Salient to Investors: Don Hodges at Hodges Funds said the noise is disruptive to people doing anything with great confidence, and any market this strong over the last few weeks is capable of a pullback that shakes people a little. A Bloomberg poll counted 44% expecting the economy to remain
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: James A. Kostohryz writes: Stock valuations are currently within or even slightly above a broad range that could be considered “normal” and not at bubble levels, but unprecedented levels of excess liquidity, declining liquidity preference, and a number of fundamental, technical and psychological indicators strongly indicate a bubble is forming. Probabilities favor
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Banks, brokers and insurance companies make up 16.8 percent of the S&P 500, almost double the level from 2009 and versus tech companies at 17.6 percent. Banks were the largest US industry during the bull market that began in 2002, and financial firms grew to 18.8 percent of the index in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The S&P 500 Index’s advance to a record last week coincided with highs in the Russell 2000, the Dow Jones Transports, the S&P 500 Financials and Morgan Stanley’s gauge of economically sensitive equities. During the 4 biggest bull markets of the last 25 years, peaks in those indexes have come before the S&P
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: In Q1 2013, BRIC bonds, currencies, and stocks fell together for the first time since 2006. Since 2003, the MSCI BRIC Index has returned 227 percent, but is down 17 percent in 2013 and trailing the S&P 500 by the most since 1998. The MSCI BRIC Index
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matthew C. Klein writes: Hedge Fund Research says the S&P 500 index with dividends reinvested beat the average hedge fund over the past decade. There are always periods when certain asset classes did better than others. E.g., gold from the middle of 2001 increased by more than 600
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matt Dalton at Belle Haven Investments said: Demand for munis may rebound in July as investors deploy cash from principal and interest payments and this year’s outflows will push yields high enough. The muni market has been brutal, but will turn around in the next few weeks.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John Bogle writes: While the idea of market timing is simple, many hedge fund managers have tried but precious few have succeeded. Joe Carlen, author of “The Einstein of Money”, said the Benjamin Graham Joint Account – the predecessor to Graham-Newman Corporation – lost 70% from 1929 through
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hedge funds continue to be an overpriced, middling asset class. Goldman Sachs found that hedge funds returned an average of 5 percent in 2013 versus a 15 percent gain in the S&P 500, while only 5 percent of the funds beat the S&P and more than 1
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Mark Hulbert writes: The small number of advisers who outperform the market rarely keep doing so, so choosing a recent market beater does not increase your odds of future success. Of the 51 advisers out of more than 200 tracked who beat the Wilshire 5000 Total Market
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