{"id":28438,"date":"2012-03-21T08:30:26","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T12:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/2012\/03\/21\/japanese-stocks-the-greatest-value-investment-of-2012\/"},"modified":"2012-03-21T08:30:26","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T12:30:26","slug":"japanese-stocks-the-greatest-value-investment-of-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2012\/03\/21\/japanese-stocks-the-greatest-value-investment-of-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Stocks: The Greatest Value Investment of 2012?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"left\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_style = 'compact';\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28348 \" title=\"Japanese Stocks: The Greatest Value Investment of 2012?\" src=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/japanese-stocks-value-investment.jpg\" alt=\"Japanese Stocks: The Greatest Value Investment of 2012?\" width=\"220\" height=\"220\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Could Japanese stocks be the best value play of 2012?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The investment surprise of 2012 so far isn\u2019t the orderly Greek default, the sudden sell-off in U.S. Treasury bonds, or even the big move up in the Dow. It\u2019s the astonishing outperformance of Japan, a market that\u2019s even topping highflyers like China, Korea and Brazil.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>The<\/em> <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> summed it up well last Thursday:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cJapan\u2019s Nikkei Stock Average climbed above the 10,000 mark to close at its highest level in more than seven months, riding a surge in the dollar against the yen triggered by the bank of Japan\u2019s surprise moves in February to stimulate the economy. The index has gained 19% this year, well above the 8% advance in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the 6.7% gain in the U.K\u2019s FTSE 100 index.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet the <em>Journal<\/em> also noted \u201cmost U.S. investors have missed out on the big gains.\u201d Not <em>Oxford Club<\/em><em> <\/em>members, however. Chief Investment Strategist <a title=\"Alex Green Archives\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/investment-experts\/alex-green-archives.html\" target=\"_blank\">Alexander Green<\/a> has been pounding the table on the Tokyo market for months now.<\/p>\n<p>In a research note to members in February, Alex wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>\u201cJapanese consumers and investors are flush with cash. They have largely ignored domestic stocks after decades of sub-par returns. But eventually that money will find its way out of mattresses and back into Japanese equities. When it does, the Tokyo market will lift off.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThis is doubly true when institutional money managers return to this country in a serious way. For years, global fund managers have outperformed the world benchmark simply by underweighting Japan. But let the Shinkansen leave the station without them and they will dash after it. Institutional money could hit the Japanese market like its coming out of a fire hose. When it does, you want to own what they\u2019re buying. In short, Japanese equities are overdue for a significant rally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Oxford Club<\/em> members know he backed up this forecast with two ETF recommendations, <strong>iShares MSCI Japan Index<\/strong> (NYSE: <a href=\"http:\/\/quote.morningstar.com\/Stock\/s.aspx?t=EWJ\" target=\"_blank\">EWJ<\/a>) and <strong>WisdomTree Japan Small Cap Fund<\/strong> (NYSE: <a href=\"http:\/\/quote.morningstar.com\/Stock\/s.aspx?t=DFJ\" target=\"_blank\">DFJ<\/a>). And then followed with a recommendation of <strong>Toyota<\/strong> (NYSE: <a href=\"http:\/\/quote.morningstar.com\/Stock\/s.aspx?t=TM\" target=\"_blank\">TM<\/a>) to <em>Oxford Club<\/em> members and to <em>Investment U Plus <\/em>subscribers in February<em>.<\/em> Both funds have pushed higher in recent weeks and Toyota has tacked on almost 20 points in less than two months.<\/p>\n<p>Alex remains <a title=\"The Coming Economic Collapse That Never Was\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/2012\/March\/the-coming-economic-collapse.html\" target=\"_blank\">resolutely bullish<\/a>. I recently caught up with him at the beautiful Grand Del Mar in San Diego for the 14<sup>th<\/sup> Annual <em>Investment U <\/em>Conference. He had this to say about the \u201cunexpected rally in Japan\u201d that he\u2019s been calling for:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>\u201cThis bull market in Japan is likely still in its infancy. The Bank of Japan has joined the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank in upping the level of quantitative easing. That will drive the yen lower and improve the sales and profit margins of big Japanese exporters like Toyota.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cJapanese stocks are still among the world\u2019s cheapest. The Japanese market\u2019s price\/book ratio \u2013 the value of a company\u2019s stock price relative to its assets \u2013 is currently 1.3. By comparison, the price\/book ratio of the S&amp;P 500 is 2.2. There is still plenty of upside here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Smart investors scour the globe for high-quality assets selling well below their <a title=\"Understanding Value Investing\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/2012\/February\/understanding-value-investing.html\" target=\"_blank\">intrinsic value<\/a>. If you\u2019re one of them, you owe it to yourself to heed this advice \u2013 add some exposure to the <a title=\"Investing in Undervalued Greek and Japanese Multinational Companies\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/2012\/March\/greek-japanese-multinational-companies.html\" target=\"_blank\">Japanese market<\/a> today.<\/p>\n<p>If history is any guide, you\u2019ll be glad you did.<\/p>\n<p>Good Investing,<\/p>\n<p>Justin Dove<\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?i=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?i=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?i=BmL5emRXoac:zHVkFn2Lc-8:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/InvestmentU\/~4\/BmL5emRXoac\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Article by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Investment U<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could Japanese stocks be the best value play of 2012? The investment surprise of 2012 so far isn\u2019t the orderly Greek default, the sudden sell-off in U.S. Treasury bonds, or even the big move up in the Dow. It\u2019s the astonishing outperformance of Japan, a market that\u2019s even topping highflyers like China, Korea and Brazil. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2012\/03\/21\/japanese-stocks-the-greatest-value-investment-of-2012\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Japanese Stocks: The Greatest Value Investment of 2012?&#8221;<\/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-28438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}