Submitted by Mark Hanna
Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
In a world turned bizarro the past few years, the hits only keep coming. Yesterday, Japan’s economic and fiscal policy minister (which appears to their equivalent of Treasury Secretary) stated a goal of Nikkei 13K by March 31. It’s one thing for you or me to state goals for the markets but when the chief financial officer of your country is stating them, it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. On the other hand I am sure a lot of countries are looking at the U.S. and how the Federal Reserve now targets the stock market explicitly as a “wealth creating” device (although it only affects a relatively small portion of the country) and says “why not us?”. Of course the downside of manipulation of asset prices is very clear for any of us living in the past two decades – there is no free lunch. Eventually you get a reversion to mean. But until then, party on Garth.
Economic and fiscal policy minister Akira Amari said Saturday the government will step up economic recovery efforts so that the benchmark Nikkei index jumps an additional 17 percent to 13,000 points by the end of March. “It will be important to show our mettle and see the Nikkei reach the 13,000 mark by the end of the fiscal year (March 31),” Amari said in a speech.
The Nikkei 225 stock average, which last week climbed to its highest level since September 2008, finished at 11,153.16 on Friday. “We want to continue taking (new) steps to help stock prices rise” further, Amari stressed, referring to the core policies of the Liberal Democratic Party administration — the promotion of bold monetary easing, fiscal spending and greater private sector investment.
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