Monday, June 13, 2011

Monday Links

David Rosenberg: "The slide in U.S. bond yields is telling you that an economic slowdown is here and here to stay beyond Q2, despite consensus views to the contrary. The fact that copper was down in the same week that oil was up says two things here — the former reflects the falloff in Chinese imports; the latter tells you a thing or two about just how thinly balanced the global demand-supply for crude is..."

ZH: "Greek, Portuguese and Irish CDS All At Record Wides"

"According to a recent report by Fitch, as of February, 44.3 percent of prime money market funds in the United States were invested in the short-term debt of European banks." Also: "It will be American banks and insurance companies that will have to make the lion’s share of default insurance payments to European institutions if Greece fails."

Nickel Plunging Into Bear Market on Biggest Glut in 4 Years

Demand for zero-coupon bonds is rising so fast that Wall Street banks created $205.2 billion of them as of May, the most in three years and just $3.6 billion away from levels last seen at the beginning of 2000, according to the Treasury Department.

ZH: "Berkowitz, Heebner And Miller Are Worst Stockpickers Of 2011 As Permabullish Groupthink Bus Crashes." Legg Mason in particular has really been struggling. The value fund has recently underperformed the S&P in both rising and falling markets.

6 comments:

Taylor Conant said...

Hahaha I spoke to a CFA candidate two weekends ago and he was telling me about gurus he likes to follow and specifically mentioned Ken Heebner. I didn't say anything at the time but chortled quietly inside.

CP said...

Chortling quietly is one of the choicest satisfactions of a gentleman.

Heebner:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CGMFX
Down 7.6% YTD. Got OBLITERATED in 2008. Now hugely long F and GS. 7% in AAPL - wtf? Stockpicking skill?

EconomicDisconnect said...

I seem to remember some issues with money market accounts breaking the buck that caused a big problem way bacck a long time ago.....

CP said...

Correct. It could happen again.

Taylor Conant said...

Judging by their stock picks, people like Heebner went to sleep in 2008 when the shit was hitting the fan and thought they woke up in the early '90s, where every seemingly disastrous recession was followed by the obligatory rampant recovery and automotive and finance companies would necessarily therefore be screaming buys.

CP said...

This one is funny:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/23/magazines/fortune/birger_americas_hottest_investor.fortune/
Oooh, hot tips from Goldman Sachs!! Also, magazine cover indicator.

http://humblestudentofthemarkets.blogspot.com/2008/09/heebner-pukes-his-positions.html