Salient to Investors: Richard Fisher at FRB of Dallas said: The US economy is improving, employment is picking up and the housing market has turned. US companies are lean and mean and ready to go with stronger balance sheets. We have artificially suppressed rates, and this cannot go on forever. 65 percent
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Brian Edmonds at Cantor Fitzgerald said there is not a whole lot of willing buyers in Treasury land. Hedge-fund managers et al increased net-short position in 10-yr note futures last week to the most since July 2012. Jason Rogan said the numbers are on the weak side, but not enough to change
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Warren Buffett shares of Wells Fargo for the 9th straight quarter, to Berkshire’s largest holding in a portfolio that includes Coca-Cola, American Express, and IBM. Buffett has not added to American Express and Coca-Cola since the 1990s. Buffett favors making concentrated bets on companies he’s studied for years. Jeff Matthews, author of books
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Zhao Danyang at Pureheart Capital Asia has more than 80 percent in Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong, Singapore, the US and at home from 50 percent at the start of 2013. Pureheart has sold almost all of its Indian stock holdings and plans to further cut its Vietnam investments. Pureheart said Chinese
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William Pesek writes: A week after Japan’s debt reached the 1 quadrillion yen ($10.28 trillion) mark, yields have actually declined. BOJ Governor Kuroda is winning bondland’s full obedience with two forms of trickery: essentially transferring money via monetary policy from citizens to the government, and outright monetization of public debt. The
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Caroline Baum writes: Paul Krugman at Princeton says Milton Friedman has virtually vanished from the policy discourse and a few decades from now, historians will regard him as little more than an economic footnote. I believe Krugman, not Friedman, will end up as the footnote. Krugman’s claim
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The decline at Bridgewater Associates’ All Weather fund and similar funds shows allocating assets between stocks and bonds can leave investors overexposed to rising interest rates. Ramin Nakisa at UBS Investment Bank said June’s sell-off in Treasuries and inflation-linked bonds was just a dress rehearsal for the volatility awaiting
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Gold’s swift fall has ravaged livelihoods around the world, while investors who lost big are shifting assets elsewhere and scaling back retirement plans. The market value of the world’s gold mining companies is down $271 billion since the September 2011 peak of $486 billion. Gold hit $850 on Jan.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Megan McArdle writes: The Department of Labor is reported to be moving toward making brokers et al “fiduciaries” to their clients, so they would have to offer advice in your best interest, and avoid conflicts of interest such as accepting fees to put you into low-return, high-fee
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Peter Orszag at Citigroup writes: Over the past 3 years, the number of job openings has risen almost 50 percent, but actual hiring has gone up by less than 5 percent. Peter Newland at Barclays says one reason is the mismatch between the work that companies need
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