Salient to Investors: The International Crisis Group said: The Ebola outbreak threatens to become a political crisis that could unravel years of effort to stabilize West Africa – the worst-hit countries face widespread chaos and, potentially, collapse. Adding social breakdown to the epidemic would create a disaster perhaps impossible to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Stephen Antczak et al at Citigroup said: Each of the 5 times since 1980 that the Fed started raising its benchmark rate, the extra yield on corporate bonds over government debt narrowed in the following 6 months as accelerating growth boosted optimism. Spreads will tighten this time also,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jan Hatzius at Goldman Sachs said: Home construction will grow 10% to 15% by 2015-2016, while capital spending will fall to 5%, a reminder of how very different this recovery is. It is unusual for a housing recovery to lag a capital-spending recovery. Gains in business investment
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Owen Murfin at BlackRock said: Bond investors have been too hasty to bet the ECB will buy sovereign debt The ECB’s target of increasing its balance sheet by $1.29 trillion is ambitious and the poor take-up of new cheap loans offered to banks is no guarantee of QE –
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The slump in commodity prices to a 5-year low signals investors are cautious about the strength of the global economy. Brent crude touched a 2-year low last week and iron ore at Qingdao is the lowest since 2009. Economists expect China to grow 7.4% in 2014, the weakest
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dariusz Kowalczyk at Credit Agricole CIB said the surprising Flash PMI rebound is a major relief to markets after numerous signs suggesting further downward pressure on manufacturing and should put upward pressure on Asian currencies and rates. Qu Hongbin at HSBC said overall the data still point
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: BlackRock said: The corporate bond market is broken and needs improved liquidity. Corporations should be encouraged to issue debt with more standardized terms. The dangers of price gaps and scant liquidity have been masked in a benign, low interest-rate environment. New rules prompted Wall Street bond dealers
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Philip Moffitt at Goldman Sachs Asset Mgmt said: The 10-year T-yield may rise to as high as 4% over 12 months as the end of QE and beginning of quantitative tightening adds more interest-rate risk to the market as reinvesting coupons alone will not be enough to offset
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Armen Karamanian at Admire Capital said you can replicate Bill Ackman’s portfolio very easily and for free and with immediate liquidity without the headline risk, and Ackman’s focus on a small number of large investments makes Pershing Square easier to replicate. Karamanian said the public hedge funds’
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The lost medieval city of Angkor in Cambodia once covered 1,000 sq km – only equalled by London some 700 years later – and contained nearly a million people and the world’s biggest religious complex covering area 4 times larger than Vatican City. The end of the
READ MORE... →