Montreal, Canada

The world's savviest bond investors are raising their allocation to emerging market corporate bonds this spring.

Based in Orange County, California, PIMCO, a unit of Germany's Allianz Insurance, is run by two pretty smart guys. Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian dictate global asset allocation for the giant $1 trillion dollar outfit – the largest in the world.

Montreal, Canada

"We didn't sign-up for bailing-out irresponsible countries in Europe. It's not our job to support profligate spending nations. If they can't get their fiscal balances in order then let's drop the EUR and reintroduce the deutschemark."

That's the mindset of most Germans right now about what's going on in Greece and, eventually, Portugal, Spain and other weaker eurozone countries as euro-contagion spreads.

Montreal, Canada

Back in 2008 before crude oil prices peaked north of $147 a barrel, some bears were forecasting big trouble for the world economy. That's because high oil prices have historically stalled domestic consumption, economic growth and corporate profits.

By July 2008, the looming credit crisis had already erupted across world markets sending commodities prices into the basement by the time Lehman Brothers collapsed in mid-September. From its all-time high in July 2008 crude oil is down 43.5%.

Montreal, Canada

Montreal, Canada

With U.S. consumers hunkered down by high debt levels, flat wage growth and weak employment prospects, companies are drawing the bulk of their revenues from international sales this year. Approximately 20% of companies represented in the S&P 500 Index have already reported Q1 results and the big picture shows a clear trend emerging in non-U.S. sales, boosting the bottom line.

Montreal, Canada

Following an absolute massacre in October 2007 after Ottawa announced changes to the income trust tax regime, investors have returned en masse to Canadian income trusts. Lured by their fat payouts and preferential tax treatment investors have fallen in love with income trusts again. Energy trusts remain especially popular with rising payouts for those trusts over-weighted in the oil sector.

Montreal, Canada

More than anything, Friday's SEC (United States Securities & Exchange Commission) civil suit against Goldman Sachs is a public showcase. Goldman and the feds work together; assuming Goldman loses this case, it can easily pay government fines from just a few weeks of trading profits.

Montreal, Canada

According to The Wall Street Journal and a recent report by Credit Suisse, U.S. non-financial free cash-flow sits at 2.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) – near a 40-year high. That makes the largest non-financial companies in the United States among the most attractively-valued in a defensive environment for conservative investors who remain reluctant to join the post-March 2009 rally.

Montreal, Canada

Iceland is punishing Western Europe after engulfing the British Isles on Thursday. Maybe this is Iceland's way of returning some fire to Western European countries after a few large creditors pulled the plug on her leveraged banking system two years ago. The United Kingdom and the Netherlands were primary creditors to Iceland.

Zurich, Switzerland

The Singapore dollar posted its biggest daily increase in 20 months yesterday following news that its economy had fully recovered from the depths of the credit crisis.