US BOND TRADER UPBEAT ON IRELAND - This morning there is a very optimistic view on Ireland from one of America's most famous bond traders.
75-year-old Dan Fuss manages an $18.5 billion government debt fund and shares responsibility for more than $100 billion worth of client funds at Loomis Sayles in Boston.
He trades in the secondary bond market, which means he does not buy directly when governments go to re-finance or re-issue bonds - but plays the price and the yields when those bonds are sold again and re-sold in the markets.
In early November he said he had been buying Irish debt at yields of over 8% because of the attractive yields. 'Two years from now, you will look back on this as one of the brightest things you did,' he was quoted as saying.
Mr Fuss told RTÉ Irish demographics were right and our workforce was amongst the best employed by US companies with overseas operations.
Mr Fuss said his company was still very keen on investing in Irish debt at current prices, and that he planned to buy more Irish debt in the New Year, if the price was right.
He said that in the long-term, Ireland was probably ranked number one in the euro zone as a place to invest. Mr Fuss said that Ireland was not the only euro country where bonds were cheap, but it was the best.
Asked about the effect of a German proposal to make bondholders share the costs of any debt crisis after 2013, Mr Fuss said he did not know and was always cautious about evaluating politically-driven statements.
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CURRENCIES - The euro is trading at $1.3140 and 84.9p sterling.
