Monday, 7 April 2014
Opinion: Weaker demand for real estate could spread to other asset classes
With talk about a 1987-like stock-market crash, geopolitical unrest in Ukraine and the risk of a debt crisis in China, investors are starting to get jittery.
The S&P 500’s
SPX
-1.08%
outsized gain of 30%-plus last year certainly can’t be repeated. And
if the first quarter is any indication, not many investors will make
much money by owning the benchmark index.
For the record, I do not think a major correction is in order for
equities. I expect the volatility we’ve seen this year — something
that’s held back the S&P 500
to a gain of only 1.3% — is pretty much what’s in store for the rest of
2014. I predict we’ll finish with the S&P 500 around 1,950 on Dec.
31. (It’s now at about 1,897.)
