Salient to Investors: Professor Niall Ferguson at Harvard said the key negotiators, including Merkel, do not understand that the timeframe for financial crises is days, for structural reforms is years. Merkel has to realize that the cost of disintegration to Germany would be mind-blowing, and whatever happens, Germany pays – either through massive defaults or fiscal transfers. Read
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: U.S. government debt continues to be the premier haven for investors from global financial market turmoil. Brian Edmonds at Cantor Fitzgerald is doubtful rates will shoot higher any time soon. Tsutomu Komiya at Daiwa Asset Management said Treasuries are the safe haven, the economy is improving, but the growth rate
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Total loans at the four largest U.S. banks fell 4.9 percent in Q1 versus an increased of 9.8 percent for the 17 smallest of the 24 firms in the KBW Bank Index. David Trone at JMP Securities said the big banks’ shrinking loans has earnings implications, because the removed loans,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Shipping analysts are increasingly bearish on the outlook for rates to haul iron ore and coal as China grows at the slowest pace in three years at a time of record fleet expansion. Analysts estimate Capesizes will earn the lowest day rate in at least 14 years, and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Demand for new U.S. homes rose more than forecast in May, the most since April 2010. The number of houses on the market held near a record low. Brian Jones at Societe Generale sees a gradual improvement but says we’ve miles to go before we get back to normal. Prices
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: French banks held $541 billion of private and public debt in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain at the end of 2011, the most by foreign lenders. France had zero growth in Q1, and joblessness is rising. Predictions: Bill Blain at Newedge Group says once the misery of Spain and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hank Smith at Haverford Trust sees the market bouncing along the bottom. Laura Martin at Needham said academic research shows that the greater the diversity on a corporation’s board, the higher the returns to shareholders. Sam Stovall at S&P said the lack of direction is understandable given investors await the outcome of the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Simon Johnson at MIT Sloan School of Management says: The euro area faces a major economic crisis, most likely a series of rolling, country-specific problems involving some combination of failing banks and sovereigns that can’t pay their debts in full. Expect system wide stress, emergency liquidity loans from the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Demand for new U.S. homes rose more than forecast in May, the most since April 2010, while supply dropped to the lowest in more than six years. The median sales price increased 5.6 percent from the same month last year. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-25/sales-of-new-homes-in-u-s-increased-to-two-year-high-in-may.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: For the first time in 13 years, the real, ruble and rupee are weakening the most among developing-nation currencies, while the yuan has depreciated more than in any other period since its 1994 devaluation. Investors are fleeing the BRICs, after Brazil’s consumer default rate rose to the
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