06 April, 2009

Stock Market, S&P 500 and Asia

In general, I don't like stocks. The Japanese market, as an example, is at the same level it was in 1981. So it's 30 years behind. If the US just went down to the level of 1990, the S&P would be at 300. It indicates that the Asian markets are at either 20 year lows or 30 year lows. The dividend yields on Asian stock markets is about three times the bond yields in those countries.

Relative to the US, Asia is quite inexpensive. So I think that, yes, emerging economies will be a place to look, and I would allocate probably now, ten to 20 percent into emerging economies.