Biggest Gainers On The Forbes 400

 

The superrich on the Forbes 400 got even wealthier over the past year. Nine of the ten biggest dollar gainers on the 2011 list of the richest Americans are among the 20 wealthiest people in the country. The biggest dollar gainer of all is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth increased a staggering $10.6 billion since August 2010 to a current $17.5 billion. The reason:  the private market valuation of Facebook nearly tripled to $66.5 billion. The jump in net worth lands Zuckerberg among the top 20 for the first time.

Hedge fund tycoon George Soros had the second largest dollar gain, a $7.8 billion increase to $22 billion. Soros had a good year, but the big jump was mostly due to new information that revealed he owns a much greater percentage of his funds than Forbes had previously estimated. Soros now ranks 7^th. It’s the first time he’s cracked the top ten.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson racked up the third largest jump in wealth — a $7 billion increase — thanks to soaring shares of Las Vegas Sands, which were up about 50% from a year ago. The Sands now gets nearly 90% of its operating profit from Asia, including from a casino resort in Singapore and Hong Kong-listed joint venture Sands China, which has three resorts in Macau.

Jeff Bezos clocked a $6.5 billion gain to $19.1 billion on the back of an impressive 55% rise in Amazon shares. He’s now the 13^th richest person in the U.S. Amazon is thriving, now selling more e-books than printed books.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison is up $6 billion from a year ago to $33 billion. Despite all the legal battles between Oracle and rivals SAP, HP and Google, Oracle stock was up 15% from last August when we took a snapshot of U.S. wealth on August 26. Ellison gave $50 million worth of Oracle shares to his Ellison Medical Foundation over the past year.

Bill Gates also racked up a big $5 billion gain in his net worth, bringing his net worth to $59 billion. Most of the increase is attributable to the performance of his  investments outside of Microsoft, where 75% of his net worth now lies. Microsoft stock helped, too, perk up by 5% from a year earlier.

Buyout investor Harold Simmons of Texas saw his net worth jump $4.3 billion to $9.3 billion as shares of Valhi, his publicly traded buyout vehicle, climbed a staggering 250% in the year through late August.

Rounding up the top ten biggest dollar gainers: the three Mars siblings:Forrest Mars Jr., Jacqueline Mars and John Mars. The siblings inherited stakes in candy maker Mars, which became the world’s largest with its 2008 purchase of Wm. Wrigley. The net worth of each Mars sibling increased $3.8 billion to $13.8 billion. All three are tied at #20 on the list.

Here’s a table with the 21 biggest gainers on the Forbes 400 this year:

Name		2011 worth	2010 worth	Increase
Mark	Zuckerberg	$17.5 bln	$6.9 bln	$10.6 bln
George	Soros	$22.0 bln	$14.2 bln	$7.8 bln
Sheldon	Adelson	$21.5 bln	$14.7 bln	$6.8 bln
Jeff	Bezos	$19.1 bln	$12.6 bln	$6.5 bln
Larry	Ellison	$33.0 bln	$27.0 bln	$6.0 bln
Bill	Gates	$59.0 bln	$54.0 bln	$5.0 bln
Harold	Simmons	$9.4 bln	$5.0 bln	$4.4 bln
Forrest	Mars	$13.8 bln	$10.0 bln	$3.8  bln
Jacqueline	Mars	$13.8 bln	$10.0 bln	$3.8 bln
John	Mars	$13.8 bln	$10.0 bln	$3.8 bln
Thomas	Peterffy	$5.0 bln	$1.4  bln	$3.6 bln
Charles	Koch	$25.0 bln	$21.5 bln	$3.5 bln
David	Koch	$25.0 bln	$21.5 bln	$3.5 bln
Jeffrey	Hildebrand	$5.3 bln	$1.9 bln	$3.4 bln
John	Paulson	$15.5 bln	$12.4 bln	$3.1 bln
Jack	Taylor	$9.0 bln	$6.5 bln	$2.5 bln
Leonard	Lauder	$6.3 bln	$4.2 bln	$2.1 bln
Dustin	Moskovitz	$3.5 bln	$1.4 bln	$2.1 bln
Phil	Knight	$13.1 bln	$11.1 bln	$2.0 bln
Carl	Icahn	$13.0 bln	$11.0 bln	$2.0 bln
Len	Blavatnik	$9.5 bln	$7.5 bln	$2.0 bln

 

Silver prices may rise to $150 in 18 months

Silver prices are once again enjoying a run-up as they did from January through April. During that period they doubled and briefly touched $50 an ounce before settling back down to the low $30s.

As I write, Silver prices are back above $40 an ounce and that may be giving you the urge to sell.  I would advise that you don’t. This recovery is for real, and it has much further to go.

While I have a price target of $50.00 by years end, I anticipate silver prices will peak at $150 an ounce in 18 months.

Central banks around the world are pushing lax monetary policies and this leads me to conclude that prices for all commodities (gold and silver in particular) will rise.

We've already seen this happen with Gold hitting a record high $1,923.70 an ounce on Sept. 7 and when gold goes higher; its baby brother silver quickly follows.

That's reflected in something called the gold to silver ratio, which shows how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. Traditionally, this ratio acts as a price barometer for the two precious metals. And if you look at it right now, it's easy to see that $150 silver isn't far off. Gold and silver prices traditionally move together because both are considered stores of value in inflationary times and while the world considers gold as the premier store of value, other societies, most notably the Spanish empire in the Americas, Imperial China and Mogul India, used the silver standard and are therefore more focused on silver when inflation threatens.

In the 19th century silver and gold prices maintained a fairly steady relationship to each other in a ratio of 16 to 1. This was due to the fact that both gold and silver were viewed as currency.  However, in the 20th century silver depreciated against gold. This was due to the fact that silver began to be seen as a commodity that was mainly used in industrial applications. While the two metals are chemically very similar, but Silver is much cheaper and therefore is more suitable for industrial uses.

By 2010, Gold traded well above $1,000 an ounce while silver traded at $12-$14 an ounce or a ratio of close to 80 to 1. This was unsustainable, and it resulted in the price of silver rising in 2010-11. At its peak, silver was trading for $50 an ounce and about a 30 to 1 ratio to the price of gold.

Going forward, we cannot expect the gold/silver price ratio to reach 16 to 1, as it almost did in 1980.

I believe the reason for this is the use of silver as an industrial metal has fallen off sharply when the price spiked. That freed up silver supplies while investment demand for gold soared.

The second reason is that the 1980 silver price spike was caused by the Hunt Brothers' attempt to corner the silver market. No such attempt is visible today.

So, I believe the peak ratio of silver to gold is much more likely to reach something closer to 25 to 1.

The peak in gold is yet unknown, but for supply/demand reasons it seems likely to be above $2,500 an ounce - today's equivalent of the 1980 peak, adjusted for inflation - but less than $5,000 an ounce - the 1980 peak adjusted for growth in world gross domestic product (GDP) or money supply.

That would suggest a silver price peak between $100 and $200 per ounce, with $150 an ounce the most likely outcome.

In conclusion, the market will not ultimately turn bearish until global monetary policy tightens. With the November 2012 U.S. Presidential election looming large on the horizon, we probably have at least another year of rising prices. However, we may not have two years to wait for politicians decide to get our fiscal house in order.

My recommendation would be to any silver holdings at least until prices reached $150 an ounce.

MCX Copper, Nickel up on Obama tax proposal

MCX Copper and Nickelgained in afternoon trade on Tuesday as President Barack Obama’s plan to tax the rich. MCX Copper November is up by 0.52% and is trading at Rs 406.80 while MCX NickelSeptember is up 0.81% to trade at Rs 1021.70 as of late afternoon trade on Tuesday.

US president Barack Obama’s plan to “ensure that the rich pay their due” supported investor confidence that the US will be taking strong steps to lower its debt burden and boost its economy. The proposed action will help in cutting US deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years.

At COMEX, Copper futures for the most traded December contract is up by 0.02% at $3.80

MCX Nickel is up after latest data showed that stocks in LME fell by 1410 tonnes last week. Reports of a Nickel ETF in China also support prices.

Technical targets by Geojit Comtrade

- MCX Copper November: Rallies to 408/410 could call for 402/398.
S1 402 S2 398 R1 410 R2 416

- MCX Nickel September: Rallies to 1028 could target 1005/990 with s/l above 1045.
S1 1000 S2 980 R1 1028 R2 1045

• GOLD22499(+52)
• SILVER67790(+762)
• COPPER409.5(+6.15)
• CRUDE OIL4205(+35)