jstratt

Country Market Performance Since the March 9 Low

I just very much appreciate all the contibutions of Bespoke. I continue to look forward to your timely thought provoking information.

Stock Market Performance: BRICs Leading Current 'Recovery'

Excellent information!

I see plenty of opportunities in the US and Europe. Currency risk is a larger consideration than normal at this time.

We have farther to go in our downturn but we seem to have stopped falling. The SP500 is at about 53% of its highs. It is a time to stop and assess how much damage has been done. When I do that I conclude that a good 1 year expectation for the SP500 will be about a 25% drop.

S&P 500 1 year forecast to April 2009 is 1565*.75 = 1174. That is a 39% increase.

I point this out because I dont believe companies have lost 50% of their business in a macro sense. Others can argue that we have more shoes to drop and if that happens it would reduce the potential 1 year gain of this quickie assessment.

Global Market Performance: Nowhere to Hide

Thank you for an insightful article. The chart of a status from around the world is an excellent broad view.

This is a good time for strategic rebalancing. For those who have wanted to enter China and India it is a good time to start dollar cost averaging into it.

I have wanted some exposure to these countries but emerging is synonomous with volitile. I always prefer to enter new markets during a period of calamity when I can clearly see some level of darkness priced into the market.

It is time to purchase into these two markets with 33% of my target long term exposure. That said China could drop another 50% for all anyone knows. Emerging is synonymous with the statement "we really dont know how to value this opportunity"

Finally isnt it nice to see that for US citizens that for all the US problems, most of the rest of the world has been hit harder so far.