Market Summary

Market Summary   In the last few weeks, U.S. and world equity markets have exhibited the greatest period of weakness since January because of concerns that President Trump’s tax cuts and infrastructure spending will be delayed or abandoned — and at the same time, the arrival of fears due to Read more…

November 03, 2016

Market Summary Buy Volatility and Buy Gold If You Are a Long-Term Investor U.S. stocks are getting cheaper: is a short-term market bottom near? The key event this week was the strong rise of volatility and of gold after political surprises near the U.S. election:  Wikileaks, FBI investigations, and tightening Read more…

October 27, 2016

Market Summary The key to global stock markets is the U.S. dollar and U.S. interest rates.  We have all seen U.S. interest rates rise, and that is potentially difficult for developed and emerging markets.  Developed markets will be impacted as yield instruments become more competitive compared to stocks.  Emerging markets Read more…

September 29, 2016

The Case for Emerging-Market Assets We are getting more bullish on EM. We have been bullish on certain emerging-market assets since earlier this year, particularly Brazilian bonds.  We viewed them as a reversion-to-the-mean trade as commodity prices stabilized and Brazil found its way to the resolution of its long-running political Read more…

May 13, 2016

Executive Summary 1. Critically important to your investments:  popular revolts against corruption around the world.  This trend will last for decades, and upset many of the patterns we think we know.  Corruption and cronyism have existed throughout human history, and ordinary people have usually accepted them with stoic resignation.  But Read more…

January 30, 2014

Investment Summary U.S. stock market earnings and growth prospects remain positive. The U.S. market is having a normal correction, and we will use this opportunity to spend some of the cash we have raised to buy stocks at a discount. The U.S. trailing P/E as of December 31, 2013 was about 16 Read more…

January 23, 2014

Investment Summary The four emerging trends mentioned above are all significant parts of understanding the investment picture for 2014 and for the remainder of the decade. Trend #1: With large banks curtailing commodity trading businesses, there should be less risk of instability in commodity markets. The U.S. banking system could actually be Read more…

November 27, 2013

Japan: The Market Still Driven by the Yen and Monetary Policy Since last year’s elections that brought Shinzo Abe to power in Japan, analysts have been consistent in one message: ultimately, the success or failure of Abe’s attempt to bring Japan back from its long stagnation depends on his ability to enact Read more…

October 17, 2013

Global Economics Provides Reasons to Be Bullish, But Politics Poses Downside Risk As we write this, Capitol Hill’s partisan bickering and rancor have reached the conclusion we anticipated. We don’t believe that the conflict which monopolized headlines for the past two weeks is of lasting import. From our perspective, the fundamentals are Read more…