IPE Real Assets (October Issue)
With the uncertainty of Brexit, “REITs have been trading at discounts to net asset value (NAV) of around 15% to 25%.” Faced with scant opportunities, some are electing to return money to unitholders through buybacks or special dividends. But there is clearly a “disconnect between sentiment in the public markets and private markets.” As REITs encounter “limited opportunities in the office space, institutional investors, particularly global investors, have made many high-profile acquisitions.” This includes “the UK’s largest-ever office deal…in July when Hong Kong’s Infinitus Property Investment bought the iconic ‘Walkie Talkie’ building at 20 Fenchurch Street for £1.28bn.”
Tags: Acquisitions, Brexit, Buybacks, Disconnect, Discounts, Dividends, Hong Kong, Infinitus, Institutional investors, NAV, REITs, Sentiment, UK, Uncertainty, Unitholders
Institutional Investor (June 4)
Due to Brexit, “sovereign investors now consider the U.K. less attractive than they did a year ago and are instead favoring investments in Germany and India as part of a broader move to so-called safe haven markets.” The change in sentiment was identified through a survey of “sovereign wealth funds, state-owned pensions, and central banks polled by Invesco.”
Tags: Brexit, Central banks, Germany, India, Invesco, Investors, Pensions, Safe havens, Sentiment, Sovereign, U.K.
Institutional Investor (August 21)
Black swan events “will continue to jolt global markets. But when even the best of human forecasters struggle to predict with accuracy the outcomes of these events, how can pension plans, for example, effectively make decisions to better weather the volatility that follows.” Big data may hold the key. “Using big data to track media sentiment, volume, tone and correlation can help institutional investors understand the diffusion of ideas and outliers that can serve as clues for unexpected risk.”
Tags: Accuracy, Big Data, Black swan, Correlation, Diffusion, Forecasters, Global markets, Human, Jolt, Outcomes, Outliers, Pension plans, Sentiment, Unexpected risk, Volatility
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
Institutional Investor (August 12)
“Disappointing sentiment data and continued conflict in eastern Ukraine” are leading to investor apprehension. “Slowing production levels and low inflation appear to leave the door open for European Central Bank intervention but political support for action from European Union leaders is still far from consensus. With a strong correlation between primary global equity indexes that has been noted by multiple strategists in recent sessions, deteriorating investor confidence in Europe is likely to cast a shadow over U.S. equity markets in the near term.”
Tags: Confidence, Conflict, Consensus, Disappointing, ECB, Equities, EU, Inflation, Intervention, Investors, Production, Sentiment, U.S., Ukraine
Newsweek (February 24, 1964)
Visually the Beetles “are a nightmare, tight, dandified Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically they are a near disaster, guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of “yeah, yeah, yeah”) are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments….”
Tags: Beetles, Catastrophe, Disaster, Drums, Guitars, Hair, Harmony, Lyrics, Melody, Music, Nightmare, Rhythm, Sentiment
Investment Week (May 14, 2013)
A recent sentiment poll by Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows that worries over the commodity sector are moving to the fore as fears over Europe dissipate. “A quarter of respondents to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s monthly poll on manager sentiment said a commodity collapse is the number one tail risk, an increase from 18% in April.” In contrast, respondents identifying “EU sovereigns and banks as the number one tail risk dropped to 29% from 42% in April.”
Tags: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Banks, Commodities, EU, Fund managers, Sentiment, Sovereigns, Tail risk
Euromoney (March Issue)
“Investors are probably being too bullish about the size and buying power of Africa’s middle class.” Following a 2011 African Development Bank (ADB) report which pegged the middle class at 313 million, “it has become commonplace to hear wonderful things about the rise of Africa’s middle class.” The ADB’s figure, however, is misleading as it includes individuals making between $2-5 per day. Using a more conservative definition of those making $10-20 per day, Africa’s middle class would probably number less than a quarter of the ADB’s estimate. “Africa has vast potential, but investor sentiment today is pricing in a level of progress towards it that is not yet backed up by facts.”
Tags: ADB, Africa, Investors, Middle class, Misleading, Potential, Sentiment