Pulling out the crystal ball is always fraught with danger… So I have closed my eyes and here we go: 

ARIES
Australian Shares
The Australian share market still provides a good medium term investment opportunity. Over the past year, companies have taken the opportunity to cut costs and wind back debt levels, which should support profit growth as the economy recovers.

TAURUS
Emerging Markets
Likely to be the key driver of any global economic recovery. It is anticipated that countries like China, India and Indonesia will record strong economic growth in 2010 and beyond.

GEMINI
Developed Markets
Developed economies like the US, Japan and Europe are likely to record positive growth in 2010 after contracting over the past 18 months. To date these countries’ share markets have underperformed developing or emerging markets, and with a return to growth, the company profit outlook should improve and attract investor inflows.

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This means good news for Newcastle businesses. As a financial advisor I come across a lot of data, but this news of China’s continued growth is significant due to recent fears of a douple dip recession.

• (Reuters) – Chinese industrial output growth in November jumped to its strongest since June 2007, underlining the economy’s brisk recovery from the global downturn in response to massive fiscal and monetary stimulus. Consumer price inflation also turned positive in November in year-on-year terms after nine straight months in negative territory.

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