Barry Riley advises us to stick to short term savings deposits, or otherwise equity income yielding around 3%.

Over 10 years, capital will erode in real terms 18% at 2% inflation which is the official BOE target, so today’s RPI 4.8% or CPI of 3.1% will have a more severe impact.

Markets often climb a wall of worry, as the maxim goes. The trick is is to judge how steep the gradient of that wall is at any point in time. The fuel of corporate profit growth has temporarily lowered the gradient, and major US indices moved to marginal new highs yesterday. The bullish case for world markets could be encapsulated as follows: (more…)

The post Feb 27 recovery is still alive and kicking, although the Nasdaq 100 tracker QQQQ has just had a sharp rebuttal at a key resistance level, just as it describes in the manuals. There was a large gap created on Feb 26-27th, if you look closely at the chart. This is significant resistance that must be overcome before the advance can make further progress. Of course, to the non-chart orientated investor, this is stating the blindingly obvious. But to those who use charts to refine market tactics and define overall market strategy, these guidelines or pointers of how markets have behaved in the past in similar situations can be pretty helpful. (more…)

Arguably one of the very best proxies for tracking what is happening in emerging markets is the ETF traded on the NYSE called the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM). A distinct advantage in using the US Dollar version is its sheer trading volume: on average over the last 3 months it has traded nearly 10m shares every day. Assets in the fund are around $14bn. (more…)

Equity markets across the globe are recovering apace, as evidenced by a range of individual bellweather names across a wide range of sectors. Look at good old Coke, quite a chart on the 3-5 year perspective. Thirsty work building all those bridges and ofices in hot places. This is still Warren Buffet’s favourite ever investment - the world’s best investor’s best stock. Makes you think! (more…)