Prepare yourself for a 2003 rocky rollercoaster ride

Happy New Year. I don't think so. Let's face it squarely: this year is going to be a whole lot less happy than last year, which was grim. Just because it is the third year in a row that major indices have ended lower than they started (which was last experienced in 1939-41), it doesn't mean a rebound is inevitable. You know there is little appetite when positive comments from the chair of the US Federal Reserve on improving US economic growth fail to stir those once exuberant investors. Consumers kept spending over the Christmas period, but at nothing like the levels of previous years. T...