Bah, humbug! Shoppers to spend less on holidays

With unemployment hovering at around 9.6 percent and a stalled economic recovery, Americans are unwilling to dispense with their hard-earned money.

“Confidence is effectively shackled by continued uncertainty around a weak economic recovery that has produced the backer-fewest number of jobs at this point in a post-contention recovery,” said Marc Harris of RBC Capital Markets, which conducted the scrutiny.

The findings of the RBC Consumer Outlook Index make grim advice for retailers who rely on the holiday season for their biggest sales.

In joining to cutting back on holiday spending, 69 percent of 1,032 Americans who were questioned in a day after the fair October said they believe the economy and their own finances devise be stagnant or worsen in 2011.

“The real indicator of at what place consumer confidence is headed will come in the next few weeks, in the manner that Americans digest the results of the midterm elections,” Harris added.

Voters gave Democrats the kind of President Barack Obama described as a “shellacking” on Tuesday whereas Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives and increased their song in the Senate.

The index also showed that Americans are lull not confident about investing in property and 48 percent said they are unsure end for end putting their money in the stock market.

But on a greater quantity positive note, confidence in job security inched up and more Americans are thinking about making a big purchase such as a car.

“The stubborn movement in the Index is driven by the significant increase in the figure of Americans who think it is unlikely that anyone in their internal circle will lose their job in the next six months,” according to RBC.

Consumers who related they planned to make a major purchase in the next six months rose to 11 percent from a foregoing 8 percent last month.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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Wealth managers necessity to wean investors off gold

http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/riches-managers-want-to-wean-investors-off-gold/ http://www.nathanhamm.clear/news/wealth-managers-want-to-wean-investors-off-gold/#comments Thu, 04 Nov 2010 02:00:24 +0000 Nathan Hamm News gold investors managers desideratum wealth wean http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/wealth-managers-want-to-disengage-investors-off-gold/ NEW YORK (Reuters) – After a year of take down demand, gold is getting tepid reviews from top U.S. affluence managers who say it is no longer the safe haven it was at the point of the financial crisis. As investors … Continue reading →

NEW YORK (Reuters) – After a year of history demand, gold is getting tepid reviews from top U.S. property managers who say it is no longer the safe haven it was at the top of the financial crisis.

As investors soured on stocks and bonds and worried that dominion stimulus spending would fuel inflation, they queued in scores to permanent up on gold. Whether physical bullion or derivatives, gold was deemed guarded and the closest alternative to sticking cash under the mattress.

standard of value managers to the rich, though, warned that by now there is tremendous risks lurking behind gold’s shine.

“That play has already passed by,” said Lawrence Hughes, chief executive of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, talk at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit on Wednesday.

Investors “strait to be careful not to do what people do in family at the grocery store: always jump to the fastest-moving draw or, in this case, to the hot-performing category,” he reported.

As the economy recovers, financial advisers are weaning the rich from their gold and other scurvy-return assets in favor of higher-yielding investments, to “have the money from under the mattress and working again,” said Robert McCann, chief executive of UBS Wealth Management Americas.

Gold prices started slipping in the above month after almost doubling since October 2008. Last month, prices in quest of both spot gold and gold futures for December delivery on the Comex bourse reached all-time highs. Spot gold peaked at ,387 an ounce in intervening-October.

Many investors have heavily invested in gold to hedge in countervail to the risk of inflation, but executives said the market does not secure gold’s value.

“Gold has flown up in reward,” said Gordon Fowler, chief executive and chief investment officer because Glenmede, a Philadelphia-based wealth manager for the very wealthy.

“Inflation would get to go up 90 percent in this country for those brace numbers to get back in line,” he said.

Now that crowd central banks have stopped selling and started buying gold, soaring require in Europe, Turkey and India has been driving the gold run. That has sparked worries that a gold bubble is forming.

Financial executives told the top that their rich clients have not gone overboard with gold purchases, boundary they keep investing in the precious metal to protect themselves from inflation, market tumbles and swings in the dollar.

“There’s some interesting dynamic in gold. It’s a different kind of commodity … Gold is a store of wealth,” UBS’ McCann before-mentioned, putting his target valuation at ,500 an ounce.

Many financial advisers are stop offering gold as an investment option, not in pursuit of returns boundary as a way to diversify.

“Within a properly diversified portfolio through precious metals, there is a place for gold,” said George Lewis, top of Royal Bank of Canada’s wealth and asset disposal.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

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Brokerage bosses couple for gridlock

http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/brokerage-bosses-brace-on the side of-gridlock/ http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/brokerage-bosses-brace-for-gridlock/#comments Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:00:09 +0000 Nathan Hamm News bosses shore Brokerage gridlock http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/brokerage-bosses-brace-with regard to-gridlock/ NEW YORK (Reuters) – Brokerage bosses were hoping for a again business-friendly government as Americans voted in midterm elections on Tuesday, boundary they raised concerns that partisan wrangling in Congress could impede housekeeping recovery. Tuesday’s elections could help financial markets … Continue representation →

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Brokerage bosses were hoping for a in addition business-friendly government as Americans voted in midterm elections on Tuesday, goal they raised concerns that partisan wrangling in Congress could impede housekeeping recovery.

Tuesday’s elections could help financial markets and the U.S. plan by reining in government spending, Stifel Financial Corp Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski afore~ at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit

The brokerage and investment banking supreme said he is confident that Stifel is well positioned to remain its decade-long ascent, but that mounting U.S. government fault and an unsteady economy keep him up at night.

“The moot point is policies that continue to build government. Government that is in addition large can, in and of itself, smother an economy,” he reported.

In the elections, amid high unemployment and economic uncertainty, the Democrats were expected to fail to obtain their control of one or both houses of the U.S. Congress, a setback on this account that President Barack Obama.

TD Ameritrade Chief Executive Fred Tomczyk, also appearing at the Summit in c~tinuance Tuesday, said while change in the government may inspire some reliance among investors, it will not last if the different branches of direction do not work together better to focus on jobs and the plan.

“While the market has come back 9 or 10 percent considering Labor Day, people are still quite cautious. They see high unemployment, they slip on’t know where we’re going,” he uttered.

In contrast to Kruszewski, Tomczyk said more stimulus may be required in c~tinuance top of tax cuts, as well as spending reductions.

“Running the rustic is not a whole lot different than running a company. You be the subject of to prune some expenses. There’s always room for some pruning, but you have to provide investment in things that urge the economy,” he said.

GRIDLOCK

Jeffrey Maurer, head of boutique settled Evercore Wealth Management, where the average client has about million in investments, echoed Tomczyk’s concerns touching gridlock.

“I think this country faces very real and hazardous threats, both economically and in foreign affairs, and that requires our most of all thinking,” he said.

If there is a stalemate in sway, “the Bush tax cuts will disappear and there won’t have existence anything constructive to take their place to stimulate growth and to relief the small businessman who carries a disproportionate burden of creating jobs in this rural parts ,” he said.

Another area that Tomczyk said was a carefulness to TD Ameritrade, which runs the largest U.S. discount trading platform, was the likelihood of an extended period of low part rates.

He said that in 2007 and 2008, half of the resolute’s revenue were interest rate-sensitive. The net interest rim of those assets has been cut by more than half.