Salient to Investors: Companies are paying special dividends at four times the pace of last year with rates poised to jump in 2013. The calendar is influencing even the payment of regular dividends. Dividends are regaining popularity after falling out of favor in the 1990s. Todd Lowenstein at HighMark Capital Mgmt said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The S&P 500’s P/E ratio is below the ending level of 8 of the 9 bull markets since 1962, below the average of any bull market since Reagan, and up 35 percent since March 2009 versus an average 55 percent in bull markets since 1962. 245 of 500 S&P 500 companies have
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Amity Shlaes at the Bush Institute writes: 2013 may see a market drop similar to the 1937 one after the re-election of FDR in 1936, when industrial production plummeted by 34.5 percent and the Dow dropped by half. Parallels include: A pre-election spree that breached norms and set records. Budget-cutting
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Alan Greenspan said that if we get out of the fiscal cliff with a moderate recession, the price is very cheap. The CBOE OEX Volatility Index has risen 56 percent since its low on Sept. 21, the highest level since August 2011 relative to the CBOE Volatility Index of S&P 500 contracts.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Net buying of long-term US equities, notes and bonds totaled $3.3 billion in September versus $90.3 billion in August and versus the median economist estimate of $50 billion. Millan Mulraine at TD Securities said the slowdown was due in part to the improvement in global sentiment towards Europe,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Saumil Parikh at Pimco said equities will return an annualized 4 percent to 5.1 percent over the coming 5 to 10 years verus their historical rate of almost 10 percent as the economy grows at a slower pace due to more retirees than workers and productivity decline due to less
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Money managers said fears that the US economy will slow as Obama and Congress fail to avert the fiscal cliff are overblown. Volatility across markets has declined, signaling investors are less worried about the economic outlook. Bettina Mueller at Deutsche Bank is astonished the market is turning so quickly, and expects
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gilles Sitbon at Sycomore Asset Mgmt said people are waiting for one thing that could make the market go down – if nothing happens, then you can get a grind higher. Money managers said fears the economy will slow as Obama and Congress fail to avoid the fiscal cliff next
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 71 percent of 452 companies so far reporting exceeded analysts’ estimates, 60 percent missed on revenue. Terry L. Morris at National Penn Investors Trust said the lack of sales growth is a surprise – companies have been beating on earnings because of cost cutting, but that can’t go on forever. Read the full
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Pat Dorsey at Sanibel Captiva Investment Advisers said Greece leaving the euro would not be a big deal to a portfolio of largely multinational large caps. Dorsey said the uncertainty and worry is a big investment positive – its dangerous to invest is when everybody is certain and confident about the future: a la Yahoo! in
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