Salient to Investors: Moody’s raisewd Turkey’s credit rating to Ba1, one level below investment grade, on significant improvement in public finances and policies to cut the current-account deficit. Fitch Ratings ranks Turkey at BB+, one level below investment grade, Standard & Poor’s has a BB rating, two levels below investment grade. Moddy’s says Turkey’s diversification
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: U.S. crude stockpiles rose to highest level since July 1990. Predictions: Todd Horwitz at Adam Mesh Trading Group sees below $80 in the next two weeks. Fifty-eight percent of economists polled expect the Fed to expand Operation Twist. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-20/oil-declines-before-fed-decision-projected-supply-drop.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill says a feeling of hopelessness abounds but history shows we will get out of it – there is always another future crisis we can look forward to. There is nothing like a crisis to force change. There are similarities with the Asian crisis
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Pimco’s Bill Gross said Spanish Bonds are unattractive. The global economy is delevering. Best to look at the entire core of the euro zone and not the falling dominos. Rates at the core are still too high – Italy and France yield is too high versus their nominal GDP growth. There
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Companies are delaying hiring and spending out of concern about ‘ fiscal cliff’ and economists are predicting this trend will pick up through the year. Predictions: Bank of America sees U.S. growth falling to 1.3 percent in Q3 and 1 percent in Q4. Sixty-one percent of 234 fund managers surveyed by Bank
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: FedEx, regarded as an economic bellwether, predicted Q1 profit lower than analyst estimates. Barnes & Noble Q4 revenue trailed analysts’ estimates. Predictions: Tom Wirth of Chemung Canal Trust sees the risks easing slightly, but expects any market action should the Fed extend Operation Twist to be short-lived. Myles Zyblock of RBC Capital Markets says growing uncertainty – due to
READ MORE... →Salients Points: The residential real-estate market is weathering the U.S. economic slowdown. Single family starts rose at the highest rate this year, while apartment construction slumped. Building permits climbed to the highest level since September 2008 on lower prices and record-low mortgage rates. Overall starts in May declined 13 percent in the Midwest, 20 percent in
READ MORE... →Predictions: Templeton’s Mark Mobius sees emerging-market stocks in a sweet spot as Chinese economic growth remains buoyant and valuations plunge from historical averages, and is increasing holdings in China, Russia, Turkey, Thailand and Africa. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-19/most-emerging-stocks-decline-on-europe-debt-crisis-oci-rallies.html
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Fed’s structure has its origins in efforts to find a balance of power between politicians in Washington, representing farmers and small businesses, and Wall Street financiers. Professor Allan Meltzer said the Fed’s image problem has been there for 100 years – Congress reduced the role bankers play on
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Congress is nowhere near an agreement on what to do about $607 billion of tax increases and spending cuts slated to kick in at the beginning of 2013. CBO says if Congress does nothing the economy will probably fall into a recession in early 2013. The Tax Policy
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