Salient to Investors: Paul Willen at FRB of Boston said if people believe house prices are going up, credit availability will evolve because there is too much money to be made lending to homebuyers. Freddie Mac said the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan is at 3.93 percent versus 3.35 percent in May and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim Rogers says when we look back, Prime Minister Abe will have ruined Japan. Huge debt levels, horrible demographics, no immigration, a declining population and Abe saying he’ll ruin the currency. Japan is a disaster in the long-term, and not guaranteed to work in the short-term. Read
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Cecilia Gondor at Thomas J. Herzfeld Advisors said closed-end funds have sold off since May due to concern that the underlying value of the bonds they hold will suffer should the Fed taper QE. Gondor said retail investors looking for income gravitated to the Pimco funds because they see Bill
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Shane Oliver at AMP Capital Investors said he was not worried until this week because things are much different in China than expected and potentially pose risks for global growth. Oliver said we relied on the Fed and China so much over the last few years that
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 44 percent of economists see the start of tapering in September, 15 percent in October, 28 percent in December, and 13 percent not until at least 2014, while 44 percent expect the Fed to halt bond buying entirely in June 2014. Chris Rupkey at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Themistoklis Fiotakis at Goldman Sachs said to curtail widening current account deficits, the Turkish lira, South African rand and Indian rupee would need to depreciate 30 percent on a trade-weighted basis, while the Brazil real and Chile peso need to fall 20 percent. Fiotakis said the EM bond
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: James Bullard at FRB of St. Louis said: The Fed may need to increase monthly asset purchases above the current $85 billion pace if inflation slows further below its 2 percent goal. The FOMC should signal more strongly its willingness to defend its inflation goal. The Fed inappropriately timed
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dan Heckman at US Bank Wealth Mgmt said Bernanke surprised the markets, which now have a real expectation of curtailment at some point, and unless growth turns very negative and inflation moves much lower, the Fed will not back away from the tapering viewpoint. Ian Lyngen at CRT
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ken Fisher at Fisher Investments said: The rally that began in 2009 is only in its middle stages because most investors still underestimate the strength of the economy – in between the transition from skepticism to optimism It is amazing that people do not marvel at the power of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gold’s 14-day relative strength index was below the level that indicates a rebound may be imminent. Jeffrey Christian at CPM said it is too soon to predict if a buying frenzy will be repeated because the enthusiastic buyers in April have become more cautious, though says the worst
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