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What Would The Cost Of “Insurance” Be On A Million Dollar Portfolio? February 03, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Markets

Imagine you had a plain vanilla $1 million equity portfolio that was solely invested in the S&P 500 and you were starting to feel a little nervous about stocks because of high valuations or deteriorating earnings estimates. How would you go about protecting yourself if stocks began to decline in earnest?

Unimpressive Manufacturing PMI Results Out of Europe February 02, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Markets

Markit’s PMI Manufacturing survey data released today showed little change in euro area countries’ headline readings, as most continued to hover around the all-important 50 level: The largest monthly improvement was in France (~2 points) while Ireland’s survey fell the most (~2 points), and no country came close to the three-point move posted by Austria

Americans Are Driving The Most Since 2008 February 02, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in News

The latest data (November) out of the US Department of Transportation for miles driven on US roads shows that more miles were driven on an annualized basis in November than in any month since July 2008.

World Inflation Continues To Tumble January 30, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Markets

Our basic proxy for global inflation continues to fall further. The year-over-year change of the CPI of 33 countries (using a simple average) has fallen for eight straight months and now sits at just 1.42%.

Long Duration Bonds Seem Like The Right Play January 30, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Markets

The Barclays US Aggregate Treasury total return index is up nearly 6% year-over-year. This index has a modified duration of 5.75 years. Not a bad return considering the on-the-run 5-year treasury is currently yielding 118 basis points.

Global Healthcare: The Alpha Drip Feed Continues January 29, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Markets

Looking across the global equity markets, it is clear that an asset allocation approach based on sector exposures has worked better than any geographic allocation. In particular, an overweight allocation to the health care sector would have benefited portfolios tremendously.

Digging Deeper into Deteriorating Sales and EPS Estimates January 28, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Economy

Analyst estimates of future corporate performance can be some of the most confusing financial data items out there in no small part due to the multitude of different ways of measuring them.

Is There A Case For German Equities? January 27, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Markets

With the highest productivity in Europe, a sizeable current account surplus and rock bottom interest rates, is there a case to made for German equities? Germany’s competitiveness, export performance and trade surplus should increase as the Euro weakens helping German exporters in markets outside of the Euro bloc.

3-Month Change in EPS Growth Estimates Falling at Fastest Rate Since 2008 January 27, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Economy

As we noted in our last post, the absolute level of EPS growth estimates has fallen to the lowest level since 2009 in North America and Europe, but has remained fairly stable in Asia and EMs.

EPS Growth Estimates Absolutely Plunging in North America & Europe, Stable in Asia, EM January 27, 2015

By Knowledge Leaders Team in Markets

Without delving into the multitude of reasons for the drop, we just point out that EPS estimates for next twelve months are falling like a stone in North America and Europe and for these two regions the bottom line estimates point to the lowest growth rate since late 2009.

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