Pioneer

Best Blogs of the Week #200

Four interesting posts (from last week, so no mention of Monday’s wild day for US equities) to share covering domestic and international issues.

 Wrestling with the Costs of Crumbling Infrastructure –Lord Abbett

“There is some talk that oil price declines have made room for a gasoline tax hike, but otherwise, infrastructure spending will remain hostage to the many other demands already straining federal, state, and local budgets,” said Milton Ezrati.

Macro Matters: China’s Currency Move –PIMCO

If China were merely to embark on aggressive currency depreciation without further domestic monetary easing and market reforms, this should be seen as bad news. Chinese exporters would gain a competitive advantage…

3 Things the European Investment-Grade Fixed Income Team Talked About Last Week –Pioneer (interesting post; rough title) –

“Perhaps the reason that global bonds initially rallied was that the Renminbi (RMB) move was seen as a global deflationary move. A weaker RMB (and other Asian currencies) should mean weaker commodity prices…”

 Thoughts from the China Beige Book –WisdomTree

“… the Chinese currency appreciated by over 20%. The rise in the dollar resulted in the yuan becoming far more expensive compared to its Asian neighbors, which corroded its competitiveness. Given this steep rise in the value of the yuan, the 3% devaluation is rather small by comparison.”

Best Blogs of the Week

Three excellent posts this week spanning very different topics.

  • BlackRock – Simple post on the reason why Ukraine may be worth monitoring.
  • Pioneer – We see many posts on inflation, but this is particularly compelling because of the perspective shared.
  • Russell – Is the trouble with smart beta the name? This post suggests so.

Best Blogs of the Week

Though we had ample tax-related blog posts to select from, these two slightly technical posts related to Eurozone investing were the week’s most compelling.

  • AllianceBernstein – Across asset classes (post).
  • Pioneer – Investing by macroeconomic factors (post).

 

Best Blogs of the Week

We are starting to get the end of year posts that include topics such as tax harvesting, capital gains’ distributions, and the importance of financial planning. Interestingly, this week included additional posts related to the US equity markets. We’ve included one related to US equities and one on 2014 planning.

  • BlackRock – Helpful 5 considerations (for both FAs and investors) for 2014
  • Pioneer – Straightforward opinion on the US equity market

 

Best Blogs of the Week

Government shutdown. There I said it and seems like everyone in the industry has a requisite blog post now. I liked this post the best (via Pioneer) because of the honest and direct tone.

In speaking with a dozen FAs last week, a common topic (after seeking out yield): is the broad stock market? This succinct post provides a data-driven view.