A roundup of what the Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow is reading this morning on the world wide web.
On a bullishness scale of one to 10, with Marc Faber/permabear at the low end and your average transactional broker at 10, I'm about a six right now. There is a specific market – corporate bonds – where I'm at two, and I can't see how investors are going to avoid losses in the next three years.
If you're looking for an asset bubble, look no further than lower quality U.S. debt. Conditions haven't been this good for issuers, and this bad for investors, since now-bankrupt Pets.com did their IPO at the end of the tech bubble. Citigroup's Matt King explains why in an FT Alphaville post.
Corporate bonds: "The urge to merge meets the dash for trash" – FT Alphaville
If you're okay with NSFW blog titles, there's an excellent recap of University of Western Ontario professor Mike Moffatt's discussion of the near-economic depression conditions in southwest Ontario. Looking carefully, the long shadow of what is arguably Canada's worst policy mistake ever – the National Energy Program – is apparent.
Anonymous Tokyo-based investment banker Cassandra Does Tokyo 's blog is criminally under-appreciated. The author has been bullish on global equity markets over the past five years but is growing increasingly uneasy with investor complacency.
Are U.S. equity investors extrapolating earnings drivers that they shouldn't? – Cassandra Does Tokyo
Additional links:
Stunning UBS chart on China Housing – "China housing supply has outgrown demand" – Financial Times
Bayer agrees to buy Merck's consumer business for $14.2 billion – Wall Street Journal
Diversion: Amazing, accessible post on why you should care about fractals. Doesn't include investing applications – that's for Fibonacci fans – but still great. - Gizmodo
Follow Scott Barlow on Twitter at @SBarlow_ROB.
Scott Barlow