Technology continues to power ahead

We head into the spring of this new century with one of the main problems for US investors - the scope of interest rate hikes - unresolved. Despite the 25 basis point rise early in February, we feel that there is another 50 basis points to come by the middle of the year. But the extent of the overall rise during the current cycle is still difficult to fathom, and this is causing great uncertainty in the market. The booming US economy is the culprit. The worry is that economic growth is now running at unsustainable levels, and sooner or later inflation will take hold and turn boom to bust....