Korea & your stocks

Article Excerpt

The recent U.S./North Korea nuclear agreement enhances an already attractive stock market outlook for this year and next. North Korea’s nuclear activities can’t do the stock market any good, but the agreement will shelve these activities for a year or two. That may be all the Bush administration hopes to accomplish — to leave North Korea for the next president to worry about. Of course, according to our four-year rule, which we have frequently written about here, the first couple of years of a newly elected or re-elected U.S. president tend to be less-than-ideal for investing anyway. But the last two years of a presidential term — that’s what 2007 and 2008 are for the current Bush administration — tend to be good ones for investors. That’s especially so if we avoid unpleasant military confrontations and surprises. Shelving North Korean nukes enhances that likelihood. Some commentators take a more principled view of the subject. They think that “caving in” to North Korea sets a terrible…