Salient to Investors: Carsten Fritsch at Commerzbank said speculation of central bank intervention will support prices despite weak demand and abundant supplies – prices will stay above $90 in September Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-03/oil-rises-to-highest-in-one-week-on-stimulus-speculation.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John De Clue at U.S. Bank Wealth Management said Europe continues to weaken. Stephen Wood at Russell Investments said the Fed is showing high sensitivity to the labor market. Brian Peery at Hennessy Funds said it doesn’t take much to push the market toward the negative side Read the full article
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bespoke Investment Group study going back to 1928 shows the S&P 500 Index has returned an average 0.12 percent in September when up year-to-date through August – the index is up 12 percent so far in 2012 Bob Janjuah at Nomura Holdings predicts a major risk-off phase in the coming four months with
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Professor Robert Gordon at Northwestern University said: The U.S.’s best 250 years are behind it as economic growth may gradually sputter out, contradicting the nearly universal view promoted by Robert Solow and others that economic growth is a continuous process that will persist forever. Future growth in GDP per capita
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Professor James Poterba at M.I.T. said that while 46% of retirees have just $10,000 in savings when they die, they may have a relatively generous pension plan, and most of them will have Social Security. Retirees whose spouse had died saw their income drop almost 75% between 1993 and the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Berkshire Hathaway has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits, including Johnson & Johnson and Intel. John Paulson in Q2 2012 dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase, his fund’s entire position in Family Dollar and Sara Lee. George Soros recently sold
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ruy Teixeira at the Center for American Progress said ethnic groups historically vote in clusters and this favors President Obama mightily. The American minority population surprisingly grew by 30 percent over the last decade versus 1 percent for whites – up 3 percent alone since 2008. Read the transcript
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Stockpiles of the biggest crops will decline for a third year on drought in three continents. U.S. crops are in the worst condition since 1988, heat waves are battering European crops and India’s monsoon rainfall is 20 percent below normal. Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Group and Credit Suisse say crops will
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Raising cash has gotten a lot harder as underperformance in the past four years has investors doubting the value of funds-of-funds. Funds-of-funds usually charge fees of 1 percent of assets and 10 percent of profits, on top of the 2 percent management fee and 20 percent performance fee
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Reports from three of Asia’s four largest economies signal the jump in commodity prices has not yet constrained the consideration of further monetary stimulus. Satoshi Osanai at Daiwa Institute of Research said inflation is not yet a major issue for Asian central bankers – Asia and emerging nations have more room to cut rates or ease.
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