InvestIdeas

If you're bullish on America, buy this emerging market instead
From Frank Holmes of U.S. Global Investors:

... Do you remember 2004's Man On Fire? In this movie, an ex-CIA agent, played by Denzel Washington, reigns fury on the criminals and corrupt cops responsible for kidnapping a nine-year old child he was hired to protect. The movie had a major impact on people like me, living so close to the border.

This past weekend, 60 Minutes featured the story of Edelmiro Cavazos, an up-and-coming star in Mexico's political arena who was kidnapped and murdered by corrupt policeman linked to the drug cartels in August.

Mexican markets have stood in the face of this turmoil and soldiered on. Over the past three months or so, Mexico's stock market, the BOLSA, has more than doubled the performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, 19.19%versus 8.45%, respectively.

Sometimes, things have to get worse before they can get better.

It's true -- 2010 ranks as the deadliest year yet in Mexico's war against the drug cartels, with 11,041 drug-related deaths as of mid-December, representing a 385% increase since 2007, according to global intelligence firm Stratfor.

http://www.usfunds.com/investor-resourc ... lk/?i=4804

Mexico says $250 million in oil stolen in 4 months By MARK STEVENSON

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Increasingly sophisticated thieves stole thousands of barrels per day of oil products from Mexico's state-owned oil company in the first four months of 2011, thefts worth about $250 million, the company's director said Thursday.

Those thefts amounted to almost one million barrels in the first four months of the year, a level almost 50 percent more than what thieves stole in the same period of 2010, according to the Petroleos Mexicanos oil company, also known as Pemex.

Pemex director Juan Jose Suarez Coppel said the stolen fuel was the equivalent of 100 tanker trucks per day.

"Fuel theft has increased in the last few years," said Energy Secretary Jose Antonio Meade. "The gangs that participate in these crimes are increasingly sophisticated, better organized and many times they have carried out these thefts using the latest technology."

Mexican officials say drug cartels have been involved in the thefts, often by tapping into state-owned pipelines. The thieves will sometimes inject water into pipelines to cover up the drop in pressure caused by thefts or drill a second tap near the first to continue siphoning off oil if the first is detected.

Drilling into pipelines is dangerous because of the high pressure and combustibility of the fuel; while illegal pipeline taps have caused explosions, fires and spills in the past, authorities still find hundreds of successful taps each year.

Suarez Coppel said 556 illegal taps had been detected so far in 2011, compared to 710 in all of 2010.

Officials have said in the past that drug cartels have been implicated in some of the thefts, especially in northern Mexico. Suarez Coppel said the largest number of thefts — about 150 — occurred in Sinaloa state, considered the cradle of Mexican drug trafficking. He said the cartels may sell the fuel or even use it for their own vehicles.

About 390 of the taps involved refined fuel pipelines, while about 135 were at ducts carrying crude. Because there is little market in Mexico for unrefined oil products stolen from some pipelines, the thieves often sell the oil products to U.S. refineries.

Pemex filed lawsuits in May against nine U.S. companies for alleged involvement in buying or processing Mexican oil products.

But thieves have also sold unrefined fuels to bulk users like brick kilns and factories, so authorities have proposed new laws that would stiffen penalties for the possession, sale or use of stolen oil products.

The changes being discussed in congress would also allow organized crimes charges to be brought in fuel-theft cases, and allow charges to be brought against Pemex employees or subcontractors who give information to thieves.

In the past, investigators have said workers may have told thieves when pressure in pipelines would drop for maintenance or other reasons, allowing them a window of opportunity to drill into ducts more easily.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/mexico-says-25 ... ovmvgzUSV8

saw this earlier in the news..

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Authorities Apologize After A Playboy Model Completely Overshadows Mexican Election Debate

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/julia-or ... z1uHczUoIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... qti5GfUGdI

6.0 quake strikes off Mexico coast

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 struck off the Mexican Pacific coast late Sunday, US researchers said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 11:26 pm Sunday (0626 GMT Monday), was located in the Gulf of California 73 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of the Mexican town of Topolobampo, the US Geological Survey reported.

The earthquake reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.


Source: AFP Global Edition

Investing in Mexico: Latin America’s Next Largest Economy by Mike Kapsch

http://www.investmentu.com/2012/Novembe ... erica.html

Mexican Stocks Leading to the Upside by JC Parets

I had this published over at MarketWatch today. It’s titled, “Mexican Stocks Soar To Historic Highs ”.

Here is an excerpt:

http://allstarcharts.com/mexican-stocks ... he-upside/

Mexico could be planning to back its currency with silver by Mac Slavo

For many Americans the country of Mexico conjures up images of a third world nation. The poverty, lack of basic services, and extreme violence has left the populace so desperate that thousands of people on a daily basis head to the United States for a better life.

But according to Future Money Trends, all that could change in the near future as key Mexican financial leaders and politicians have been working to institute sweeping monetary change that, if implemented, could unleash a global power shift of epic proportions.

Source: SHTFplan.com

http://thecrux.com/forget-china-or-russ ... ollar-now/

He said three alleged gang members claimed the students were handed over to them by police.



Mexico gang members 'admit killing missing students'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29963387

Mexican stocks continue to fall… big country fund EWW is down 20%-plus over the past three months.

Mexico is a buying opportunity

Mexico is one of my longest running New World investments, and it has not had a good year.

One reason is politics. There was a lot of excitement when Enrique Peña Nieto became president. And in his first year and a half, he did a lot right, passing seven important structural reforms in labour, tax, education, anti-trust, banking, electoral legislation and energy. But in the second half of 2014, things started getting complicated.

First up, the corruption allegations: Peña Nieto’s wife’s house was linked to a Mexican construction company that counts the government as one of its biggest customers. Public suspicion increased when it later emerged that finance minister, Luis Videgaray, also bought a home from the same firm. Compared to some of his presidential predecessors, Peña Nieto’s corruption scandals are quite tame, yet it has undermined his claim to be a break from Mexico’s usual parade of greedy politicians.

Another pre-election pledge that is suffering is the promise to reduce crime. High-profile narco-murder cases have pushed Peña Nieto’s approval ratings down to 39% - lower than most of his predecessors at this point in their tenures. And that low approval could hit his ability to execute the much-vaunted reforms.

The move to open up the energy sector by auctioning off access to foreign companies has attracted the most attention from investors, but it’s also the most controversial among Mexicans. The first auctions are scheduled for 2015, but if Peña Nieto’s popularity slides further it could weaken his ability to further boost international involvement in Mexico’s energy sector.

It sounds tough, right? Well as I said last year, the main reason I buy into Mexico has never been the politics. That might move sentiment in the short-term but my long-term reasons for liking the country is that it’s a manufacturing powerhouse that’s closely integrated with the US and a play on the recovery there.

Throw in its welter of mineral and hydrocarbon wealth, and a young and growing population, and it’s clear that Mexico is heading in the right direction. As for the politics, I believe that Peña Nieto will ride out the storm. Even if he doesn’t, the reform have been passed. The genie is now out of the bottle, so eventually they’ll start to give an extra boost to the economy.

I normally suggest tracking the Mexbol through an ETF, such as the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped UCITS ETF. It’s up since I first tipped it but dropped almost 10% last year.

I’d call that an opportunity…

Source: The New World