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.

The continuing debt crisis in Europe is a reminder to investors that we are still in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) which first gripped the markets back in 2008.  The G20′s first cunning plan to spend their way out of trouble didn’t do much to fix the root causes of the GFC and so they are gathered once again for another talkfest which at best, might give the markets a kick upwards for a few days.

Over the last six months stock markets globally have become more volatile as Europe and the U.S. struggle to revive their economies.  To make things more complicated many advanced economies have racked up so much debt during the ‘good times’ that they now don’t have the capacity to spend their way out of trouble.  There will be no quick fixes and the situation is worrying enough to even rattle the commodities bulls.

Often finance writers comment that the investment world has changed since the Global Financial Crisis sent stock markets around the world tumbling in 2008 and 2009.  Maybe that is true or maybe it’s just that investors stopped paying attention to the risks and focused too much on the possible profits? In any case, it’s time to think about what might happen in the next 5 years or so and contemplate making some changes to my Australian stock market investment strategy.

As each week passes the moans of struggling businesses grow louder and finally it appears that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board members have woken up to the fact that the economy has been sliding backwards since late 2010. Once again the RBA had made a tactical blunder and raised rates too high just as they did as the global financial crisis was unfolding back in late 2007.

Last year when I dared to suggest that the Australian economy was unbalanced and that 2011-2012 could be a period of economic contraction the mainstream financial reporters were churning out “miracle” economy stories. Back then they were obsessed with telling their readers how the mining boom would shower riches across the Great Southern Land, but today many of them have started to sound a lot more cautious.

Over the last few months it has become increasingly difficult to write about the Australian stock market simply because not much has been happening.  During the last 12 months the market has basically moved sideways with just the occasional dip or rally to break up the boredom.

All hail to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, for according to the communiqué from G20 meeting in Washington, they have saved the world from a financial crisis and will now lead us into a new era of growing global trade. Of course if the G20 actually functioned properly in the first place we would not be in the mess we are in now, but I guess they don’t talk about that much at the meeting.

One of the best investments an Australian investor could have made over the last 10 years would have been to buy a large chunk of BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) stocks.  This is simply because BHP shares have outperformed gold, listed or unlisted property and most ASX listed blue chip stocks I can think of. But have BHP shares now rallied too far and what does it’s share price tell us about the demand for commodities?

When it is hard to make sense of what is going on with the global economy I feel it is often best to try and remove the noise created by endless stock market reports, economic surveys, financial forecasts etc. and try and focus on facts not fiction. It also helps to put aside people’s opinions (including our own), relax and calmly assess what the data is really telling us, as opposed to trying to use this data to predict the future.

One year has now passed since the failure of Lehman Brothers sent global financial markets plunging and only recently has it felt that the global economy may finally be entering a period of recovery. But will conditions be better or worse in 12 months? Will house prices be higher or lower and where will Australian stocks be in September 2010?

Lights, camera, action! It is almost time for another budget from the masters of spin and we are all invited to watch the drama unfold. The 2009 federal budget will be one of the most eagerly awaited budgets in years and the key question for me is: why is the Government talking up the need to borrow and spend one moment and then in the next breath, warning us that we all need to share the pain because the Government has to reign in spending?

Often economists, journalists and politicians use so much jargon when talking about the current economic situation that is is hard to follow what they are actually trying to say. Economists for example cannot seem to agree on anything except that they are legends in their own minds, journalists try and fumble through economic discussions and politicians simply try and convince us they know what they are talking about. The simple fact is much of the time all three groups talk utter rubbish.

Does anyone remember Rudd’s great talk fest in April 2008 grandly called the Australia 2020 Summit? Did anyone get excited about the contents of the final report, complete with lovely graphics and pictures? Was there some careful analysis and discussion of the ideas raised during the Summit in the mainstream media?

There is something you should have noticed by now about most of the finance and stock market related news websites and that is; they are great at picking the best and worst investment events of the past, but they say very little about how accurate their analysis of events were throughout the year.

Like most stock market investors I will end the year well and truly bruised.  Although I wrote earlier in the year that 2008 would not be a good for Australian shares, I have to admit I did not think it was going to be this bad. Therefore I am hesitant to make any comments regarding the Australian stock market in 2009 as I am sure to find little turns out as I expect.  However just as Nigel Tufnel was able to rise above substandard catering on the Spinal Tap Tour, I am going to rise above the current carnage and outline what I think will happen as next year unfolds.