The verdict is in… it’s been one of the worst Januarys ever for stock markets around the world. But don’t write off 2016 yet. As we’ve written before, the so-called “January barometer” states that if markets are down in January, they’ll be down for the year – and if they’re up in January, they’ll end the year positive. In January, Asia as a whole (minus Japan) fell nearly 8%, Singapore declined almost 9%, Hong Kong fell 10%, and Shanghai declined 22%. So with markets down most places (except Indonesia and Thailand), the outlook for the rest of the year might not look promising. But the January barometer doesn’t work that well for most markets in Asia. When January ends in the red for the Singapore market, the year ends negative only 55% of the time... Read the full article →