The world’s cheapest stocks

Thanks to government money-printing around the world, investors can find some great bargains. Here, Merryn Somerset Webb considers the cheapest markets to invest in right now.

The good news doesn't seem to stop for investors. US house prices are rising again. Japan's stock market just hit a five-year high. The Dow Jones is at an all-time high (15,000!). So is Germany's Dax. The UK market is doing pretty well too.

We're rather pleased about this. No one could exactly accuse us of being perma-bulls, but we have long been badgering readers to buy Japan; Germany was the market most of our panel tipped at last year's MoneyWeek Conference (I look forward to seeing lots of you at our next one on the 17th); we started hankering after houses in Florida a year or so ago (though I'm sad to say none of us found time to buy one); and, while I missed the 2009 bottom, we've been investing in Britain and America via the big blue-chips for some time.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.