Salient to Investors: Dr Afzal Ashraf at RUSI writes: The threat of IS appears greater and the situation more pessimistic than it is. IS is militarily weaker than it appears, and its ideology has received a potentially fatal wound. The US has decapitated almost all of al-Qaeda’s leadership and most
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: US millennial women are holding off on motherhood, which bodes well for their economic and social mobility and that of their future children. Isabel Sawhill at Brookings said lower US birth rates are permanent, even if some of the recession-induced decline reverses. Preventing unexpected births increases a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ted Eliopoulos at Calpers said their small hedge fund allocation did not effectively diversify or hedge any meaningful portion of their total portfolio and their decision to divest the entire allocation was unrelated to its performance. Keith Brainard at National Assn of State Retirement Administrators said Calpers is often
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Julian Robertson at Tiger Mgmt said: You cannot expect spouses who love each other and are in the stock business not to talk stocks. People that compete well in one thing compete well in other things. In the hedge-fund industry, a few stock picks can make or break
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: BIS said unprecedented stimulus by central banks and historically low volatility levels across asset classes have made it more likely that emerging markets will destabilize. BIS said governments and companies from Latin America to Asia have boosted borrowing in local and foreign currencies, leaving them more vulnerable when
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The shares outstanding in iShares TIPS Bond ETF exceeded those of the FlexShares iBoxx 3-Year Target Duration TIPS Index ETF by the lowest on record, indicating investors are betting the Fed will achieve its price-stability goals. Overall inflows to ETFs tracking US inflation in 2014 are at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Barclays said 47% of China’s wealthy are planning to move abroad within 5 years, versus 23% in Singapore, 16% in Hong Kong, 20% in Britain, 6% in America and 5% in India. 78% named bettering children’s education and their future job prospects as their main reasons, 73% said a better
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The S&P 500 has closed at new highs 33 times in 2014, while less than 6% of stocks are in bear markets. 47% of Nasdaq Composite stocks and over 40% of Russell 2000 and Bloomberg IPO Index stocks are at least 20% off their 12-month highs. 45% of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dorab Mistry at Godrej Intl said: Palm oil at a 5-year low creates a buying opportunity for plantation and processing company stocks because producers are still making money. Invest in plantations when palm oil prices are low. In Q4, 2008, when in a similar situation with regard to supply,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 74 percent of 34 analysts expect wage growth to begin to outpace inflation on a sustainable basis in Q2, 2015 or later. Rob Wood at Berenberg Bank said real wages will start to grow in half1 2015 but it will be several years before we get back to
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