Bull market just keeps on going and it’s very difficult to see a major shift happening very soon. It seems that the most likely outcome of the QE operations is a significant bubble which will continue to grow for couple of years. Volatility might increase in near term but it’s very difficult to imagine all the loose money not going to stocks especially in Europe. All this makes it a bit difficult to come up with a solid shopping list for the next 6 months or so. In general I’d need to consider or address the following issues:
- Portfolio balancing would require adding on existing positions in companies such as Baxter International, General Electric, AT&T, Aflac Inc and perhaps Deere. Baxter is special item here since I’d like to increase my position before the upcoming Baxalta spin-off.
- I’m not a huge fan of the idea of converting euros to dollars with the current exchange rate (existing USD income will help a bit)
- It’s much more difficult to find high quality companies from euro zone (especially ones that pay a quarterly dividend)
- In general I would like to increase my position in currencies other than euro and US dollar
Having said that, the expected shopping list and order to go as follows:
- Baxter International
- Unilever/Diageo/something european
- Telia-Sonera/Nordea/Gjensidige if there’s a temporary and significant enough drop during spring (otherwise these will be considered during Q4/2015 and Q1/2016)
- Canadian bank (looking at Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia at the moment even though I have some concerns about the housing bubble)
- General Electric/AT&T/Aflac/Deere (it remains to be seen how the dollar valuation moves or is moved, I might consider converting dollars to euros as well)