Salient to Investors: Albert Sung at Katchum Macro-Economic Blog writes: The Fed can print money but can’t control where it goes. Money is now flowing into Asia – Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia are at new highs, while the Hong Kong and Shanghai real estate markets are making new highs. Asian real estate developers in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco said: Structural headwinds in terms of economic growth, the budget deficit, and the fiscal cliff will dominate the economic debate no matter who wins the election – meaning lower growth due to the excessive debt and leverage built up over 10 or 20 years. Future annual
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Barry Knapp at Barclays says no election has mattered more. Jeff Kleintop at LPL Financial says many industries are heavily influenced by legislation and regulation, so a change in policymakers can have a big impact. S&P Capital IQ says that since 1900, the stock market, economic growth and corporate earnings in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The days of instant rewards from the stock market are over. Larry Fink at Blackrock says be 100% in equities, prefers stocks to bonds. Bill Gross at Pimco says the cult of equities is dead but sees stocks offering double the nominal return of bonds over the next several
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Tom Wirth at Chemung Canal Trust said the earnings season has disappointed many, sales are disappointing. 70 percent of S&P 500 companies beat analysts’ estimates in Q3, 60 percent have missed sales forecasts. The S&P GSCI spot gauge of 24 raw materials erased gains for the year. Robert Shiller at Yale said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The S&P 500 is up 14 percent in 2012, beating Treasuries, corporate bonds, commodities, the dollar and equities in Asia and Europe for the first time since 1995. The S&P 500 earnings yield is 6.9 percent versus 2.7 percent on investment-grade US corporate bonds – the spread of 4.2 percent compares
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Peter Jankovskis at Oakbrook Investments said many companies have beat earnings estimates but investors are watching their ability to grow revenue. 69 percent of S&P 500 companies beat Q3 analysts’ estimates, 59 percent missed sales forecasts. Caterpillar forecast sales growth for 2013 that is the slowest in four years. Freeport-McMoRan Copper &
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Angus Campbell at Capital Spreads said earnings have come back a little, but that is to be expected given the overall growth environment – it’s natural to see profit taking near highs for the year. 80 of 116 S&P 500 companies have posted earnings that exceeded analyst estimates, 33 missed. Investors have pulled $440
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Chad Morganlander at Stifel Nicolaus said investors are cycling back into risk as earnings and US economic numbers are better than expected. Morganlander said economic growth will continue sluggish. 48 S&P 500 have reported since Oct. 9 – 35 exceeded estimates. James Gaul at Boston Advisors sees more good news than bad and no reason for the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The ratio of companies saying profits will trail estimates versus those saying they will exceed them is at 4.3, levels of February 2009 and October 2001. William Frels at Mairs & Power says the economy is weaker than most people realized. The S&P 500 P/E is 14.6 versus an average of 16.4
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