Regular readers need to accept my sincerest apologies…updates for the next week will be rather itinerant due to a taxing MBA orientation schedule.

In the meantime, I’d like to mention that Silk Invest CIO Daniel Broby, a friend of the blog whom I consider to be an (the?) authority on frontier market investing, will be presenting a paper entitled “The case for frontier market fixed income” that he co-authored along with Silk’s Director of Fixed Income, John Bates, at the “Challenges of Globalising Financial Systems” conference to be held at the Hashemite University in Jordan on October 21-22, 2009.

The paper, which Daniel allowed me a sneak preview of, and surrounding which Mr. Bates was kind enough to answer some of my questions, posits that frontier fixed income “should be included in strategic asset allocation using a technique known as reverse asset allocation,” in order to benchmark the

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By William Patalon lll Investors better keep an eye on bonds this week. While the stock market may be more fun to follow, fixed income is often a stronger gauge of investor expectations of the economy, future U.S. Federal Reserve policy, and inflation. With the consumer price index (CPI) safely in the books for another month, economists can now turn their focus to wholesale inflation with the release of the May producer price index (PPI). Economists, mistakenly, often disregard the energy component of this data each month and focus mainly on the so-called “core” releases - which excludes “volatile food and energy prices.” While food and energy prices often suffer from month-to-month volatility based on seasonal factors, they cannot be overlooked these days as they continue to have significant impact on the global economy. Also, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) can’t seem ...

Looks like the "fertilizer correction" is over. Adding to all 3 of my names on their bounces off support; actually like the Potash (POT) chart the best here, but they all move together. I love this market. Uncle Ben has apparently created so much money, but none of it goes to people who need it out on Main Street. Instead it is flooding Wall Street pushing up equities (along with commodities) :) Kind of perverted but we all thank Uncle Ben as investors, as we curse him at the grocery aisle. $122 oil? No problem. That only affects US consumers - stocks are independent of the "little people". (X amount of stock) versus (Y amount of money supply x 20% annual growth rate) = prices go up. Economics 101. Equities are simply another commodity at this point, it appears. Every other commodity is going ballistic ...

Fixed Income Categories
Dollar Bond – PIMCO GIS Total Return Bond FundNon dollar bond – M&G Corporate Bond FundHigh Yield Bond – AllianceBerstein – Global High Yield PortfolioEmerging markets bond – Templeton Emerging Markets Bond FundAsia bond – AIG International Funds – Singapore Bond Fund
Equity Categories
Global equity – DBS Shenton Global Opportunities FundNorth America equity – Schroder