“We view this theme, the build-out of the developing world as it closes the infrastructure gap with the developed world, as one of the – if not the – most important themes in global investments, for the coming decade.” This is a quote from the featured story on Morgan Stanley’s main website -a report entitled: “Emerging [...]

It has been some time since the last post, but I wanted to mention that the last post was published on SeekingAlpha (Here) For this post, I wanted to highlight IBM’s biennial global CEO study. Last month IBM took out a few full page ads in the June 23rd issue of Fortune advertising their study which can be found here: Study Link (you have to register first and then are allowed to download it) The study personally interviewed 1,130 CEO’s worldwide (the breakdown is: 121 from Japan, 248 Asia, 364 EU, 39 non-EU, 290 North America, and 68 South America). The CEO’s headed a wide variety of companies- 19% of them had over 50,000 employees, and 22% had less than 1,000 – and it is unclear how they selected their sample. They reviewed topics like changing business trends, developing markets in non-developed countries, and future strategic plans. To be ...

The leading story this morning on CNNMoney was Fortune’s Global 500 – Its annual compilation of the top 500 companies in the world. As always, the report categorizes companies with a high amount of granularity: the report lets visitors analyze companies by location, fastest growing, most profitable, by industry, CEO’s, largest employees, etc. This is Emerginvest’s in-depth analysis of Fortune’s Top Global 500 report, which includes substantial shifts away from US-based firms, in a traditionally US-dominated top 500 list. This is evidenced not only by the shift in the number of companies away from the US to emerging markets, but also according to the top companies by % increase in profitability, where no US-based company appears in the top 39 spots (AMR squeaks in at #40). Here are our thoughts:

(The link) http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2008/full_list/

Not all that surprisingly, Wal-Mart clinchéd the top spot

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Aaron Katsman
IsraelNewsletter.com

In what has been an extremely volatile trading session, which has seen the shekel trade near the 3.21 level against the US dollar, news that Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer has increased the level of BOI intervention in the currency market has sent the dollar surging by more than 2.25%. The BOI announced that it will increase it’s buy-up of the greenback to a $100 million a day.

The continued rise in the Shekel has defied all logic. Even yesterday, the shekel strengthened by more than 1%, as Iran announced the testing of missiles that have the range to hit Israel. Under normal market conditions that news would have sent the Shekel reeling, but it just didn’t happen.

Let’s see if fundamental reasoning returns to the local currency market on the heels of the BOI move, or if this move is just a knee-jerk reaction that will

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Things are progressing here at Emerginvest quite well, but this week has been mostly development on behind-the-scenes code, so there isn’t too much too report. Aside from that, we know that you, our users, enjoy our site for one reason: a shared passion for global financial trends and emerging markets. In light of that, I wanted to start writing a series posts that would be more pertinent for you. Topics I have in mind are: highlighting global information portals, commenting on insightful articles, and our perspective on major financial topics like portfolio diversification. For the first of these articles, I wanted to expound upon the last post and aggregate a list of high-quality emerging market and global economic blogs. Most of these authors are financial advisers and economists and I have yet to find a place which combines this wealth of information. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so ...

Aaron Katsman
IsraelNewsletter.com

Red Red Red- That’s what the tape shows,
the market is going down everyone knows;
Step up and buy stocks off we go,
Homer, what would you say to a bank failure, Doh!

Sub-prime, oil, inflation and a weak dollar are to blame,
A year ago wasn’t the situation the same?
What goes up must come down was Newtons claim to fame,
It looks like only the shorts will be left standing at the end of the game.

Israeli stocks in the US have been shown the door,
but at current valuations isn’t there a floor?
Bears point to Iran and potential war,
Bulls say deal after deal signed, a rally we are in for.

Silicom (SILC), Alvarion (ALVR), Zoran (ZRAN), Amdocs (DOX) the list has no end,
It doesn’t look like the reversal is just around the bend;
Global banks are stuck they have no

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Jacada (JCDA) signs another material deal — this time it’s a follow-on deal with Nationwide Insurance.  According to the release, “This most recent contract extends the use of the Jacada solution to the Property and Casualty Direct Sales and Service group, to further automate and simplify access to customer, policy and billing information.”

Defense contractor Elbit Systems (ESLT) signed a $20 million deal to supply its Hermes unmanned air vehicles (UAV) to an unnamed European country.  The agreement is for air vehicles and ground systems to be delivered in 2009, according to Reuters.

Motorola, a strategic partner of NICE Systems (NICE), announced the receipt of an order on behalf of Denmark’s Interior Ministry.  The order is for an integration of NICE Inform, the firm’s multi-media

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Aaron Katsman
IsraelNewsletter.com

With global financial markets in turmoil and investors losing trillions of dollars of wealth, who would imagine that in Israel, investors’ financial assets are growing?  In a surprising report issued by the Bank of Israel reported  by Globes: “Despite global market turmoil and the shekel’s appreciation against the dollar and euro, Israelis’ financial assets grew by an additional NIS 16.5 billion in May 2008 to NIS 2.08 trillion, an all-time high.” This marks an increase of more than 6.5% through the end of May. Giddy up!

This just goes to show how strong the Israeli economy is. I don’t think that this number includes home ownership, and most Israelis are homeowners, so the real amount of wealth, not just financial assets, being created is very impressive. Even as local stock markets get hit, Israelis are just making more money and for a change, saving it. Alongside the

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Aaron Katsman
IsraelNewsletter.com

Last week in the tourist city of Eilat, the big-wigs( yours truly was not invited) of the Israeli economy got together to speak about the future of the Israeli economy. Speaking about the global economic slowdown and the ramifications on the Israeli economy, Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav mentioned that he expects a slowdown locally on the heels of the global economic slowdown. Pretty standard analysis.

Then, according to Globes, Ariav said, “The decision to integrate into the global economy has greatly limited options for the Israeli economy. 10% annual growth by emerging markets affects raw materials, oil, and disposable goods.”

What?

Is he saying that that fact Israel is now part of the global economy a bad thing? Would it be better for Israel to be a protectionist and isolationist economy, and just produce goods for our own survival?

For decades Israel has had to

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I find myself in the Swiss Alps this weekend, spending a few days with my family in the picturesque village of Veysonnaz. While tranquillity reigns and the family delights in having my attention for a change, the bad news for readers is that “Words from the Wise” is taking a break this Sunday.

As a substitute for the weekly review, I have obtained the necessary permission to republish a fascinating discussion of Kate Welling (Weeden & co) with Albert Edwards and James Montier of Société Générale. They are, in a word, skeptics, and at this juncture most deeply skeptical of any and all notions that “the worst is over”. The article will be up on

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