Pru's Martin Brookes remains cautious citing 2010 'obstacles'

Earlier in 2009, some investors were being too gloomy. We remained constructive in the down-period when share price values fell to their lowest levels in several generations.

That's proved to be right. We have seen the best six months in corporate bonds ever. Meanwhile, returns from stockmarkets since March have been six or seven times higher than our expected long run annual return. Of course this growth was from a very low starting point and in effect were helping reduce the impacts of the previous years falls. These extreme market reactions are understandable because investors are human beings, and tend to overreact - both to good and bad news. So where are we now? To us, the latest highs in November feel a bit euphoric. A clear-headed analysis shows that ...