Salient to Investors: Asian currencies strengthened for a fifth month on signs of a pickup in China, where industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment gathered pace in September. Tsutomu Soma at Rakuten Securities said funds are flowing into Asia. EPFR Global said emerging-market bond funds attracted $44.2 billion this year through Oct. 24 versus $15.9
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Athanasios Vamvakidis at Bank of America said that despite many risks to the global economy, the G-20 has weakened substantially, which makes all countries worse off. Daniel Price at Rock Creek Global Advisors said the G-20 absences say more about the exigencies of domestic economic issues than it does about the future of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Rising supply from Brazil potentially hurts demand for US beans. Rabobank Intl said Brazil will displace the US as the largest soybean grower this year and may extend that lead as planting is expanded to meet increased demand from China, the biggest buyer. Jasper van Schaik at Rabobank said Brazil’s share of China’s imports
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: An estimated 12 percent of US residents moved in the year ended March 2012, up from a 63-year low of 11.6 percent the prior year. About 1.7 percent moved from one state to another, the most in five years. A lack of migration the past few years
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Professor Frederic Mishkin at Columbia Business School said the Fed has helped save the world. William Dudley at FRB of New York said: The force with which Bernanke has attacked joblessness has distinguished him, and his legacy is in being very creative and aggressive in an adverse economic environment. It’s OK
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: A Berkshire Hathaway unit will be the majority owner of a US residential real- estate affiliate network and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services venture with Brookfield Asset Mgmt. Berkshire has been positioning to benefit from US home market recovery by buying a brickmaker, the loan portfolio of Residential Capital LLC at auction,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Pound-cost averaging incurs an opportunity-cost to be paid for holding money in cash while it waits to be invested in the market. A recent US Vanguard study over rolling 10-year periods from 1926-2011 found that, on average, lump-sum investing resulted in higher returns than pound-cost averaging about two-thirds
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mohamed El-Erian at Pimco said: Superstorm Sandy won’t reduce GDP as there is likely to be catch-up activity. There is a 60 – 70 percent probability of a mini bargain over the fiscal cliff – with contraction of 1.5 percent of GDP, which is manageable.” There is a 60 – 70 percent probability that Greece will quit the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Copper futures ended the longest slump in 14 years, on prospects for increased Chinese demand. Wang Zhongkui at Beijing Antaike Information Development said total Chinese demand may gain an average 6 percent a year from 2011 to 2015. Tobias Merath at Credit Suisse said there is a supply deficit, and Chinese
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: German unemployment rose twice as much as economists forecast in October and the jobless rate increased for the first time in three years. Business confidence has dropped to a 2 1/2 year low. Christian Schulz at Berenberg Bank said today’s report is another sign of economic weakness even
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