Test link
 
Register
News
iPad app
Events
CPD Program
Subscriptions
Little Black Book
Journals
Jobs
Contact Us
 
 
 
 
 
NEWS > INVESTMENT
Danger signs ahead but bargain stocks a-plenty: Faber
Thursday, 6 August 2009 12:40pm
By Michelle Baltazar  |  In Investment

Leading contrarian investor Dr. Marc Faber wears his "ultra bearish" cap in his Australian visit, predicting another financial crisis could happen in the next five to 10 years - but even that doesn't mean there aren't any investment opportunities, particularly in Asia.

Visiting Australia as a guest presenter for Treasury Asia Asset Management (TAAM), Dr. Faber said that the Federal Reserve's policy in the past decade only added to the market volatility. By keeping rates artificially low and pumping money into the system, equities, markets and economies will face "unintended consequences", including another financial crisis in the next five to 10 years.

This crisis has not been fully cleansed out of the system, he said.

He repeated his bearish views of the US dollar, which he believes will approach zero (not overnight, but it will happen) while many Asian currencies will rise on the back of a continually improving Chinese currency.

Against that environment, he highlights various investment themes including going long on gold and silver (sovereign funds will likely buy gold when interest rates are around zero), corporate bonds and Asian equities (many markets in Asia are near 20-year lows).

Tapping on socio-demographic trends, Faber is bullish on healthcare stocks in Asia, infrastructure stocks, commodities, REITs in emerging economies and tourism stocks ("every hotel will soon have a Chinese restaurant in it," he said).

As uncorrelated investments to more established equity markets, Faber also sees opportunities in plantations and farmland (in Latin America and Ukraine), Japanese banks and new regions including Cambodia and Mongolia.

In short, Faber believes that based on how economies and markets fared over the last few years, a new world has emerged where it is now the poor countries driving global consumption and global markets.

But for many fund managers who believe they can take a breather now that the GFC has passed, Faber believes US and European stockmarkets are still overvalued relative to the lows reached in previous recessions.

"The ultimate crisis is still ahead of us," he said.

News Search   
 
Video Brought to you by
 
Industry
Events
FEB
04
FEB
06NSW Women In Super Networking Series
07Superfund Reform Summit 2012
15SPAA SMSF National Conference
15FSC Leadership Series 2012
21Finsia's Covered Bonds Seminar – NSW
 
Latest
Jobs
 
News
Bites
 
Get it
Daily
FREE to your inbox, get the Financial Standard Daily Email.
 
Get the Free
iPad app
Download the Financial Standard iPad app for FREE

$245 (inc GST) for 1 year
 
FS Advice: The Australian Journal of Financial Planning FS Super: The Journal of Superannuation Management
 
About Us
Contact Us
Privacy
Events Calendar
 
Search Jobs
Recruiter Login
CPD Login
Register
 
Managed Funds
- Australian
- Global
Superannuation Funds
- Specialist
- Diversified
Guide To Series
Product Launches
Showcases
 
Home
Showtime
Learning & Development
Conferences
Industry Profiles
Market Update
Platform Report
Hedge Funds
Mandate Chaser
Roundup
Advantage
Benchmarking
 
Financial Planning
Investment Strategy
Superannuation Management
Financial Services Technology
Copyright © 1992-2012 Rainmaker Group
All material on this site is subject to copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, translated, transmitted, framed or stored in a retrieval system for public or private use without the written permission of the publisher.