Are Stocks Ahead of Themselves? In his latest quarterly commentary, Wally Weitz writes that his fund shop holds “substantial cash reserves” because stocks aren’t cheap

MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013

Are Stocks Ahead of Themselves?

By WALLY WEITZ AND BRAD HINTON | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

In his latest quarterly commentary, Wally Weitz writes that his fund shop holds “substantial cash reserves” because stocks aren’t cheap.

(Editor’s Note: Weitz is president and founder of Weitz Funds and Hinton is the firm’s director of research. A longer version of this commentary, which includes the latest quarterly performance figures for Weitz Funds, is available on the company Website.)

Bonds, as we have discussed in recent letters, have probably come to the end of their 30-year bull market. Their yields are artificially depressed (and prices artificially inflated) by Federal Reserve actions. This leaves bond investors in an awkward position. We do not know when interest rates will rise, but absent a serious recession, they will. When this happens, holders of long-term bonds will be “locked into” current low interest rates and will experience poor returns. Read more of this post

Europe Breakup Forces Mount as Union Relevance Fades

Europe Breakup Forces Mount as Union Relevance Fades

Thomas Bellinck, a Belgian theater director, has put a date on the European Union’s collapse: 2018.

The doomsday timeline of his Brussels exhibition called “Life in the Former EU: Final Years of the Long Peace,” presented the bloc’s six-decade run as a peaceful interregnum before the continent’s relapse into nationalism, an interlude where technocrats were too focused on regulating the diameter of tomatoes as their experiment in multinational democracy withered. Read more of this post

Survivor of 150 Years of Turmoil Faces Being Buried by Abenomics; “The cost of wages will go up while Abenomics will raise the price of everything, adding to our costs. We will be buried without a new source of revenue.”

Survivor of 150 Years of Turmoil Faces Being Buried by Abenomics

When Shigeo Aiba is worried about the survival of his company, it’s time to pay attention. Aiba is president of Togo Seisakusyo Corp., a Japanese maker of industrial springs that traces its roots back more than 150 years to when Jyouuemon Aiba began repairing farm equipment among the rice fields of Chita peninsula 270 kilometers (170 miles) southwest of Tokyo. The business, which survived the effects of the Great Kanto Earthquake, defeat in World War II, destruction by a typhoon and the collapse of the asset bubble in the 1980s, is now struggling to survive Abenomics. Read more of this post

Gold-plated buildings a growing trend in China

Gold-plated buildings a growing trend in China

Monday, October 21, 2013 – 15:04

AsiaOne

CHINA – The new headquarters of People’s Daily, with its freshly gold-plated facade, highlights an increasing number of gilded buildings in China over the past decade. China’s rapid development and booming economy have lent a touch of glitz to various buildings in cities such as Beijing, Kunming, Jiangsu and Shenzhen, which range from office buildings, airports, hotels and tourist landmarks. These buildings with gleaming exteriors have captured the attention of many passers-by and sparked much discussion among both locals and foreigners. Despite their golden appearance, these buildings are actually clad in brass and dyed anodized aluminium. However, many people are still unimpressed by the ostentatious displays of wealth.

China to restrict satellite TV stations to one foreign program

China to restrict satellite TV stations to one foreign program

Sun, Oct 20 2013

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China will allow satellite television stations to buy the right to broadcast only one foreign program each year from 2014 as part of new restrictions to push “morality-building” and educational shows, state media reported on Monday. The official Shanghai Securities Journal, citing an order by the General Administration for Press and Publication to domestic television stations, also said foreign programs could not be broadcast in prime-time viewing hours from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. during the year in which the broadcasting rights were purchased. Read more of this post

Luxury Rents Fall in Hong Kong on Expatriate Budget Cuts

Luxury Rents Fall in Hong Kong on Expatriate Budget Cuts

Luxury-home rents in Hong Kong and Singapore, two of Asia’s most expensive cities for apartment leases, are declining for a third year as banks squeezed by slowing growth cut budgets for expatriate workers. Rents for Hong Kong homes that broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. categorizes as luxury fell about 1.1 percent in the first half of 2013, bringing their losses to about 13 percent since peaking in October 2011. The average monthly rent of Singapore condominiums that charge at least S$12,000 ($9,670) a month slid 0.2 percent to S$4.86 per square foot in the three months ended June, the lowest since the December 2009 quarter, London-based broker Savills Plc said. Read more of this post

Smog Puts Focus on Air Outside Beijing

October 21, 2013, 6:23 PM

Smog Puts Focus on Air Outside Beijing

A woman wearing a mask checks her mobile phone on the square in front of Harbin’s landmark San Sophia church, in China’s Heilongjiang province on Oct. 21. Although Beijing’s air pollution has somewhat abated since earlier this month, parts of northern China on Monday were covered in thick smog, forcing the closure of some schools, airports and highways in the region.

Read more of this post

Draghi challenged rules that would bar banks from accessing public aid unless they forced losses on junior bondholders, a central building block of European Union protocols for handling struggling banks

Draghi Challenges EU Bank-Aid Rules Over Forced Losses

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi challenged rules that would bar banks from accessing public aid unless they forced losses on junior bondholders, a central building block of European Union protocols for handling struggling banks. In a letter to EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, Draghi said EU rules need to be clarified so regulators can order technically solvent banks to strengthen their balance sheets without scaring off investors. Draghi said public capital needs to be available — without wiping out subordinated debt holders or forcing them to convert to equity — if a bank’s holdings are above regulatory minimums and also below what supervisors deem necessary in a particular case. Read more of this post

Shale Overload to Spur U.S.-China Fuel Trade: Energy Markets

Shale Overload to Spur U.S.-China Fuel Trade: Energy Markets

U.S. exports of natural gas liquids, already at a record amid surging output from shale deposits, are poised to quadruple by 2020 as the expansion of the Panama Canal cuts shipping costs to Asia. Deliveries of the fuels to foreign buyers averaged 555,000 barrels a day in July, the most in U.S. government data going back to 1981. China’s imports of propane, butane and isobutane, with uses as varied as home heating, chemical manufacturing and refrigeration, jumped 23 percent in August from a year earlier, customs data show. Read more of this post

Not much of a festival season for Indians as gold runs dry

Not much of a festival season for Indians as gold runs dry

5:09pm EDT

By Siddesh Mayenkar

MUMBAI (Reuters) – In India’s biggest bullion market, Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar, gold dealers are busy — not filling orders for customers, but busy avoiding phone calls because they don’t have any gold to sell. Battling a huge trade deficit and a weak currency, the government has taken various steps this year to make it harder and more expensive for Indians to get hold of gold, the biggest item on the country’s import bill after oil. Read more of this post

Myanmar’s aviation industry booms despite grim safety record

Myanmar’s aviation industry booms despite grim safety record

5:22pm EDT

By Aubrey Belford and Min Zayar Oo

KONEMOE, Myanmar (Reuters) – Htay Aung was riding pillion on a motorbike last Christmas morning, wending through the cool hills of eastern Myanmar, when Air Bagan Flight 11 came down on top of him. The Fokker 100 – more than 24 tonnes of aircraft, plus 65 passengers and six crew – sheared its way through trees and powerlines, across the road and into a field short of nearby Heho airport. Htay Aung found himself sucked into a scorching maelstrom of debris. Read more of this post

Buffett’s Berkshire cuts Tesco stake by one-fifth -filing

Buffett’s Berkshire cuts Tesco stake by one-fifth -filing

6:15pm EDT

(Reuters) – Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) last week slashed its stake in the world’s No.3 retailer, Tesco Plc (TSCO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), by about one-fifth, or 300 million pounds ($484.75 million), according to a stock market filing on Monday. The move came two weeks after Tesco posted a decline in its first-half profit as earnings from mainland Europe tumbled 68 percent, and the grocer struggled to regain market share in its main British market. Tesco has been losing market share to rivals that include Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Asda and J Sainsbury Plc (SBRY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which this month reported a 2 percent rise in second-quarter sales. Read more of this post

Legoland Operator Merlin Entertainments Plans IPO in London; owners are seeking an enterprise value, or the sum of Merlin’s equity and net debt of 1.3 billion pounds, of about 4 billion pounds

Legoland Operator Merlin Entertainments Plans IPO in London

Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd., the private-equity backed owner of Madame Tussauds and the London Eye, plans to raise 200 million pounds ($324 million) selling shares in a London initial public offering. Blackstone Group LP (BX), CVC Capital Partners Ltd. and Lego Group owner Kirkbi A/S are expected to sell part of their stakes in the offering, the company said today in a statement. The owners are seeking an enterprise value, or the sum of Merlin’s equity and net debt, of about 4 billion pounds, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the sale has yet to be completed. A London-based company representative declined to comment on the valuation. Read more of this post

Oil Patch Activism to Spur 2014 Dealmaking and Shakeups

Oil Patch Activism to Spur 2014 Dealmaking and Shakeups

Activist investors may spur a return to dealmaking in the energy industry as shareholders seek to reap greater value from oil and natural gas reserves. A new round of boardroom shakeups in the oil patch should force additional restructuring and asset sales in the next year, William D. Anderson Jr., a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) banker, said at the Bloomberg Link Oil & Gas Conference in Houston yesterday. Corporate takeovers may be less likely. Read more of this post

KKR to Goldman Skirmish for 3% Scraps as $48 Billion LBO Bankruptcy Looms

KKR to Goldman Joined in Scraps Skirmish as LBO Bankruptcy Looms

KKR & Co., Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and TPG Capital, the firms that led the $48 billion buyout of Energy Future Holdings Corp. in 2007, are fighting to receive barely 3 percent of their initial investment when the power generator files for bankruptcy as soon as this month. Negotiations with senior creditors including Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) and Centerbridge Capital Partners LLC, which are poised to seize control of the former TXU Corp., are at a crucial juncture today when agreements that allow them to view nonpublic information to foster talks expire. A proposal disclosed last week that wasn’t accepted would have given the company’s owners as little as $270 million. Read more of this post

ETFs Churning Record Cash as $47 Billion Flows to Market; “There’s no doubt that ETFs have greater influence than before, and the swings in the ETFs are indicative of general market feelings. They become the market.”

ETFs Churning Record Cash as $47 Billion Flows to Market

Money has been flowing in and out of financial markets more rapidly than ever before this year, a bullish signal as the threat of a U.S. government default fades. About $47 billion has gone to exchange-traded funds that track everything from stocks to bonds to commodities since Sept. 1, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That followed about $18 billion pulled in August, $40 billion added in July and $11 billion pulled in June, making it the most volatile period on record for flows. Almost $7 billion went to ETFs on Oct. 17 alone, as Congress passed legislation to avoid a default. Read more of this post

Sharp Japan export slowdown dents ‘Abenomics’, flags Asia weakness

Sharp Japan export slowdown dents ‘Abenomics’, flags Asia weakness

7:26am EDT

By Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s export growth fell well short of expectations in September as the country posted a record run of trade deficits, a sign that slowing demand in Asia is taking the shine off Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s stimulus policies. In volume terms Japan’s exports fell on the month, adding to the weak picture for Asia’s trade-reliant economies, after China last week reported a surprise slide in exports for September. Taiwan’s export orders – a leading indicator of activity over the next two or three months – highlighted similar signs of slowing demand in the region. “There is really no change in the main thing that’s going on across Asia – which is no growth in exports the past two years. I think it’s weak global spending, it’s as simple as that,” said Tim Condon, regional economist for ING in Singapore. Read more of this post

BIITS Replacing BRICs as Emerging Markets No Longer Blanket Buy

BIITS Replacing BRICs as Emerging Markets No Longer Blanket Buy

Emerging markets risk shattering into BIITS.

Investors in these markets are becoming more discerning about where they put their money, shying away from countries such as Brazil, India (SENSEX), Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa. Behind the discrimination is a new-found focus on current-account deficits and structural weaknesses exposed by the likelihood of less stimulus from the Federal Reserve and cooling demand in China, according to economists from HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and International Strategy & Investment Group LLC. Read more of this post

Banks Face Risk-Model Clampdown in Basel Trading-Book Review

Banks Face Risk-Model Clampdown in Basel Trading-Book Review

Banks face an overhaul of how they calculate possible losses on securities they hold in their trading books as global regulators target discrepancies in how lenders measure the riskiness of their investments. In a bid to address weaknesses uncovered by the financial crisis, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision may publish draft proposals as soon as this month on capital rules for assets that banks intend to trade, according to members of the group. Read more of this post

Vietnam airlines prepare for boom as roads fail

Vietnam airlines prepare for boom as roads fail

HANOI — Vietnam’s fledgling airline industry is poised for a boom as local competition heats up with fleet expansions, new routes and planned share offers that are set to make it one of the world’s three fastest growing markets.

50 MIN 8 SEC AGO

HANOI — Vietnam’s fledgling airline industry is poised for a boom as local competition heats up with fleet expansions, new routes and planned share offers that are set to make it one of the world’s three fastest growing markets. Even as the local economy chugs along at about 5 per cent growth, its slowest pace in 13 years, demand for domestic air travel is growing by double digits. That is translating into a surprisingly robust new source of business for Boeing, Airbus and regional aircraft makers such as Mitsubishi, Bombardier and Embraer. Read more of this post

Silicon Valley Makes Its Next Stop the Kitchen; A number of food start-ups see a big, slow-moving market begging to be invaded by someone with new ideas and a new way of building a business

OCTOBER 20, 2013, 11:00 AM

Disruptions: Silicon Valley’s Next Stop: The Kitchen

By NICK BILTON

SAN FRANCISCO — Megan Miller knows that cockroaches are packed with protein and she says they can be made into a surprisingly tasty treat. But if that is a bit too avant-garde to believe, do you think you might like crickets if they were “ground up into a powder so you can’t see wings or legs?” Ms. Miller believes you would. She is the co-founder of Chirp Farms, a start-up firm here that is dedicated to making food like the company’s flagship Chirp bars, which are $2.50 morsels made of crickets. They are expected to arrive in stores next year. While making food from insects might sound fascinating — or icky — the approach she is taking, treating Chirp Farms like a technology start-up rather than a food outfit, is what really makes the company interesting. Read more of this post

S. Korean businesses spooked by being branded as ‘next Tong Yang’

S. Korean businesses spooked by being branded as ‘next Tong Yang’

Noh Won-myung, Lim Sung-hyun

2013.10.21 14:46:31

South Korean businesses are spooked by being labeled as the “next Tong Yang,” as rumors abound some companies will follow the fate of Tong Yang Group, which collapsed under the pressure of cash crunch. Companies are fretting about being branded as a potential victim, which could cripple them by turning away lenders irrespective of their actual financial status. Kim Jun-ki, chairman of Dongbu Group, was forced to clarify the financial health of the conglomerate himself Saturday to quell the speculation surrounding the Group.
Also, Doosan Group is also rumored to face cash crunch, after having pursued a series of merger and acquisition deals in the last 10 years and thus seen its debt to equity ratio rise.
The talks has emerged that steelmakers, builders, heavy industry companies, and marine shippers have been troubled by liquidity shortage since the early days of the Tong Yang Group’s crisis. Now a new term, “3D Group,” has been coined to call Tong Yang Group, Dongbu Group and Doosan Group. Choi Soo-hyun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, said “there are four more conglomerates like Tong Yang Group. We are investigating and are on lookout for them.”

‘LS Cable should be punished’ for providing faulty cables to nuclear power plants, causing at least one-year delay in the operation of two new reactors

2013-10-20 17:22

‘LS should be punished’

Energy experts call for example-setting action on faulty cable maker
By Choi Kyong-ae
Lawyers and energy experts are calling on the government to get tough with JS Cable. JS Cable is an affiliate of LS Group and was recently found to have provided faulty cables to nuclear power plants, causing at least one-year delay in the operation of two new reactors. Read more of this post

Koreans consumed less coffee for third straight quarters due mainly to the prolonged global economic slowdown denting their spending activities

2013-10-21 11:14

Coffee consumption declines for 3rd straight Qtrs

Koreans consumed less coffee in the second quarter of 2013 from a year earlier, data showed Monday, due mainly to the prolonged global economic slowdown denting their spending activities. The average spending of local households on coffee and tea came to 7,873 won (US$7.41) in the April-June period, falling 1.8 percent from 8,017 won tallied last year, the Korean Statistical Information Service data showed. It marked the second quarterly drop in 2013. While the figure edged down 1.3 percent on-year in the fourth quarter of 2007, it had maintained a quarterly on-year gain hovering around 10.5 percent between 2008-2012. Market watchers said the recent decline came as South Koreans tightened their belts amid global economic uncertainties, and rising competition in the market also added to the limited expansion of the industry. “As major franchise coffee shops are also suffering a decline in their earnings, the falling household spending on the beverage may not be a temporal phenomenon,” a local analyst said. “While opening coffee shops was considered to be high-profit and low-cost business opportunities for the post-retirement period, (South Koreans) should now be more careful before considering opening one,” the analyst added. South Korean households’ spending on alcoholic beverages, meanwhile, expanded 8.7 percent to 10,163 won over the cited period, while expenditure on tobacco products shed 6.4 percent to 17,424 won, the data also showed.  (Yonhap)

TV shows in China take canned laughter to the next level

TV shows in China take canned laughter to the next level

Staff Reporter

2013-10-21

China’s ‘professional audiences’ are not the focus of TV shows, but they still get paid for their appearance; as soon as the camera starts rolling, they’re on the clock. The practice of using a ‘professional audience’ in talk shows and reality shows in China, the members of which are paid to applaud, laugh or cry on cue and liven up the atmosphere of television programs is becoming increasingly common. Read more of this post

Surviving but profits suffer: Second-generation Sino-Italian entrepreneurs fighting recession

Surviving but profits suffer: Second-generation Sino-Italian entrepreneurs fighting recession

Updated: 2013-10-21 07:06

By Mariella Radaelli ( China Daily) Read more of this post

Starbucks under media fire in China for high prices

Starbucks under media fire in China for high prices

3:20am EDT

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has been charging customers in China higher prices than other markets, helping the company realize thick profit margins, a report by the official China Central Television (CCTV) said. The world’s largest coffee chain is the latest foreign company to come under fire from official Chinese media, which has targeted other prominent foreign names like Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and comes amid a pricing crackdown by regulators. Read more of this post

Low water rates undercut China’s desalinization effort

Low water rates undercut China’s desalinization effort

Staff Reporter

2013-10-21

Two years ago when facing water price hikes in cities and risks of water shortages, companies had been eager to invest in desalinization efforts in China, but they soon sidled off to the the sidelines, waiting for the government to unveil its core subsidy policy for desalinization, the Beijing-based Economic Observer reports. That said, some enterprises have begun to step in to the breach. Hydrochina Huadong Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of the state-run Power Construction Corporation of China (Powerchina), acquired eastern China’s biggest desalinization firm Zhoushan Liuheng Water Supply Co for 144 million yuan (US$23.6 million) in September. Read more of this post