One corporate issuer defaulted this week, raising the 2011 global corporate default tally to 35, said an article published today by Standard & Poor’s Global Fixed Income Research, titled “Global Corporate Default Update (Oct. 13 – 19, 2011).” The rating on U.S.-based Wastequip Inc. was revised to ‘SD’ from ‘CCC-’ after the company provided [...]
Tag Archives | economic outlook
Rates increase on the horizon?
Economic developments, particularly the potential second round inflation effects of the past year’s commodity and administered price shocks, would most likely prompt the SA Reserve Bank to hike interest rates towards the end of this year and will continue with hikes in 2012. This was the comment of private client wealth manager Citadel’s Chief Investment [...]
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Kagiso PMI strengthens further
The seasonally adjusted Kagiso PMI put in a strong performance during March, rising to a 13-month high of 57.2 index points. “Significantly, after rising to just above the key 50 point level in the first two months of 2011, the seasonally adjusted business activity index increased sharply from 51.6 to 59.7 points. This robust [...]
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Upside risk to inflation but no change in interest rates
The latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting ended today (24 March 2011) and in a statement this afternoon Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Gill Marcus said that “the MPC has decided to keep the repurchase rate unchanged at 5,5% per annum for the time being. Given the significant upside risks to the inflation [...]
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The emperor has no clothes and other investment myths
Adrian Saville, CIO of Cannon Asset Managers, lifts the skirt on investment risks that abound and explores some of the opportunities that lie beneath the surface. Since the onset of the global financial crisis, investors seem to have surged from risk loving to risk fearing and back to risk loving. Unlike the Emperor [...]
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Business confidence increases sharply
The RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI) jumped from 44 points in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 55 in the first quarter of 2011. An index number in net positive territory i.e. above the neutral level of 50 means there are now more companies that are optimistic than pessimistic about prevailing business conditions. The last [...]
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Austerity has the world up in arms
By Andrea Muller The year 2011 will be the year we see a significant worldwide increase in street rioting. This observation comes from Jeremy Gardiner, director, Investec Asset Management who was speaking at the quarterly media briefing about global prospects for the coming year. “If 2010 was a year characterised by confusion, this year [...]
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Official unemployment in SA down
Official unemployment rate falls On Wednesday 8 February, Stats SA released the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for Q4 2010. The LFS is a quarterly household survey specifically designed to measure the dynamics of employment and unemployment in South Africa, including the informal sector as well as small-scale subsistence farmers. Stanlib economist Kevin Lings notes that [...]
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Emerging Markets: Risks rising
Emerging Markets: Risks are rising By Tristan Hanson, head of asset allocation, Ashburton Recent events in Egypt have not helped sentiment, but growing concern over rising inflation (largely related to rising food and energy prices) has been a more fundamental factor behind recent weakness in emerging markets. Those countries perceived to be most at risk [...]
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Tax Guide 2012
Latest Issue - 30 April 2012
In This Issue:
- Local and offshore ETFs
- Why stock selection is key
- Medical Survey - the cost of healthcare
- New player in life insurance market
Newsletters
Newsletter 17 May 2012: Lump sum versus debit order, 3 essentials for a confident investor
In today’s newsletter we look at investing with a lump sum or regular contributions – how do they stack up against each other? We also share three investment tips to cope with uncertainty. Being right about muddle-through hasn’t made investing any easier Most predicted that politically and often economically the year 2012 would be a [...]
