This week on Consuelo Mack WealthTrack three outstanding financial world figures share their “one investment” recommendation for a long-term diversified portfolio. The guests are: Bob Doll who runs three large cap funds at BlackRock; John Montgomery who heads up a family of funds using computer models at Bridgeway Capital; and Tom Petrie, Vice Chairman of Bank of America - Merrill Lynch, who is a veteran observer of the energy sector. As always with WealthTrack this is excellent viewing material.

Note: The transcript of this interview is not available yet, but will be posted here as soon as it arrives.

Source: Wealthtrack, October 9, 2009.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, click here to subscribe to updates to Investment Postcards from Cape Town by e-mail.

In the FT’s “Future of Investing” series, Larry Fink, chief executive and chairman of BlackRock talks to Henry Sender, international financial correspondent. This is excellent video footage.

Part 1:

Fink explains his concerns that the global economy is not as robust as the market is pricing in and that the economic recovery will be an elongated struggle.

Click here or on the image below to view the video clip.

Oct 2: Consolidation inevitable in asset management

Part 2:

Fink discusses the need to be global in the asset management business and the robust future for the hedge fund industry.

Click here or on the image below to view the video clip.

Source: Henry Sender,

...

• Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) reported fiscal second quarter results of 20 cents a share, compared with Zacks estimates of 11 cents a share, on revenues of $183.6 million, versus estimates of $179.0 million

• Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) cut AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) price target to $150 from $175 but maintained its “hold" rating on the stock

• Reports say modifications on the Boeing (NYSE:BA) 787 Dreamliner test plane suggest the first flight is possible by late October or early November

• The corporate head of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Game Studios division ruled out plans to acquire video game publisher Electronics Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS)

• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has offered to buy the drug unit of Belgian's conglomerate Solvay SA

• Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) raised its price target for HB Fuller (NYSE:FUL) to $23 from $18, while maintaining its "hold" rating

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) raised its price target on Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD) to $46

• Nintendo lowered its Wii price

...

Always worthwhile listening to, Evy Hambro, managing director at Blackrock and co-fund manager of the Blackrock Gold and General Fund, says the most important driver for the climb in gold prices has been the declining trend in production. Prices need to rise further before mining companies will think it will pay to invest in building new mines.

Click here or on the image below to view the video.

Source: Financial Times, September 18, 2009.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, click here to subscribe to updates to Investment Postcards from Cape Town by e-mail.

BlackRock Gives “Ups” to the Dollar

For those investors struggling to decide what currency to park their money in, or Americans concerned over the value of our dollar, the recent comments made by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) should put them at ease.

Lawrence Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock stated that they believe the U.S. dollar to be the best long-term currency to protect wealth. Coming from BlackRock, that’s a strong endorsement.

Relatively unknown prior to the financial crisis, BlackRock advised a substantial group of “A-listers” on what to do during the collapse. The result is that BlackRock now counts itself as having the largest amount of funds under management. That’s $1.307 trillion.

Asset manager behemoths like T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW), Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) must

...

BlackRock, Inc. (...

Earnings Optimism Hides Ugly Truth

by The Investment U Research Team

The mood seems to have soured on Wall Street since its bounce early this morning. And if you peer beneath the headlines, you can see why. The big news has been Caterpillar’s (NYSE: CAT) earnings, which tripled analyst’s expectations.

But as we look deeper, we find that CAT’s earnings are well below last year’s figures.

Merck (NYSE: MRK) announced that earnings dropped less than expected. Again, note revenue still dropped 2%. State Street (NYSE: STT) reported a loss of almost $3.3 billion as it writes down asset values. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) also announced lower earnings, citing stronger dollar.

On the surface, these earnings reports sound good, but they hide the ugly truth.

And the list

...

The Treasury is expected to name soon the fund managers who will operate the long-awaited Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), designed to take the toxic assets off from the banks' balance sheets, according to several reports published this morning.While the size of the program has been scaled down, the number of funds managers is expected to be more (nine) than initially announced (five). Firms likely to be included are Pimco, BlackRock (BLK), Wilbur Ross & Co. and Angelo Gordon & Co.Removing the toxic assets from the banks' balance sheets has been an integral part of the Obama Administration's plans to repair the banks, which should enable them to increase lending and support the economy.While the Toxic Asset Purchase Program (TARP) was originally designed as a way to purchase troubled assets off from financial institutions, most of it was used to inject ...

* H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) announced fourth quarter earnings of $2.09 a share, versus $1.66 a year ago, and ahead of estimates of $2.06 a share, as revenues declined to $2.47 billion from $2.54 billion.  The firm said it expects 2010 earnings of $1.60 to $1.80 a share

* Apollo Group (NASDAQ:APOL) also bettered expectations with third-quarter earnings of $1.26 per share, beating estimates of $1.12 on revenues of $1.05 billion, up from $835.2 million a year ago and estimates of $1.04 billion

* Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is said to be developing a pocket-sized product for accessing the internet on Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android software

* General Mills (NYSE:GIS) said it increased its quarterly dividend 4 cents to 47 cents a share

* Societe Generale raised its rating on Barclays Capital (NYSE:BCS) to "hold" from "sell" citing its improved capital position from the sale of its fund business to BlackRock, also noting estimates of profitability in 2009

...

There are three ways to get out of a debt crisis. First, you can work off the debt, but this takes a long time. An impatient public and an impatient government will not have the stomach the wait that would be necessary for individuals, families, and businesses to get their balance sheets in order so that a recovery can get started.

The second method is to inflate or reflate yourself out of the nominal debt burden you have created. The Federal Reserve is doing its best to create an inflationary environment so that the real value of the debt will be reduced and individuals, families, and businesses will feel comfortable enough to begin borrowing and spending once again.

The third way to reduce the burden of your debt is to repudiate the debt. That is, declare that you will not pay the debt and that those

...