It was
just a couple of weeks ago that the markets were in turmoil over the emerging
market issues. Currency spreads widened, stocks fell, and bond prices surged.
Then, seemingly almost overnight, the world returned back to its overly
complacent normality of the past year. The question that we have to ask is –
why?
The
primary reason can be directly attributed to Janet Yellen. As Yellen addressed
Congress last week, she made it clear
that she will not depart from Bernanke's preset course and “it will
likely reduce the pace of asset purchases in
further measured steps at future
meetings, although purchases are not on a
preset course”. With the threat of a more aggressive
"tapering" removed, risk appetite resurged and the markets’ path were
cleared for a rally. There are times that markets can behave irrationally. This
is particularly the case when there are artificial interventions into the
market. With the Federal Reserve still currently pumping $65 billion a month
into the financial markets, investors chose to ignore flood of weaker US and
international data and continued its appetite for risky asset classes.
Current
market conditions are extremely complex and it is advised that non-professional
investors must stay aside and do not jump into the speculative assets at
current valuations. Conservative investment portfolio of some cash, gold and
bond would be sound choice for risk averse investors for a good night sleep.
Those who like taking some risk may add income generating utility stocks to
their portfolio.