Sayonara to Deflation in '06 (EWJ, ITF, VPL) [View article]
For those interested also see Takehiro Sato of <strong>Morgan Stanley Japan</strong> who penned an essay, "The Dawn of a New Golden Age." He states, "There potentially will be three surprises for the Japanese economy in 2006. ... These surprises all support further euphoria in asset markets under near-zero or negative real interest rate conditions, in our view. Conditions also fundamentally differ from the bubble period, as valuations are in line with profit growth. We thus refer to the upbeat sentiment as euphoria, and not a bubble." Click the hyperlink on the essay title to read about the three surprises, but be ready for an economics lesson. I find "euphoria" to be an interesting word to use to describe the upbeat sentiment. I am still chewing on this.
Any Mad Money followers out there? James J. Cramer says his favorite play is Mitsubishi UFJ (ticker: MTU) because, "The situation in Japan is kind of like the U.S. in 1990. Real estate has bottomed out in Japan, which is a bullish sign for the banks, because the economy is getting moving again." He also says another way to play Japan is the iShares MSCI Japan Index (ticker: EWJ). See last Friday's Mad Money Mail Bag.
Sayonara to Deflation in '06 (EWJ, ITF, VPL) [View article]
Barron's Online on Nomura Holdings' Comeback (NMR, MTU, GS, MER, MWD) [View article]