• MET officially unveiled plans this morning to buy AIG’s American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) for
$15.5B. Also – the WSJ is reporting that PE firm CCMP Capital is buying IUSA for ~$460MM.
• Across our research teams at JPM we turn more bullish on risky assets. This is driven by increased
comfort from recently released data that US and global growth will pick up in the spring. The pick‐up in
the non‐manufacturing sector in the US and globally which has been evident in recent data is an
important sign that the growth rebound is spreading beyond inventory‐adjustment in manufacturing.
JPMorgan’s global PMI index rose to a level consistent with job growth for the first time since July ’08
thanks to the non‐manufacturing pickup – E Beinstein.
• Stock rally draws yawn from investors – despite stocks near 52w highs, investors hate US equities
about as much as they did in Mar ’09. Investors are shunning US equities in favor of fixed income and
emerging markets. That said, there are some signs that this is changing as appetites for fixed income
appear to be waning. WSJ
Nasdaq 3 Year Daily Chart
-18.6%
83.4% Rally
The Nasdaq quietly makes new highs for this rally, but still sits 18.6% below the highs from October,
2007. The S&P 500 is ~27% below its previous highs.
• CBO forecasts higher deficit than White House projections – the CBO, mid‐day on Friday, released a
report indicating that deficits would be some $1.2T higher than White House forecasts over the next
decade. At that time, interests costs would total more than $900B annually. WSJ/Bloomberg
• Health Care ‐ there were a bunch of articles on health care but no major substantive news; there is
a push to have a vote take place prior to Obama leaving on a trip through Asia on 3/18 and before
Congress leaves for a 2‐week Easter recess on 3/26. • Health Care – to help move forward the health
care debate, the WH is seizing on a recent Goldman Sachs investment research report which urges
investors to buy HMO shares b/c of rising rates and falling competition; the WH intends to make the
report its closing argument for HC in the next few weeks. NYT – I’m just guessing, but that’s probably
not how Goldman intended for this research to be used…or is it?