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: Lian Ping at Bank of Communications said potential defaults of property trusts must be stopped from spreading nationwide – trusts have become too large to fail. Trusts target people with at least 1 million yuan to invest and are the fastest-growing segment of China’s shadow banking. Tao Wang at UBS,said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Under Medicare’s tangled payment system, hospitals get higher reimbursements than individual doctors for cardiology treatment and other specialty services, sometimes as much as 3 times more. The added bargaining power has given large hospital systems added leverage in negotiating reimbursements from insurers. Paul Ginsburg at the Center for Studying Health
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: Mark Vitner at Wells Fargo Securities said housing will move significantly higher over the next year driven by low mortgage rates, a gradual improvement in the labor market, and very low inventories. The S&P Supercomposite Homebuilding Index is up 70 percent since year-end 2011 versus the 8.1 percent gain for the S&P 500.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: FRB of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said: Continued aggressive use of balance sheet monetary tools will be justified for some time even if fiscal cliff issues are properly addressed. We are not remotely close to substantial improvement on the employment front. We will have to begin to tighten
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: International net purchases of long-term equities, notes and bonds were $3.3 billion during September versus net purchases of $90.3 billion in August as confidence grew that Europe was resolving its debt crisis and investors sold Treasuries following the Fed’s QE3 announcement. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-16/international-buying-of-u-s-assets-plunges-on-europe-optimism.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Koji Fukaya at Office Fukaya said stock declines are hurting risk sentiment and investors are selling Asian equities, putting downward pressure on regional currencies. Fukaya said money will continue to flow into emerging markets and their currencies will recover in the medium to long-term. Saktiandi Supaat at Malayan Banking said asian currencies will remain volatile
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Tim Worstall at the Adam Smith Institute writes: Jeremy Grantham is horribly mistaken when he talks about drastically reducing the use of phosphorus and potassium in the next 20–40 years else they run out and we begin to starve. Grantham is looking at mine reserves as if
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