Institutional Investors (August 15)
“As earnings season winds down, investors around the globe are left to consider how a shifting macro environment will impact different asset classes and geographies.” Fears of a continuing yuan devaluation “will factor into perceptions of nearly all the major data points that will emerge.”
Tags: Asset classes, Data points, Devaluation, Earnings, Geographies, Investors, Macro environment, Yuan
Financial Times (July 23)
The Toshiba and Olympus accounting scandals suggest “that Japanese companies are prone to manipulating their accounts. But foreign investors should not give up and go home.” Instead investors have an opportunity to “short shares in companies that will be struck by scandal next, to buy those that will be forced to change their ways, or to do both these things in turn.”
Tags: Accounting, Investors, Japan, Olympus, Opportunity, Scandals, Short, Toshiba
Wall Street Journal (July 2)
Government cheerleading for stock prices leads to blame when they fall” and China’s increasingly bearish market is upsetting some investors. “As we warned in April, when the government talks up the market, it runs a risk that the public will hold the Party leadership responsible for a market correction. Beijing may feel that it has to support stock prices now to maintain social stability.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Correction, Government, Investors, Market, Risk, Social stability, Stock prices
Financial Times (June 7)
“’Shock revelation. Investors do read annual reports and base their investment decisions on what they find there,’ was the gist of a dismal report by the Financial Reporting Council last week into the quality of accounts of small public companies.” The report found that many companies did not, but really ought to, sufficiently prioritize their annual reports. “The FRC is right. Informative and comprehensive explanations of how the corporate year has shaped up are critical to keeping investors onside.”
Tags: Annual reports, Comprehensive, Explanations, FRC, Informative, Investment decisions, Investors
Wall Street Journal (May 28)
JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon told the “the truth about proxy advisory firms” when he urged investors not to blindly follow their guidance on corporate governance and shareholder votes. Firms like Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. “have enjoyed far too much influence over companies they don’t own and been subject to far too little scrutiny given their potential conflicts of interest.”
Tags: CEO, Conflicts, Glass Lewis, Governance, Guidance, Influence, Investors, ISS, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan, Proxy advisory firms, Shareholders, Votes
The Economist (May 1)
Since 2010, foreign creditors “have extended the equivalent of more than $5 billion of 100-year bonds to Mexico in three currencies: dollars, sterling and now euros.” Moreover, Mexico has received exceedingly good terms (4.2%-6.1%) given its “distinctly spotty credit record.” This speaks volumes about the intensity of the global search for yield, but raises the inevitable question “what are the chances of investors, or their grandchildren, getting their money back?”
Financial Times (March 24)
In Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission “will not be able to keep an open mind for very long” on whether to allow dual-class shares. Since 1987, Hong Kong has abided by the “current one-share-one-vote principle.” Citing the weakness of corporate governance in Hong Kong, some investors want to retain the current system, while others are calling for change to better compete with U.S. listings where dual-class shares are allowed.
Tags: Corporate governance, Dual-class shares, Hong Kong, Investors, Listings, Securities and Futures Commission, U.S., Vote
Institutional Investor (March 24)
“A reversal for the dollar and oil have not yet quenched investors’ appetite for euro-denominated risk assets.” In the absence of a market-shaping event, “investors keep flocking to Europe.”
Tags: Dollar, Euro-denominated, Europe, Investors, Oil, Reversal, Risk assets
Institutional Investor (March 18)
“Market sentiment today hinges almost entirely on the Federal Open Market Committee’s announcement this afternoon. The anticipation of any change in wording to policy means investors are again ready to rethink what a new market reality may look liked as the process of policy normalization begins.”
Tags: Announcement, Anticipation, FOMC, Investors, Market, Normalization, Policy, Sentiment
Wall Street Journal (March 5)
The European Central Bank (ECB) hasn’t even actually started its quantitative easing (QE) activities. Somehow, however, its QE program “is working before it has even begun.” The euro has fallen 20% since last summer and, this week, dropped to $1.10, an eleven year low. How? “As investors came to view QE as inevitable, prices responded, especially the price of the euro. As a result of Mr. Draghi’s open-mouth operations to talk down the euro—coupled with an expectation that interest rates might rise soon in the U.S.—the euro has declined steadily against the dollar and other currencies.” Whether the actual QE program will be able to duplicate this pregame success remains to be seen.
Tags: Currencies, Dollar, Draghi, ECB, euro, Interest rates, Investors, Quantitative easing, U.S.