September 5, 2014

1. Introductions
2. Career Services
3. What is the Investment Club?
4. Market Update (What You Missed This Summer…)
5. Why JOIN?

Name
Year
Major
Position
Previous Experience
Club Involvement

• Independently run equity based student portfolio of over $500K
Purpose:
• Provide students the opportunity to get involved and excited about financial industry
• Engage members through pitches, market analysis, and other informational presentations

• Market Updates
• Financial Analysis
• Industry Insight
• Networking

• WHAT A BLEEPING SUMMER!
• WHAT ’S GOING ON THIS WEEK?

WHY would they do it?
•
Historical move for a big central bank
• From zero-interest-rate policy (ZIRP) to NIRP
• Cheap medium term loans for lending to Eurozone businesses
• As expected the US dollar strengthened by 1.5% against the
Euro a few hours later
Stimulate economic growth
June

>>>>> FAST FORWARD A FEW
MONTHS
• Further lowered deposit rates -0.2%
• Other programs to produce more economic stimulus (eg: ABS purchase program)

• GDP expanded at 4.2% rate in second quarter
•
Personal consumption, private investments, exports, and government spending
•
Some economists believe these results are nothing too impressive
• Year GDP could possible reach just a 2% growth because of Q1 decline.
June

•
July employment report was modestly disappointing, with payrolls rising 209,000 compared to expectations of 230,000
•
Unemployment rate went from 6.1% in June to a small rise to 6.2% in July, as participation increased
•
Recent date shows that participation rate is starting to increase as a strong labor market draws candidates back to the job hunt
• FED believes that “there remains significant underutilization of labor resources”
July

Argentina BES (Portugal)
•
Faced default to bondholders for the second time in 13 years
•
Bank files for bankruptcy protection
•
Argentine stocks plunged as expected
•
Hidden, under the table dealings led to huge losses
•
No repercussions but raised concerns about Emerging Market
Economies and investing
•
Resolved and split into two banks: good, bad
July-August

Geopolitical Risk Rises for Global
Investors
• Jan 2014 – political crises have rocked the news
• Crises have had minimal lasting impact on markets
• Underestimated risks and volatility
(due to abundant liquidity)
• 28% of investors identified geopolitics as the biggest risk, compared to 14% in June

• The dollar has climbed as the Fed gets closer to raising rates, helped by the possible further loosening of monetary policy by European and Japanese central banks
• Consumer prices in the euro zone dropped to 5 year lows
• Dollar General raised its offer for Family Dollar – contemplating a hostile bid
• Goldman Sachs loaned Portuguese bank Espirito Santo $835 million after near collapse
• Barclays is selling its Spanish retail-bank unit for $1 billion
• Tesla Motors has selected the state of Nevada to house its new $5 billion dollar
“gigafactory”
• The S&P continues to hover around the 2,000 mark

September 12 th
12:15
Simon Basement