Year ahead looks good for equities

By Tom Walker, head of North America at Martin Currie Investment Management They flicker and then fade. When will hopes of recovery in the US economy burn bright and the stock market hunker down and go? The Philadelphia Fed's survey of business confidence has just come out and looks good. But when the ancient Greeks didn't know the answer to an important question, they asked the Delphic Oracle. Croesus, the fabulously rich king of Lydia, was unsure whether or not to cross the river Halys and invade neighbouring Parthia. So he asked the Oracle. 'If you cross the river Haly...