US vs Australia. Why are we lagging?

Hello there from Financial Freedom By Design

Today as I’m writing, in the US, the S&P500 has topped 1400 for the first time since 2008 after 7 straight days of gains. The Dow Jones is sitting at its highest level since December 2007.

Good news about jobs and manufacturing activity, as well as small-business optimism has given way to this rise. Strangely though, the optimism hasn’t translated here. Business confidence is higher in Germany and France than it is here.

In October 2007, the Dow Jones maxed out at just under 14,100 points. This morning, it closed at 13,252 points. Which means its about 6% down over its peak in October 2007.

In Australia, the All Ordinaries Index touched 6,760 points. As I write, its sitting on 4,359 points – meaning its down over 35% since its peak in October 2007.

Why?

Is the US economy travelling that much better than we are? They have 8.3% unemployment and an offical cash rate of 0.25% and a Federal Debt level over 100% of GDP. Over here, we are battling with 5.2% unemployment and a 4.25% offical cash rate and government debt of around 25% of GDP.

Explaining what the market does and why it does it is nigh on impossible. Often ‘expert’ predications are equivalent to random guesses. I have no idea where the market will be in a month, a year or ten years from now.
But I do know that if you have a plan to buy great companies at good prices, you could construe this current climate as an opportunity, rather than a risk.