5 July 2007

Investor Jim Rogers says sell Wall Street banks | Bonds News | Reuters.com

Investor Jim Rogers says sell Wall Street banks | Bonds News | Reuters.com: "SINGAPORE, July 5 (Reuters) - Fund manager and investment author Jim Rogers said he was selling stock in Wall Street banks because of a likely housing market slump and suggested buying sugar as a way into commodities.

Rogers, who co-founded the Qantum hedge fund with billionaire investor George Soros in 1970, is a long-time commodity bull and believes that fast growth in Asia, especially China, makes the region more attractive to investors than the United States or Europe.

'Financial companies, stock brokers, investment banks -- I am short. I am short financial services companies, mainly in America. I am short (U.S. home funding firm) Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile , Research),' he told reporters after a speech to investors, adding that America's financial sector offered 'the best' short selling opportunities available."

nvestors have been increasingly nervous about U.S. financial stocks as the market for risky, or subprime, mortgages faces a possible crisis due to rising defaults and repossessions.

"The problems with the housing market have a long way to go in the United States. Probably more so than in any other country. But the excesses in the world economy are on Wall Street: investment bankers. Those guys are making vast fortunes, that's not the way the world works."

Rogers traveled around 116 countries in 2000-2002 in a yellow Mercedes coupe. He also traveled through China in the 1990s, looking for investment ideas and collecting material for his popular books, which include titles such as "Hot commodities: How anyone can invest profitably in the world's best market" and "Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers".

"China is the next great country in the world -- whether we like it or not. And a lot of people in the West do not like it that China is the next great country in the world," he said, citing the country's high savings rate and hard-working people. Continued...

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