New York Times (December 23)
The proposed acquisitions of NYSE Euronext by IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and Knight Capital Group by Getco both “reflect the demise of traditional stock-exchange trading. The equities market has been eclipsed by the global market in derivatives, and human traders have been increasingly replaced by computers programmed to profit from split-second price anomalies.” Regulators have not kept pace with this change. “The mergers should remain on the drawing board unless and until regulators can reassure the public that the newly created companies will operate not only for private gain, but in the public interest as well.”
Tags: Derivatives, Equities, Getco, High-speed trading, Ice, Knight Capital, Mergers, NYSE Euronext, Regulation
Investment Week (October 25)
Unfazed by a recent slump in the Dow, veteran investor Warren Buffet is taking advantage of the chance to increase his equity holdings. “If the market is down, I am happier buying. If I go to the supermarket and they have reduced prices, I feel better. So if I go to the stock exchange and they have reduced prices I feel better.” Indeed, he believes growth will continue in the U.S., which has stronger fundamentals than Europe.
Institutional Investor (August Issue)
With ￥108 trillion in assets under management, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is almost six times the size of CalPERS. “Even more striking than the fund’s gargantuan size is its composition: Fully three quarters of the GPIF is invested in bonds, including ￥58.4 trillion of domestic bonds and ￥14.4 trillion of government agency debt.” This “mountain of government bonds” is “a low-return and potentially high-risk strategy,” and stands in contrast to other pension funds which are “trying to grow their way out by continuing to bet heavily on equities and making ever-larger allocations to private equity, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure and other illiquid assets.”
Bloomberg (February 8, 2012)
Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock Inc. (BLK), has provocative advice for investors. He’s bullish on the economic outlook and urges investors to take advantage of ultra-low equity valuations. According to Bloomberg, Fink believes “investors should have 100 percent of investments in equities because of valuations and higher returns than bonds.”
Tags: BlackRock, Bonds, Bullish, Equities, Larry Fink, Outlook, Valuations
