I concluded a post on stock markets over the weekend saying: “After equities’ seven-month climb, stock markets certainly look vulnerable for a decline. Two downside reversal days - on Wednesday and Friday - would seem to indicate that stocks could commence a pullback to work off the overbought condition, allowing fundamentals to reassert themselves.”

Global stock markets, as well as other risky assets, closed sharply lower over the past few days as concerns mounted over the sustainability of the global economic recovery and the outlook for central bank policy.

The performance of the major asset classes is summarized by the charts below, with the top one showing the period from the March 9 stock market lows until October 19 peak and the second one the subsequent period. The numbers indicate an all-change pattern in the performances as risk aversion re-entered financial markets and government bonds and the US

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The MSCI World Index of advanced -nation equities has surged 65% from this year's low on March 9, while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has leaped 96%. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities has added 33%. br /br /Emerging markets have outperformed and have seen massive amounts of inflow. But when your main stream markets like Brazil (Bovespa +68%), China (Shangahai +64%), Russia (RTS +83%), South Africa ( Top 40 +24%), start to mature and look top heavy, investors will start looking towards 2nd tier and 3rd tier frontier markets that have been on the back burner. These frontier markets such as Ghana ( GSE -46%), Nigeria (NSE All Share -30%), Kenya (NSE -14%), Morocco (Madex -3.3%), should attract some fund interest and more inflow.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3742382075154765669-837458134324030207?l=danfonds.blogspot.com'//div

The performance of a number of global stock markets is given in the table below in local currency terms for different measurement terms ended August 31. The numbers speak for themselves, but it is noteworthy that the MSCI World Index (+3.9%) and MSCI Emerging Markets Index (-0.2%) followed separate paths in August as China, Hong Kong and India underperformed.

Click here or on the table below for a larger image.

Top performers during August included Austria (+11.3%), Ireland (+10.9%) and Venezuela (+10.6%). At the bottom end of the performance rankings countries included China (-21.8%), Hong Kong (-4.1%) and India (0%).

The key moving-average levels are also given in the table above. With the exception of the Chinese Shanghai Composite Index, which fell below its 50-day moving average about two weeks ago,

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China has once again set the tone for our Monday market forecast.

Roll the videotape:

Chinese traders dumped shares early this morning after a popular magazine rumored that the booming Chinese loan market is cooling off. Caijing magazine guessed that the Chinese loaned about $29 billion in August, a 43% crash from July. While that number isn’t official, traders around the red nation raced for the exits. The Shanghai Composite closed down 6.7%, its worst day in over a year. 16% of the stocks on the Shanghai Composite fell 10%, the daily limit down.

Thus, as we charted above, Chinese stocks are in a textbook bear market. In fact, down 23% since its 2009 peak earlier this month, the Shanghai Composite will be the worst performing major national index in the world for the month of August.

But still up around 50% for the

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Chinese stocks plummet, worldly markets follow… what’s behind today’s sell-off… Dan Denning on taking profits in the twilight of the U.S. stock rebound… India reports better-than-expected GDP growth… why our Mumbai partners are still hesitant… Another compelling argument against U.S. banks… Dan Amoss serves the cold, hard data… Plus, signs of the times: American’s vote to throw the bums out while the free market backlash hits Hollywood…

China has once again set the tone for our Monday market forecast. Roll the videotape:

Chinese traders dumped shares early this morning after a popular magazine rumored that the booming Chinese loan market is cooling off. Caijing magazine guessed that the Chinese loaned about $29 billion in August, a 43% crash from July. While that number isn’t official, traders around the red nation raced for the exits. The Shanghai Composite closed down 6.7%, its worst day in

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As mentioned in yesterday’s edition of “Words from the Wise“, the Chinese Shanghai Composite Index has now recorded four consecutive down-weeks. The Index witnessed another massive sell-off this morning, declining by a further 6.7% to take its total loss since the peak of August 4 to 23.2%.

The losses happened on concerns of large Chinese share issuance and slowing bank lending. The banking regulator has already instructed lenders to raise reserves to 150% of their non-performing loans by the end of this year - up from 134.8% at the end of June, and the central bank has increased money-market rates to drain liquidity.

I have written a fair bit over the past two weeks about the overbought level of most global stock markets and also how China - a leading market on the way up - could be the catalyst for triggering a reversal of fortune in global

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I have written a fair bit over the past few days about the overbought level of most global stock markets and also how China - a leading market on the way up - could be the catalyst for triggering a reversal of fortune. It would seem the expected downward correction is now squarely under way with the MSCI World Index down by 3.4% and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index 5.2% lower since their respective highs of August 13 and August 3.

A summary of the movements of major global stock markets since the recent highs, as well as various other measurement periods, is given in the table below. Interestingly, none of the indices in the table have been able to withstand the downdraught, with the Chinese Shanghai Composite Index (-17.3%) and the Russian Trading System Index (-10.0) leading the way down - in not dissimilar fashion to how these

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I yesterday published a short post on Chinese equities and said: “… it looks if more downside is in store for the Shanghai Composite Index and it would not come as a surprise if lower Chinese equities serve as the catalyst for a well-deserved pullback in global stock markets.” With the MSCI World Index, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the major US indices coming off the boil yesterday, China may already have started leading world markets lower.

On a number of occasions recently I have asserted that the stock market has become disconnected from the economy. Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-CIO of Pimco, yesterday shared this view in an interview with CNBC. He said: “The stock market has gotten way ahead of the reality on the ground.” Arguing that markets are on a “sugar high”, he added: “Stock investors are making overly optimistic assumptions. The key

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“First Ounce Bounce” Set to Pay 1,100% Government filing NI 43-101 is mandatory in Canada. It shows the proven reserves of any company intending to mine gold. The latest filing from a small renegade company we’ve just uncovered lists their reserves at an astounding 10.1 million ounces. It’s the biggest gold strike in Canadian history – and one of the biggest in the world. Yet few investors have seen or heard of NI 43-101 yet. Getting in before the “first ounce bounce” – when the first ounce comes out of the ground – is likely to yield an initial return of 1,100%. Go here for the full report.

Brazilians used to joke that their country was the country of the future – and always would be because a new crisis seemed to crop up every time the economy came close to fulfilling its potential.

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Emerging Markets… A Contrarian Take

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist

Editor’s Note: We apologize for anyone who tried to reach our website  over the last few days. One of the perils of our globally interconnected web is that we – like many high profile companies – are constantly under invasion from malicious web attacks.

To say emerging markets are hot right now is an understatement.

The benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets index is up 52% this year, rendering the S&P 500’s 11% uptick completely insignificant.

Thanks to the strong performance, investors’ love affair with emerging markets keeps getting steamier. Case in point – investors poured $10.6 billion into emerging markets mutual funds so far this year, a whopping 34 times the total invested in U.S. funds.

Yet, while most pundits shout from the rooftops that emerging markets are the place to invest right now, let me offer a dissenting opinion.

Three Reasons Emerging

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