Wall Street Journal (January 1)
“Encouraged by promises of strong action by Japan’s new government to weaken the yen, end deflation and introduce structural overhauls, market experts are generally bullish on Japanese equities for 2013…. Strategists almost uniformly agree that Japanese shares remain undervalued and underexposed to international investors.”
Tags: Equities, Government, Investors, Japan, Undervalued, Yen
Businessweek (December 6)
“With the Nikkei stock average down 76 percent from its 1989 peak and 1.5 quadrillion yen ($18 trillion) in wealth erased when an asset bubble burst, a generation of Japanese investors has grown up convinced that stocks only go down.” They have become too risk averse. There’s a strong “case to be made for Japanese stocks. The country has the lowest taxes on dividends among developed nations and a 10 percent capital-gains tax, which compares well with 15 percent in the U.S. and 28 percent in Britain. Shares of companies in the Topix Index, a broader measure of stocks than the Nikkei, trade for less than the value of their assets.”
Tags: Capital-gains, Investors, Nikkei, Risk aversion, Stocks, Topix
Barron’s (November 5)
“It has been an eventful year in Brazil, though perhaps not in the way investors would have liked. The country’s growth has stalled to an expected 1.5% this year—a figure not exactly befitting an emerging market, especially one that not so long ago had been growing at four times that rate.” Despite the bad economic news, however, four experts assembled at a Barron’s roundtable believe Brazil investors have “reason for optimism.”
Tags: Brazil, Emerging market, Growth, Investors, Optimism
The Economist (October 6)
“For investors around the world, the recovery seems assured. The MSCI global share index has risen almost 10% since July. The credit for this largely goes to central bankers.” This is not, however, a time for overconfidence. “As long as politicians in the world’s big three economies continue to dither, another global recession is possible.”
Tags: Central bankers, Economy, Investors, MSCI, Politicians, Recession, Recovery
Euromoney (August Issue)Euromoney (August Issue)
“Trust has broken down between IPO vendors and issuers and traditional investors in new stock offerings in Europe. Deal arrangers seem incapable of bridging the valuation gap between the two sides.” Issuer focus on achieving high valuation is colliding with investor expectation to buy at a discount. As a result, 50% of Europe’s large planned IPOs failed this year. The situation is only slightly better for IPOs of all sizes. “In the first seven months of this year, 143 initial public offerings were priced for European issuers, while 50 others, over one-third as many, were either announced and then postponed or launched and then pulled. That’s a very high failure rate.”
“Trust has broken down between IPO vendors and issuers and traditional investors in new stock offerings in Europe. Deal arrangers seem incapable of bridging the valuation gap between the two sides.” Issuer focus on achieving high valuation is colliding with investor expectation to buy at a discount. As a result, 50% of Europe’s large planned IPOs failed this year. The situation is only slightly better for IPOs of all sizes. “In the first seven months of this year, 143 initial public offerings were priced for European issuers, while 50 others, over one-third as many, were either announced and then postponed or launched and then pulled. That’s a very high failure rate.”
Forbes (August 6)
“Call it the best disaster and recovery Wall Street has seen in a long time. In less than a week, Knight Capital screwed up royally to the point of near failure and then managed to save itself with the help of outside investors…. If a financial institution is going to mess up then this is the way to do it—without hurting clients and without getting taxpayers involved.”
“Call it the best disaster and recovery Wall Street has seen in a long time. In less than a week, Knight Capital screwed up royally to the point of near failure and then managed to save itself with the help of outside investors…. If a financial institution is going to mess up then this is the way to do it—without hurting clients and without getting taxpayers involved.”
Tags: Clients, Investors, Knight Capital, Taxpayers, Wall Street
Reuters (June 30)
The S&P 500 closed June with a bang, despite posting the first loss in 3 quarters. “Stocks surged on Friday to close out a sour quarter on a high note as investors cheered an agreement by European leaders to stabilize the region’s banks, a pact that helped remove some of the uncertainty that has plagued markets. The broad rally was the S&P 500’s best day since December 20 and helped the benchmark index trim its quarterly loss to 3.3 percent.”
The S&P 500 closed June with a bang, despite posting the first loss in 3 quarters. “Stocks surged on Friday to close out a sour quarter on a high note as investors cheered an agreement by European leaders to stabilize the region’s banks, a pact that helped remove some of the uncertainty that has plagued markets. The broad rally was the S&P 500’s best day since December 20 and helped the benchmark index trim its quarterly loss to 3.3 percent.”
Tags: Banks, Europe, Investors, S&P 500, Uncertainty
Institutional Investor (June 26)
“Despite the rise in prominence of environmental, social and corporate governance issues, many corporations still do not include ESG risks into their financial performance.” Part of the problem is the lack of a robust international framework, but progress is being made with the London-based International Integrated Reporting Committee expected “to release a prescriptive integrated framework that provides guidance details for measurements by industry sector by mid-to-late next year. Prior to that, GRI will publish their own prescriptive, but not as detailed, framework by next May.” Another issue, however, is data collection. Companies will “need the processes and controls to collect the data” for ESG reporting. Ultimately, Institutional Investor believes, “getting ESG risk in financial statements may need investor muscle…. It may be up to a few active ESG investors to push changes at the board level.”
Wall Street Journal (June 21)
In a move that “could add to the unease plaguing global markets,” Moody’s “downgraded more than a dozen global banks, including the five largest U.S. banks with global trading arms, to reflect declining profitability in an industry that is being rocked by soft economic growth, tougher regulations and nervous investors.”
New York Times (June 11)
“Bailouts—this one is worth up to $125 billion—are supposed to help restore investor confidence. But investors have clearly figured out what too many European politicians are still denying: serial bailouts, piecemeal plans and one-size-fits-all austerity are not a solution.” The Spanish bailout did not calm anybody’s nerves. The next flashpoint lies just days away with the upcoming Greek election. “With every stopgap solution to the euro-zone debt crisis, the gaps have gotten larger and the stops have gotten shorter.”
“Bailouts—this one is worth up to $125 billion—are supposed to help restore investor confidence. But investors have clearly figured out what too many European politicians are still denying: serial bailouts, piecemeal plans and one-size-fits-all austerity are not a solution.” The Spanish bailout did not calm anybody’s nerves. The next flashpoint lies just days away with the upcoming Greek election. “With every stopgap solution to the euro-zone debt crisis, the gaps have gotten larger and the stops have gotten shorter.”