Shareswatch Australia

The ASX All Ordinaries Index and S&P/ASX 200 Index finished much lower than I expected in 2011, so this makes me somewhat reluctant to go on record and make an Australian stock market forecast for 2012. However the process of looking at the various economic data and trying to guess where the market will end is a useful one, so foolishly I will outline once again my Australian stock market forecast for the year ahead.

Have you noticed of late how the Australian stock market is just not listening to the Reserve Bank’s Glenn Stevens? No matter how optimistic the RBA Governor sounds the ASX All Ords refuses to surge past 5000, so what is happening? Are investors wrong about the state of the Australian economy and simply not picking up on the positive economic indicators the RBA is apparently seeing?

If you were to believe the various ramblings of Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan, Glenn Stevens and Ken Henry, then you would be under the impression that the Australian economy is about to power ahead in 2010. But if the IMF expects global growth to be slow, why would Australia be set to do any better?

The world’s major stock markets have all enjoyed fairly strong rallies over the last week or so and in Australian the ASX All Ordinaries has run up around 30% since March. But there is a sense of unease amongst investors because there are still plenty of economic indicators that suggest the global economy still faces challenges.  That is because we have entered what I call the Economic Twilight Zone!

Since the beginning of May the Australian stock market has basically moved sideways and at present there is no clear trend in place.  Eventually a trend will emerge so the question is:  will the Australian share market rally or move down over the next six months or so.

Well another financial year is drawing to a close and for most stock market investors the last 12 months have not been very kind. But it is now time to contemplate how the next financial year may unfold and think about any opportunities or threats we may face as investors.

For many months now debate has raged in the mainstream media, online forums and blogs about what the long term impact of the global financial crisis will be.  Some people appear to believe we are entering an economic version of The Dark Ages whereas other more optimistic types view the current period as an ideal time snap up cheap assets and prepare for the next economic boom. Like many debates, the truth probably lies somewhere between these two views.

There is no doubt that the Japanese economy is suffering as a result of the global economic crisis. However much of the reporting in the western media is at best poor journalism and at worst, simply wrong.  So rather than focus on sensational attention grabbing headlines, let’s look at some forecasts and facts.

It seems that 2009 is going to be one those years where economists, politicians and investors etc. will find out just how inaccurate most economic forecasts really are. In the good years if growth estimates for the economy are off the mark nobody seems too stressed, but when economic conditions deteriorate people tend to get more concerned about forecasts.

As most people will probably know, real estate prices in Japan collapsed in the early 1990′s as part of the damage caused by the bursting of the infamous Japanese bubble economy. Sadly for the Japanese economy, there was no magical recovery and the dizzying prices seen in the late 1980′s were never seen again. Prices dropped for years and Japan entered a period often labelled as “the lost decade”. (although the term seems a little harsh to me)

As I have mentioned on a few occasions I believe the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) went too far with their interest rate increases especially when a possible global downturn was on the radar. We now find ourselves in a situation where the RBA is focused on inflation (much of it beyond their control) whereas the real threat is that the Australian economy will stall.