Out with the old, in with the old

THE ALCHEMIST

It may be nothing more than over-running festive indigestion, but there is an uncomfortable feeling in many markets of residual uncertainty, of just holding on, rather than robust appetite for new opportunities. Something is not quite right.

Call me a jaded disbeliever fated to burn forever in the fires of doubt and cynicism, but the pachyderm-sized problems faced by investors the world over seem not to have gone away. It is just exhaustion after a gruelling couple of years, prompting some to take solace from a few mini-indicators pointing the right way. Nothing wrong with that. Each must take comfort where they can. A sector here may be looking good, an index there. A currency punt has gone the right way. A welcome boost arrives from fund inflows, or the balm of a non-silly statement from a normally befuddled politician. Ev...