Hedge Funds buying stocks at fastest rate in two years!!!

Hedge funds trailing the Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) Index for the last five months are giving up on bearish bets and buying stocks at the fastest rate in two years.

A gauge of hedge-fund bullishness measuring the proportion of bets that shares will rise climbed to 48.6 last week from 42 at the end of November 2011, the biggest increase since April 2010, according to data compiled by the International Strategy & Investment Group. The Bloomberg aggregate hedge fund index gained 1.4 percent last month, lagging behind the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by 2.65 percentage points.

Light at the end of the tunnel and its not a train!!!

The Fed said yesterday that strains in global financial markets have eased and the labor market is gathering strength. In a separate statement, the U.S. central bank said 15 of the nation’s largest 19 banks could maintain adequate capital levels even in a recession scenario. Data later today may show Indian wholesale prices rose 6.7 percent last month, near the slowest pace in two years, based on economists surveyed by Bloomberg
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“It is just a continued pattern of relatively strong U.S. economic data,” said Shane Oliver, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which oversees about $100 billion. “Overall it’s fairly a positive sign for the U.S. financial sector, banks in particular. It shows how much things have turned around from the situation three years ago.”

it’s going to be a good year! :-)

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rallied 0.8 percent as of 11:12 a.m. in Tokyo, climbing for the third time in four days. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.2 percent. The yen weakened 0.2 percent to 108.44 per euro and New Zealand’s dollar appreciated 0.4 percent to 82.16 U.S. cents. Oil traded near the lowest level in a week in New York.

U.S. retail sales rose 1.1 percent in February, the most in five months, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, reducing the likelihood the Federal Reserve will add to stimulus measures today. The Bank of Japan is also forecast to keep policy unchanged today. European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said he was confident EU leaders would reach an agreement on increasing the size of its crisis- fighting funds this month.

“We’re starting to feel more confident and it’s going to be a good year, particularly in equities,” Kirk West, Sydney- based executive director of international investments at Principal Global Investors, manager of about $215 billion in assets, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “‘In the U.S., it’s all about jobs. Jobs growth has continued and will ultimately lead to further consumption and that’s a virtuous cycle.”

People working again = what a concept....

Employers in the U.S. boosted payrolls more than forecast in February, capping the best six month streak of job growth since 2006.

More Good News!!!

About one-third of U.S. local governments may have their credit rating raised by Standard & Poor’s (MHP) under a new methodology that the company is proposing to boost transparency and comparability.

The change would affect about 3,800 issuers, S&P said in a report today. About 65 percent of ratings may remain unchanged under the plan, while 3 percent could drop, typically by one level, S&P said.

The BULL runs...

The S&P 500 is on pace for a third month of gains, the longest streak in a year, amid better-than-estimated economic and corporate reports. It has risen 4.2 percent this month. The index trades at about 14.1 times reported earnings, compared with the average since 1954 of 16.4 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

'It's only halftime, America'

Confidence among U.S. consumers rose more than forecast in February, reaching a one-year high as Americans grew more upbeat about the outlook for the economy. 

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment increased to 75.3 this month from 75 in January. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for 73, after a preliminary reading of 72.5. New-home sales last month were stronger than projected, another report showed.

Three straight months of faster job growth along with a stock market rally since late 2011 are helping keep Americans optimistic in the face of rising gasoline prices. Further gains in confidence may sustain the household spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.

“The overwhelming fact is that the job market has gotten better,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist for John Hancock Financial Services Inc. in Boston, who projected a gain. “People are back to spending most of the additional income that they get, so as employment increases and you get some meager increases in wages, they do feed through to more spending.”

‘Powerful Recovery’

“The powerful recovery in earnings thus far has allowed market averages to rise without pushing the P/E higher,” David Joy, the Boston-based chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial Inc., said in a Feb. 21 e-mail. His firm oversees $600 billion. “Many investors are either not convinced that this price rally and earnings recovery are for real, or they simply do not care, having been burned too badly in the downturn.”

U.S. gross domestic product expanded an average 2.4 percent a quarter in the 2 1/2 years since the recession ended in 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The world’s largest economy hasn’t had a smaller post-recession recovery rate since at least the 1940s, the data show. In the 2003 bull market, GDP rose 2.7 percent on average, before the S&P 500 surged 102 percent. For the 1982 rally, the rate was 5.7 percent. Equities more than tripled in that cycle.

If you want your retirement money; your investment money to do better => Vote Democrat!!!