Thu 20 Jul 2006
A lot of people think that Japan has finally waken up from its long cold night, and has started a genuine long-term bull run.? With its currency still weak, the import business should continue to do well, and their central bank has a long way to go before interest rates become constrictive.
Right now the Nikkei is in a correction, which means it should be time to buy.? It’s testing the low of June, and if I’m wrong we’ll know very quickly (it will continue to go below the June low).? Now might be a good time to start buying some Japan weighted funds, I prefer EWJ or JOF. EWJ is an ETF that tracks the Nikkei 225.? JOF is a closed-end fund that focuses on Japanese small caps.? While it has typically traded at a premium to NAV, JOF is now at almost no premium (the NAV reporting is delayed, so it’s hard to know exactly).
July 20th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Is it just me or does the Nikkei look like it’s following the US markets step for step? Man, WWII was a long time ago. When are they going to stop following the USA’s lead on everything? Seriously though, are the global markets moving in synch, all waiting for the same…what?
July 20th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Yes it seems that quite a few markets have become more correlated in the last few months. Take a look at all the international ETFs… they all look eerily similar and seem synchronized with time patterns (though they tend to varry in the size of the moves).
It seems as though the electronic herd is trading across all markets simultaneously…
I’ve read a few comments that lament that Gold is only acting as a high-beta play on the stock market… Since Gold and the equity markets have walked in step so much lately, it’s not being seen as a separate asset (or separate asset class), but rather just something to buy or sell based on the current direction of the wind…