Below is a brief summary of our outlook for global stock, commodity and currency markets for the coming week.As speculation about market reaction to the Dubai World debt delinquency for the coming week dominated our thinking last week, so the market’s response to the wildly better than expected Non-Farms Payrolls data could well be among the dominant influences this week, as it may well have improved expectations about the recovery of the world’s largest economy and consumer market.Complete Story »

  Ravi Nagarajan submits:Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) released the proxy statement for the previously announced special meeting and set the date for January 20 at 9:30 a.m. in Omaha. As the company announced in November when the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) acquisition was announced, a shareholder vote is not required to approve the acquisition itself. However, the 50-for-1 stock split does require shareholder approval. Shareholders will be asked to vote on the following questions:Complete Story »

  Edward Hugh submits: As doubts grow that in the post Dubai World Russia's central bank will be able to sustain a great deal of momentum in its ongoing programme of interest rate reductions, we learn this week that the pace of expansion in Russia's economy slowed back in November, following two months of steady advance in September and October. This time services activity also weakened its advance while manufacturing activity registered its second month of contraction. Yet, the central bank may well show increasing restraint in lowering interest rates, even as the economy slows, the ruble rises, and bank retail lending continues to fall, having declined for nine consecutive months up to and including October, while corporate lending dropped for a second month in a row and hasn’t risen for six months (for more on the particular topic see my recent post - Are Russia's Consumers Getting "Carried Away" With Themselves?). While the seasonally adjusted VTB Capital Total Activity Index remained in positive territory for the fourth month running in November, the latest figure of 52.8 indicated the weakest rate of growth in three months.Complete Story »

  Ravi Nagarajan submits:Prem Watsa, Chairman and CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH), has often been referred to as “Canada’s Warren Buffett” due to his successful insurance and investing track record. However, in a recent interview with canada.com, Mr. Watsa expressed very different views regarding inflation compared to Warren Buffett’s recent statements on the subject. A few excerpts from the interview appear below. Inflation ExpectationsComplete Story »

  Ravi Nagarajan submits:The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its November report on employment Friday morning which shows that unemployment dropped to 10.0% from 10.2% in October. While any drop in the “headline” unemployment rate is likely to be greeted with celebration (or at least relief), Friday’s report actually highlights several negative trends: Non-farm payroll employment fell by 11,000 jobs in November which is an improvement compared to the average of 135,000 job losses over the prior three month period. However, this seemingly modest number of net jobs lost obscures the fact that job losses were concentrated in construction, manufacturing, and information technology while temporary employment accounted for much of the gain (in addition to a smaller gain in health care employment). Apparently, many permanent jobs were lost while temporary jobs partially replaced them – not a trend likely to add to consumer confidence. The civilian labor force shrunk by 98,000 in November. The “not in the labor force” group rose by 291,000 in November. To the extent that not all of these individuals voluntarily left the labor force during the month, it is obvious that a large number of “discouraged workers” are included in this statistic. Of the total number of people not in the labor force, the BLS estimates that approximately 5.6 million want a job but are not included in the official unemployment statistic because they have not actively seeking a job. Broader measures of unemployment, such as U-6 continue to show very high levels of labor force under-utilization. U-6, which includes marginally attached workers as well as those employed part time due to difficulty finding full time employment, fell to a seasonally adjusted 17.2% in November from 17.5% in October. Due to natural growth in the labor force associated with a rising population,the United States economy must add a significant number of new jobs each month simply to keep the long term unemployment rate constant. President Obama has stated that the United States needs to create 150,000 jobs per month just to keep pace with population growth and keep the unemployment rate constant:Complete Story »

  The second phase of a monumental pharmaceutical study was released a few days ago, and women everywhere must pay attention. For those who believed the myth that cardiovascular disease was not significant in women, and that the use of statins wouldn’t help women who might be at risk – this is a big wake-up call. Pay attention: you are at risk and statins can be of enormous benefit. (And improper legislation may prevent women from having access to such a beneficial product).Complete Story »

  Ravi Nagarajan submits:More details are emerging regarding the management transition at NetJets earlier this year when David Sokol was named Chairman and CEO after Richard Santulli’s unexpected resignation. Last month, Mr. Sokol granted an interview with The Columbus Dispatch regarding his turnaround plans for NetJets and predicted at least break even results for 2010. In a New York Times article published Friday, some interesting details are provided regarding the management transition, Mr. Sokol’s cost cutting plans, and his overall management style. A few brief excerpts appear below. Santulli Unhappy With Oversight from Berkshire Complete Story »

  Old Trader submits:Given the rocky state of the auto market in almost all of the developed economies, there's little wonder that car makers continue to consolidate in an effort to trim costs, and to lighten the load of developing new, green products for their markets.The latest "hook up" is PSA Peugeot Citroen's (PEUGY.PK) plan to enter a "strategic partnership" with Japan's Mitsubishi (MMTOF.PK). One of the possibilities for the shape of this partnership would include PSA purchasing a stake of anywhere from 30 to 50% of Mitsubishi. The two firms already cooperate to a degree,sharing SUV platforms, and are in the process of building an assembly facility in Russia to manufacture Peugeot, Citroen, and Mitsubishi mid-sized cars and SUVs. In addition, Mitsubushi and Peugeot have agreed to develop a car based on Mitsubishi's i-MiEV car, which is to be sold in Europe under the Peugeot and Citroen nameplates by the end of 2010.Complete Story »

  On Monday December 7 at 2pm ET, we'll host here a live discussion on current opportunities in dividend investing. The panelists are three SA contributor portfolio managers who are particularly interested in dividend-yielding stocks for their clients' portfolios. Here are the panelists, their credentials and some of their recent writing on dividend investing:Chuck Carnevale is co-founder and chief investment officer at EDMP Investment Management of Lutz, Florida. Prior to EDMP, he was a partner in a 30-year-old established registered investment advisory in Tampa, Florida. He's also been a partner with a private NYSE member firm, the President of a NASD firm, and a Vice President of a major American Stock Exchange listed company.Complete Story »

  Mariusz Skonieczny submits: Company's Business Have you ever heard of the Daytona 500? You probably have because it is the "Super Bowl" of NASCAR sporting events. While every driver dreams of winning this event, I dream of owning it. Can you imagine collecting the income stream from hundreds of thousands of people paying for admissions, hot dogs, and the most overpriced American beverage – beer? But that's not all. If you owned the Daytona 500, you would also receive income from television media rights fees, corporate sponsorship, advertising, royalties from licenses of trademarks, track rentals, and merchandise sales. As you can probably imagine, this is "big money." Even if you could afford to buy the Daytona 500, the current owners would not likely sell it to you because they know its value. But you might say, "Everything is for sale for the right price." I agree. But the right price would most likely be right for the current owners and too high for you. But in the stock market, it is a different story. Since shareholders often do not really act like real owners, but more like day traders, they get shortsighted, which allows you to scoop up fabulous businesses at pretty good prices.Complete Story »

  Mariusz Skonieczny submits: Company's Business Have you ever heard of the Daytona 500? You probably have because it is the "Super Bowl" of NASCAR sporting events. While every driver dreams of winning this event, I dream of owning it.Complete Story »

  Ravi Nagarajan submits:Morningstar has announced the launch of its corporate credit ratings initiative which will initially cover 100 companies with plans for expansion to 1,000 companies as additional credit analysts are hired in the coming months. As we have discussed in recent months, the economic moats of the established credit rating firms such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s has continued to shrink in light of multiple high profile ratings failures during the financial crisis. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Morningstar is leveraging its equity research analysts to conduct the credit research work. The company has hired two credit analysts and plans to hire ten more in the coming months which will expand coverage to the 1,000 company target. Morningstar plans to stick with corporate credit ratings and will not rate individual bond issues or complex structured products.Complete Story »

  Trader Mark submits:Don't want to pat ourselves on the back too hard, but we almost nailed this one to a tee. Just as we immediately said post Bush spring $190B 2008 stimulus there would be another one coming in 2009.... (and the $787B was even bigger than the $500B we imagined)... we said immediately after the spring 2009 stimulus there would be another one coming. And they will keep coming as we claim we are nothing like Japan....except for the fact we have repeated almost every action.. Now as you recall we were sold on the last stimulus by such things as "spending on infrastructure", "it will stop unemployment from going over 8%", and it will "create or save 4 million jobs". Well since that last stimulus was (a) mostly a political favor pork barrel package with only a fraction going to actual infrastructure and (b) a back door bailout to the states, guess what we are going to do this time again? Complete Story »

  Ira Stoll submits: Bloomberg's David Reilly has a provocative column on how Goldman Sachs (GS) is the target of all the public attention and outrage from the bank bailouts, while JPMorgan (JPM) has been shieldedfrom questions about its own size, profits and payouts even as it reaps many of the same rewards as Goldman.Complete Story »