Things Are Looking Up

Article Excerpt

The odds are improving that the market bottom is behind us and that the investment outlook and stock prices will improve through the end of the year and beyond. We have probably seen the worst of the sub-prime crisis in the U.S., and the ABCP (asset based commercial paper) crisis here in Canada. These developments led to widespread predictions of recession, but the recession has yet to appear. It’s worth remembering that recession predictions come along far more frequently than the recessions themselves. Then too, by the time a recession appears, the stock market has often gone as low as it is going to go and is headed upward. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that now is a good time to take on a lot more risk in your portfolio. The Federal Reserve helped keep the U.S. and world economies humming with an injection of credit and cuts in interest rates. It may rein in some of this liquidity in the…