The tide will turn on this rally

Cheap money and the herd instinct of fund managers is keeping the stockmarket rally going, but things will change when markets realise the rebound won't be V-shaped.

Noel Coward once remarked that it was "extraordinary how potent cheap music is", says The Economist. "He could have said the same about cheap money." With interest rates close to zero in many countries, individuals and institutions are "stampeding" out of cash into financial markets, as Crispin Odey of Odey Asset Management puts it, driving the MSCI World Index up by almost 70% over the past six months. Deutsche Bank estimates that over the past few months excess liquidity money available to buy financial assets has been rising at its fastest rate for two decades, says Edward Hadas on Breakingviews.com.

Money created by quantitative easing (QE) is also finding its way into stocks and accelerating the rush away from cash and expensive government bonds. "Markets are entering a bubble phase", reckons Odey, which could last until the end of the year. "At some point" QE will end, but until it does "this bull market is sponsored by her Majesty's government".

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