DOW JONES is moving forward with steeper momentum this time compared to the uptrend last year (see chart). Bernanke has reaffirmed his stand again last month that the interest rate has to stay low for a lengthy period to counter unemployment rate..
On top of that, DOW JONES will be releasing financial quarter reports next month. We definitely will be seeing at least equivalent good or better quarter reports.
Moving east to Asian countries, we see some measurements have been taken to cure these countries from inflation. In another words, Asian economies are doing too well for too long, and not going to wait for the western countries for recovery.
Back home, Malaysia hiked its Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) from 2.0 to 2.25 few weeks back. This step was taken to normalize the economy to calm down the strong economy growth. BNM expects a grow between 4.5-5.5% this year. Commodity like crude oil, cpo, rubber..etc. are back on high demand.
Well, we are still far away from the OPR rate of 3.5, which was steadily set before the economy crisis. OPR hike of just .25 is a long term remedy to slow down the economy growth. We won't feel it until a few doses being injected. (many months later...).
Unclepicks still thinks that the DOW JONES will further strengthen especially for the months of April-May, in conjunction with the quarter report releases. Also, locally, we will have New economic model (NEM) announcing end of the month. As usual, the big boss DJ will create a nice sentiment for the global markets to follow. Some small/mid caps in BURSA with solid fundamentals are gaining momentum, and quite attractive at the moment.
Let's hope there is no surprises, similar to Dubai or Greece problems happening in coming months.
