U.K. Home Prices Fall as Hometrack Sees Further Decline: Economy – Bloomberg 12-24-12

Salient to Investors: askdesigns.com/html_files/ Hometrack said UK house prices will decline 1 percent in 2013 – London will outperform the national market but price growth will slow to 2 percent. Richard Donnell at Hometrack said affordability constraints and a general unwillingness to take on debt will continue to be a drag on the housing market in 2013.

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Swaps ‘Armageddon’ Lingers as New Rules Concentrate Risk – Bloomberg 12-21-12

Salient to Investors: In March 2013, up to 79 percent of swaps must be backed by collateral and go through clearinghouses. Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman Sachs said clearinghouses could be the world’s biggest systemic threat. Supurna VedBrat at BlackRock said they are the new too-big-to-fail. JPMorgan is the biggest swaps dealer in the US with $72

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European Stocks Post Fifth Weekly Gain; SBM Shares Surge – Bloomberg 12-21-12

Salient to Investors: Manish Singh at Crossbridge Capital said the broad expectation is there will be no disaster over the fiscal cliff, and investors are getting excited about Japan again. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-21/european-stocks-post-fifth-weekly-gain-sbm-shares-surge.html. Click here to receive free email alerts of articles as soon as they are posted.

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Wall Street’s Insider Trading Tricks Spread Across U.S. – Bloomberg 12-21-12

Salient to Investors: The number of people sued by the SEC or charged with insider trading by the Justice Department has more than doubled since 2008 – 22 percent involving health-care stocks. Bankers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, traders, analysts, hedge-fund managers, company chiefs, pharmaceutical executives and movie producers, lovers, neighbors, classmates

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