Daily Reading – November 17, 2010
Todays interesting posts and stories:
Calculated Risk: CoreLogic: House Prices declined 1.8% in September.
CoreLogic … today released today released its September Home Price Index (HPI) that shows that home prices in the U.S. declined for the second month in a row after rising slightly for the first seven months of the year. According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, declined 2.79 percent in September 2010 compared to September 2009 and declined by 1.08 percent [revised] in August 2010 compared to August 2009. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined .73 percent in September 2010…
Calculated Risk: DataQuick: SoCal Home Sales off 24.3% from October 2009.
Southern California home sales dropped in October to their lowest level in three years amid doubts about the drawn-out market recovery, tight mortgage lending policies and expired government incentives…
Calculated Risk: AIA: Architecture Billings Index shows contraction in October.
Reuters reports that the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index decreased to 48.7 in October from 50.4 in September. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction…
FT.com Beyond BRIC’s: China: that’s no UFO, that’s my Cessna.
News that China is opening its low-altitude airspace to private helicopters and planes is a boost for international and Chinese aircraft-manfacturers. It should also address another pressing problem facing the Chinese authorities – the big increase in UFO sightings being reported across the country.
FT.com Beyond BRIC’s: China: price control risks threaten equities, say HSBC and Nomura.
If history is any guide – and it often isn’t – the threat of food price controls in China is a sell signal for equity investors. Steven Sun of HSBC has looked at what happened to Chinese stocks when price controls were last imposed, in 2008. And he doesn’t like what he sees – equities plunged 14 per cent in the three months after food price controls started and 22 per cent in the three months after coal price controls were introduced…
FT Alphaville: Es ist mir (Greek) Wurst [updated again].
If anyone was hoping Tuesday’s Austria-Greek kerfuffle was a slip of the tongue by finance minister Josef Pröll — it seems not…
Big Picture: Zulauf: How Cyclicality Drives Investing Decisions.
I have been a fan of Felix Zulauf’s approach to investing for many years. The longstanding Barron’s roundtable member is a straight shooter, with a superlative track record…
Big Picture: Why Are Yields Rising In The Face Of QE2?
Over the last several weeks we have repeatedly mentioned the Federal Reserve’s portfolio balance theory. In a nutshell, this theory states it does not matter what securities the Federal Reserve buys with newly printed money (QE2). The market will arbitrage this new money into the market that it thinks will have the most impact…
Big Picture: Déjà Vu All Over Again?
The last IPO that was as widely anticipated as the current GM offering was Visa (V), which filed in late 2007 and priced in early 2008. It was a veritable bell-ringer at the top of the market…
Big Picture: Dear Uncle Sucker . . .
For many years, I’ve been a fan of Warren Buffett’s long term approach to value investing. Understanding the value of a company, regardless of its momentary stock price, is a great long term investing strategy. But it pains me whenever I read commentary from Buffett that glosses over reality or is somehow self-serving…
Wall Street Journal: Deutsche Bank Doubles Down With a Casino.
LAS VEGAS—Wall Street is continually criticized for being one big casino. Deutsche Bank is now taking those words to heart. It has just spent $4 billion to open a big casino on the Strip here…