Salient to Investors: Alexander Antipov at Veles Capital said investors are cautiously optimistic as there are talks and there have been no new sanctions on Russia. Antipov said Russian equities are very cheap, and long-term investors will make serious profits when the Ukraine crisis is solved and things return to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The value of equities globally is at a record $66 trillion versus $25 trillion in March 2009 and $63 trillion at the 2007 peak. The US stock rally is approaching the dot-com bubble in terms of speed, but not in valuations – at 16.8x estimated earnings versus 26x at
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The market looks more and more like the dot-com bubble market except for valuations: 19x now versus near 30x then. Widespread gains now compare with the concentration in computer shares back then. The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index has risen at an annualized 28% rate since 2009,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Barry Ritholtz writes: Rarely have conditions for market gains been so promising at a time when investor psychology has been so negative. Only 7% in a Gallup poll were aware of the S&P 500’s 30% increase in 2013, while more than 50% would put new cash into
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Few businesses are large enough to merit Warren Buffett’s attention. Berkshire Hathaway spent a third of the total from a year earlier on equities in half1 2014, while sales of stock more than doubled. Buffett dislikes paying a dividend and rarely buys back shares. David Rolfe at Wedgewood Partners said Buffett’s list
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Todd Lowenstein at Highmark Capital Mgmt said people are selling out of fear in a market that is really acute to geopolitical risk, given current valuations. John Canally at LPL Financial said markets have to determine if this is an escalation of the conflict. 60 percent of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matt McCormick at Bahl & Gaynor says investors are bracing for more volatility on the basis that the economy and market are not as strong as they thought. Raymond James said equities are vulnerable to losses. Citigroup is concerned about a severe pullback. Christine Lagarde at IMF
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Weidner writes: Five years into a slow paced economic recovery is good reason to be buying stocks, because rapidly growing economies usually goes belly up as quickly as they rise. The stock market always leads the economy but a 155% rise in the Dow since 2009
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: American short sellers have been hurt for 5 years by the biggest market rally since the Internet bubble. Bearish wagers in the SPDR ETF are near 11 percent of its shares, the highest level since 2012. Bearish wagers against a technology ETF are 67 percent above the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Doug Short writes: The S&P 500 is at 18.7 times reported earnings versus the average since the 1870s of 15. In times of critical importance, the conventional P/E ratio often lags the index to the point of being useless as a value indicator because earning can fall
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