{"id":45692,"date":"2013-12-23T05:34:48","date_gmt":"2013-12-23T10:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=45692"},"modified":"2013-12-23T05:34:48","modified_gmt":"2013-12-23T10:34:48","slug":"10-shocking-charts-that-will-define-2013-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/12\/23\/10-shocking-charts-that-will-define-2013-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Shocking Charts That Will Define 2013 (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> <\/p>\n

It’s been a whopping 558 days since we’ve endured a perfectly healthy and normal 10% selloff in the stock market. The streak is all but guaranteed to extend into 2014, given that there are only a handful of trading days left in the year.<\/p>\n

But a year without <\/em>a correction isn’t the only thing that we’ll remember about 2013…<\/p>\n

As you’ll recall, on Friday, we started looking back at the most memorable developments in the market in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s time to finish the job. So let’s get to it…<\/p>\n

Con #1: <\/strong>Real Estate<\/strong> is Forever Doomed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ridiculed. Rejected. Ignored. That pretty much sums up the response to my February 2012 insistence that “the real estate market just hit rock bottom<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Lo and behold, the market did<\/em> bottom out at that time. The good news is, the recovery gained steam in 2013.<\/p>\n

The most telling sign? Home prices. They’re up almost 15% in the last year, based on the S&P\/Case-Shiller Composite-20 Home Price Index.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

The sharp rise naturally pushed down affordability. But don’t fret…<\/p>\n

The latest National Association of Realtors Housing Affordability Index reading indicates that the typical American family has 165.4% of the income necessary to qualify to purchase a median-priced, single-family home (with a 20% down payment and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage).<\/p>\n

So any talk about another bubble forming is utter nonsense. The classic sign of a bubble is when prices get out of reach<\/em>. And that’s obviously not the case here.<\/p>\n

As Goldman Sachs’<\/strong> (GS<\/a>) analysts pointed out in a recent research note: “We see the dataflow as consistent with growing momentum in the housing sector, in line with our view that higher interest rates will not prevent a solid increase in housing activity in 2014.”<\/p>\n

I expect the recovery to continue in 2014, too. Feel free to disagree with me (again) at your own risk…<\/p>\n

Con #2: The Bull Market Doesn\u2019t Have Legs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forget real estate for a moment. Global equity markets also rebounded mightily in 2013, trading at new all-time highs, according to the World Federation of Exchanges data.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe combined market cap of the world’s 58 major stock markets rose to $63.4 trillion in November.<\/p>\n

To put that in perspective, global equity values plummeted to $29.1 trillion in the depths of the financial crisis. So we’re talking about some serious wealth (re)creation here.<\/p>\n

I’ll take it! How about you?<\/p>\n

Con #3: Invest in the <\/strong>BRIC<\/strong>s<\/strong>
\n<\/b>
\nNow, if we dissect stock performance on a country-by-country basis, it’s clear that not every market enjoyed boom times.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

The over-hyped emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China fared the worst. Only India registered a gain. But certainly not a big one – only 6.1%. And Brazilian stocks got absolutely clobbered, dropping nearly 20%.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Japan, the United States and many European countries topped the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

Japan? Who’d have thunk it? Oh, that’s right, we called for Japanese stocks to rally<\/a> in December 2012. Hope you listened.<\/p>\n

Con #4: The Next <\/strong>Crisis <\/strong>is Coming!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is perhaps the most telling chart of all. It shows the correlation among all<\/em> asset classes, which got cut in half in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

What’s the big whoop? I’ll let Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal explain: “One of the characteristics of a crisis is extreme correlation between multiple asset classes: Everything trades up or down together.”<\/p>\n

The financial press famously referred to this as the risk on\/risk off environment. But it’s over, as is the financial crisis, which means we’re in a stock picker’s market<\/a> more than ever.<\/p>\n

What type of stocks should we be focusing on, though? Glad you asked…<\/p>\n

Con #5: <\/strong>Small Caps<\/strong> Are <\/strong>Maxed Out<\/b><\/p>\n

Talk about staying power! For 13 years in a row, small-cap stocks have outperformed their larger-cap brethren.<\/p>\n

In 2013, they rallied 34.2%, compared to a 26.9% rise for large caps, as represented by the S&P 500 Index.<\/p>\n

\"\" Micro-cap stocks, which my MicroCap Tech Trader<\/a> <\/em>subscribers know all too well, performed best, rising an average of nearly 40%.<\/p>\n

I recommend you stick to the same script in 2014 – bet big on small-cap (and micro-cap) stocks!<\/p>\n

Ahead of the tape,<\/p>\n

Louis Basenese<\/p>\n

The post 10 Shocking Charts That Will Define 2013 (Part 2)<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Article By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Original Article: 10 Shocking Charts That Will Define 2013 (Part 2)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com It’s been a whopping 558 days since we’ve endured a perfectly healthy and normal 10% selloff in the stock market. The streak is all but guaranteed to extend into 2014, given that there are only a handful of trading days left in the year. But a year without a correction isn’t the only … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “10 Shocking Charts That Will Define 2013 (Part 2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}