Based on its internal dynamics, the U.S. economy continues to be one of the most attractive for investors. One of the key pillars of support for the U.S. economy has been the housing market. Dynamics of the housing market include low prices, low mortgage rates, high pent-up demand due to rising household formation, and institutional
While we find U.S. equities attractive, Japan has become a more interesting market, mainly because of the broad political support for the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe. To get Japan out of its deflationary spiral, Abe has pushed forward a number of new monetary and fiscal policies. Both the yen and the Japanese stock market
While the U.S. economy merits a degree of optimism, as the recovering housing sector has supported improvement in the labor market and consumer spending, we question the outlook for the balance of 2013. A key indicator in our research reveals that expectations are getting ahead of themselves. The Economic Surprise Index measures the difference between
The year began with a flourish in stocks, which soared more than 10% on a mix of fundamentals and optimism. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index set new records above levels they had last reached before the 2008 crisis. We view this advance somewhat skeptically, because the behavior of other asset