15 years ago, on 10 March 2009, US markets hit a low in the middle of what is often called the Great Recession. I prefer to refer to it as the US sub-prime crisis.

Vestact had a rather small business then, and our client portfolios got walloped. The whole thing was set off by dodgy housing loans in America, bundled and sold to gullible investors in instruments called mortgage-backed securities or collateralised loan obligations. In the end, almost all risky assets were dumped as contagion spread around the world.

Early that year I wrote to Vestact clients:

"As we face 2009, we can't be sure whether our stock market: (a) has yet to adequately anticipate the depth of the economic downturn; (b) has already anticipated it; or (c) has anticipated something much worse than what is likely to transpire."

"We are inclined to believe that the answer is somewhere between (b) and (c). Whilst confidence has been dealt a heavy blow, humans are a hardy species, adept at putting bad news behind us, cheering up, and moving on. Optimism is a part of the human condition. Risk tolerance will rise again. The market pendulum has probably swung too far."

According to Eddy Elfenbein, the S&P 500 Total Return Index is up 10-fold since March 2009. Consider the chart below and remember to stay long and strong.

Facebook, Instagram and Google are not allowed to operate in China but that has not stopped them from making big money from Chinese advertisers. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Meta's biggest advertising client in 2023 was Chinese e-commerce brand Temu who spent nearly $2 billion on their various platforms.

Temu is also reportedly one of Google's top 5 clients as they compete with rival Shein who have also been a big spender on these platforms. Winning over the US consumer is the holy grail for retailers and there is no better way to tap the mass market than through social media and search.

Meta's revenues from Chinese companies were around $14 billion in 2023, double the 2022 amount. By investing exclusively in US stocks you are still able to tap big growth themes from around the globe.

Nvidia continues to lead the charge in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). At its annual GPU technology conference in San Jose, CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the company's latest AI chips and GPU platform, dubbed "Blackwell." Among its key features is the new GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip, slated for release later this year.

Huang said, "Generative AI is the defining technology of our time," and positioned Blackwell as the catalyst for a new industrial revolution. A wide array of prominent companies, including Amazon, Dell, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, Tesla, and xAI, are expected to embrace the Blackwell architecture.

While specific pricing details were not disclosed, Nvidia's previous generation of GPUs, "Hopper," and its H100 chip commanded prices ranging from $25,000 to $40,000 per chip, with complete systems costing as much as $200,000.

After decades of stagnation, the Japanese economy is coming back to life. Deflation worries are gone, and some inflation has returned - Factory workers at Toyota to get biggest pay raise in decades.

Playing golf at night is booming. Now you can lose your balls in the dark - Drive, chip and putt, around the clock.

Asian markets are mixed today. Japan's Nikkei and Topix indices rose, supported by a slight weakening of the Yen after the Bank of Japan's decision to end the world's last negative interest rate policy.

Today we'll see the latest Eurozone CPI numbers and tomorrow is the Fed's interest rate decision.

Keep it up, and remember that Thursday is a public holiday!