2013: The year of rotation from bonds to equities?

Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM)'s chairman Jim O'Neill outlines five encouraging signs from the global economy and asks whether 2013 will be the year investors ditch fixed income in favour of equities.

A happy New Year to one and all, and fingers crossed for an exciting and rewarding one. As has become the norm for me recently, I will await the first cumulative five days of the S&P 500 equity market trading to firm up my degree of confidence about things, which will be next Tuesday 8 January. Recall the great Almanac rule that, as others show, if the US market is net positive after the first five days of trading, with something like an 85% success rate since 1950, the market is not only up for the year, but it is around 14% gain on average. Ahead of this, five quite encouraging sign...