michael McFaul at Stanford University sees long-term damage to Russia from Putin’s new direction. Anders Aslund at the Peterson Institute for Intl Economics sees a similar shortfall in Russia’s 2014 growth to 2013’s growth of 1.3%, and versus IMF’s 2013 forecast of 3.9%. Alexei Kudrin expects Russia to post zero
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jonathan Garner at Morgan Stanley said the problems are more than just reaction to a Fed tightening, but include declining relative return on equity compared to developed markets. The Russian Micex is at 5 x estimated earnings, the cheapest in emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: BIS said unprecedented stimulus by central banks and historically low volatility levels across asset classes have made it more likely that emerging markets will destabilize. BIS said governments and companies from Latin America to Asia have boosted borrowing in local and foreign currencies, leaving them more vulnerable when
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Alexander Antipov at Veles Capital said investors are cautiously optimistic as there are talks and there have been no new sanctions on Russia. Antipov said Russian equities are very cheap, and long-term investors will make serious profits when the Ukraine crisis is solved and things return to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Yngve Slyngstad at Norges Bank Investment Management, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, said: They are gradually picking up some new markets but at a less rapid pace than at the beginning of 2014. At the end of June, 9.9% of the fund’s stocks and 13.4% of its bonds
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Sam Vecht at BlackRock says Russian stocks are very cheap, carry a high dividend yield, and earnings downgrades are absent. BlackRock’s Emerging Europe Trust was 50 percent invested in Russian stocks at the end of May. JPMorgan upgraded Russian stocks in June, The Micex is at 5.6
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Karen Umland at the DFA Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio Fund is slightly overweight India, and had 15 percent of holdings in Taiwan, over 14 percent in South Korea, over 14 percent in China, and 9.2 percent in Brazil at the end of Q1. Umland dislikes Russia
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim Rogers said: Prefers the Japanese market, down 60 or 70 percent from all time highs. to the US which is at all time highs. Abe has no constraints, can spend and print as much as he wants. Like Russia’s very depressed stock market. Russia is hated more
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