Salient to Investors: Tony James at Blackstone said hedge funds are a way to play the stock market with lower volatility and lower returns – shoot-the-lights-out returns are best left to private equity and real estate. Neil Chriss at Hutchin Hill Capital said Calpers’ hedge-fund allocation was not big enough to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The $1 trilli0n unregulated market for leveraged corporate loans – from $35 billion in 1997 – poses a growing threat of gridlock in a downturn when investors expect to get their money back. Beth MacLean at Pimco said one single retail fund unable to meet redemptions would have a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Teacher Retirement System of Texas cut its hedge fund allocation to 8% from 9%, cut equities by 4 percentage points and fixed-income by 2 percentage points, and increased risk parity – a strategy based on allocation of risk and private equity and real assets – and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: UBS said it will take a deeper slowdown to spur an interest-rate cut and still expects growth to be below 7% in Q4. Wang Tao at UBS said the bias is toward more but relatively measured easing and growth will slow further in Q4 on further property construction weakness.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The World Bank said: The economic impact of Ebola could grow eight-fold in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but can be limited if it and public fear is contained by a fast global response. If Ebola continues to spread, billions of dollars could be drained from West African countries
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Calpers’ exit from hedge fund investing underscored that there is no magic bullet to dealing with mounting pension fund costs. Chris Mier at Loop Capital Markets said the problem cannot be fixed very rapidly. Wilshire Consulting said that in 2013, state pension plans had 75% of what they
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: IEA said global oil demand growth in 2014 will be the weakest since 2011, as the US shale boom causes oil production from non-OPEC rises by the most since the 1980s. China will account for 11%, the US 21% of demand in 2014. Mike Wittner at Societe
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Amateur investors are giving up on trying to beat the market, while even the most sophisticated investors are rejecting strategies that require advanced math and managers with million-dollar salaries. ICI reports the average expense ratio on an equity mutual fund is down 25% in 10 years. Boston Consulting
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Moody’s Investors Service said the US Aaa credit rating outlook remains stable, short-term outlooks for most indicators are positive, but spending on social programs will put pressure on budget deficits and the rating toward the end of the decade. Steven Hess at Moody’s sees accelerating economic growth as
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Alexei Kudrin at Sberbank said: The conflict in Ukraine will take 2 to 3 years at a minimum to resolve Russia’s current level of investment is insufficient for development and maintaining growth above 1%. Growth will near zero or even negative, primarily because of the lack of
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