The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Banks lead Wall Street higher
- Millionaires list favorite fund managers
- Wilmar bullish on sugar, palm oil prices as Q3 missed forecast
| Posted: 08 Nov 2011 04:48 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks closed higher on Tuesday for a second day in a row as late-day news about Europe sparked an afternoon rally that erased early weakness. Italy's president said Silvio Berlusconi, the country's prime minister, would resign after a new budget law was approved. Equities had hoped for a resignation, which is seen as clearing the way for a leader who will act more aggressively to tackle the country's debt problems. The PHLX Europe sector index <.xex>, which includes major European shares, advanced 1.8 percent. All 10 S&P 500 sectors rose, but banks, which generally suffer whenever Europe fears surge, did particularly well. The S&P Financial Index <.gspf> was the top gainer, advancing 1.9 percent. Wells Fargo & Co added 4.4 percent to $26.53 and Citigroup Inc gained 2.9 percent to $31.42. Trading had been choppy for most of the day after Berlusconi won a vote on the ratification of the budget, but he failed to obtain an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, leading to calls for him to step down. Despite the stock market's jump on the news, many analysts expect recent volatility to persist. "The optimistic view is that this is what was needed, we'll get new blood that will allow us to start being constructive and moving on reform," said Mark Lookabill, wealth advisor at Carson Wealth Management in Omaha, Nebraska. "But there's also a pessimistic view that doesn't care who is in charge, thinking we'll just get the same old thing with no new credible plan ... when the pessimists come in questioning what happens from here, we could move right back down." The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> shot up 101.79 points, or 0.84 percent, to 12,170.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> gained 14.80 points, or 1.17 percent, to 1,275.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> advanced 32.24 points, or 1.20 percent, to 2,727.49. An S&P Energy Index rose 1.4 percent, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average <.djt>, regarded as a barometer of demand, climbed 1.2 percent. A semiconductor index <.sox> added 0.6 percent. In Monday's session, equities traded erratically until Juergen Stark, a member of the European Central Bank's Executive Board, gave an optimistic timeline for when the crisis might be resolved. Wall Street then staged a late rebound to end higher. The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, fell 7.9 percent and is down 8.7 percent so far this week. With little on the U.S. economic calendar this week and earnings season drawing to a close, investors' attention was fixed on Europe. According to Thomson Reuters data, among the 442 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 70 percent topped expectations. U.S. markets have been closely tied to the euro's fortunes while volatility has been tethered to sovereign debt. The euro hit a session high against the dollar ahead of the Italian vote. In corporate news, an experimental antidepressant from AstraZeneca Plc and Targacept Inc failed to meet the goal of changing a key depression rating score in the first of a series of pivotal clinical trials. Targacept shares plunged 60.2 percent to $7.61. Rockwell Automation Inc's quarterly profit and 2012 outlook beat analysts' estimates, sending its shares up 6.5 percent to $74.33. Volume was light, with about 7.13 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below last year's daily average of 8.47 billion. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of about 3 to 1,, while on the Nasdaq, more than two stocks rose for each one that fell. |
| Millionaires list favorite fund managers Posted: 08 Nov 2011 04:46 PM PST BOSTON (Reuters) - Hedge fund managers Paul Singer, Robert Zoellner, Kyle Bass and Israel Englander are among the handful of people millionaires trust with their riches. Norman Miller, Richard Dowdle, David Einhorn, Andreas Halvorsen and John Paulson -- whose superstar reputation looks intact even after he lost billions -- also made the cut. Traditionally, the wealthy share stocks tips and the names of their favorite investment advisors in private, but occasionally a small group of very wealthy investors give outsiders a peek into what they like and where they invested. TIGER 21, a high-end investment club whose 180 members collectively manage nearly $15 billion, released its Member Favorites Survey Results on Tuesday. But they did not say who they are or how they made their money. The 14-page long report, which the group says was "designed to highlight our Members' most valued investments," lists real estate as the most popular asset class followed by stocks and then hedge funds. The group put 12 percent of their money into the types of portfolios that cater to institutional investors and the very wealthy. "For hedge funds, this was the highest level seen since 2007," the report says. But owning land and buildings was even more popular -- maybe because the group likes what it knows best. "Many Members have created their wealth in this space, understand it, and continue to invest in an area they know well," the report said. In Figure 2: the group voted Paul Singer, an outspoken investment manager who founded $17 billion Elliott Management, as the best of its Top 10 Favorite Investment Managers. There is little discussion why Elliott, which has long treated investors to double-digit returns, beat out the others and Singer himself is named only once. The group's favorite stocks are Apple Inc, Berkshire Hathaway Inc and General Electric Co, largely mirroring other investors' favorites. "This is the second year in a row that Warren Buffett's company has been the darling of TIGER 21 Members," the group wrote. Financial companies Bank of America Corp, whose heavy losses have inflicted such pain on Paulson and his investors this year, Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo & Co are also on the list. And the group said it sticks with what it likes. "The majority of the Members said that they were keeping the same asset allocation structure," the report said. "Typically, we see very little changes within twelve months time frames." Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Wilmar bullish on sugar, palm oil prices as Q3 missed forecast Posted: 08 Nov 2011 04:42 PM PST SINGAPORE, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Wilmar International said on Wednesday higher prices will support its palm oil and sugar businesses, sounding bullish after missing earnings expectations despite an almost 24 percent jump in net profit from a year earlier. Wilmar's lower-than-expected earnings were linked to a foreign exchange loss and weaker margins from its consumer product business as the rise in cost of feedstock outpaced the price increase. Wilmar's results compared to a 66 percent drop in the earnings of U.S. agribusiness and trading firm Cargill Inc {CARG.UL], while Bunge, the world's largest oilseed processor and among the top sugar and ethanol producers, saw its earnings declined by a third. "The group remains positive of its prospects, despite uncertainties in the global economy, due to the resilience in the demand for agricultural commodities and the continued growth of Asian economies," the company said in a statement. Wilmar said palm and laurics will benefit from the recent changes in the Indonesian export duty structure for palm products, which it said is highly advantageous for downstream processing margins. The company has about one third of its total crude palm oil (CPO) refining capacity in Indonesia, Macquarie said in a research note, adding current CPO price could give Wilmar a potential uplift of $104 per ton in Indonesian refining margins. The world's largest listed palm oil plantation firm, which generated more than half of its revenue from China, partly benefited from an increase in its cooking oil selling price by 5 percent in China earlier this year. But it said consumer product margins in the third quarter were still lower from a year earlier due to bigger increase in cost of edible oils feedstock, while the group had only about one month of price increase benefit in China. Wilmar was allowed to increase its price for consumer products in China on August 1. The company, which owns palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia as well as sugar operations in Australia, earned a net profit of $321.05 million for the quarter ended September 30, compared to $259.5 million earned a year ago. That compares to an average forecast of $461 million from five analysts. Excluding the exceptional items, the company recorded a net profit of $442.4 million compared to $172.4 million a year ago. Its earnings in the second half of 2010 were hit by losses from its oilseeds and grains business, which the company blamed on weak margins and inopportune buying. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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