US dollar era could end: Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent

US dollar era could end: Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent

Staff Reporter

2014-01-13

Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Sargent says the era of the US dollar as the world’s largest trade currency could come to an end, China Entrepreneur magazine reports. Sargent, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2011, made the comments in an interview during a recent visit to China. Read more of this post

Stocks Losing Allure With Highest Valuation to Bonds Since 2011

Stocks Losing Allure With Highest Valuation to Bonds Since 2011

Rising Treasury yields and the biggest equity market rally in 16 years are leading one measure of stock valuations to the most bearish level since 2011. Profits as a percentage of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s price, known as earnings yield, totaled 5.76 percent last week, compared with the 2.86 percent payout on 10-year Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At 2.9 percentage points, the gap, which narrows as equities get more expensive relative to debt, is the smallest since March 2011. Read more of this post

Stock-Picking Hedge Funds Win in 2013

Stock-Picking Hedge Funds Win in 2013

ROB COPELAND

Jan. 12, 2014 4:32 p.m. ET

In a lackluster year for many hedge funds, the standouts piled into stocks early and pressed their bets as markets climbed. Many funds with outsize returns achieved the results less by employing sophisticated strategies or using leverage to magnify bets than by simply picking the right stocks. Read more of this post

Economists fear that a strengthening US currency spells calamity once again for emerging markets

January 12, 2014 5:14 pm

Investment: Dollar disruptions

By Robin Wigglesworth

Economists fear that a strengthening US currency spells calamity once again for emerging markets

For a brief moment in 2007 Gisele Bündchen became the fetching face of dollar doomsayers, when her agent revealed that the Brazilian supermodel would prefer to be paid in euros rather than the struggling US currency. Read more of this post

Detroit automakers face test of leadership in 2014

Detroit automakers face test of leadership in 2014

7:50pm EST

By Deepa Seetharaman and Ben Klayman

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co (GM.N: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) named a new chief executive, Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research,Stock Buzz) kept its old leader and Chrysler Group LLC’s CEO averted a divisive public offering. And that was just in the last 30 days. Read more of this post

Crisis Hangover Traps Best-Rated Euro Nation as Jobs Disappear

Crisis Hangover Traps Best-Rated Euro Nation as Jobs Disappear

As the euro area surfaces from its worst crisis on record, the bloc’s best-rated member and a key proponent of austerity is losing jobs and gaining debt.

The challenges facing Finland — a stable AAA rated economy — are “historic,” Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said Jan. 10 in Helsinki. “I would like to promise that the euro crisis will end this year, that Finnish structural change in industry will stop and government-debt growth will halt. Unfortunately, I can’t.” Read more of this post

Boring bond markets wait for evolution

January 12, 2014 7:23 am

Boring bond markets wait for evolution

By Paul Read

Providing income is a challenge at the moment, writes Paul Read

Bond markets have become quite boring. For several months, the chief interest of the market has been the US Federal Reserve’s programme of quantitative easing. But the questions investors have been trying to answer are when the Fed would begin to wind down its asset purchases and at what pace. Read more of this post