China's stimulus-fueled stock boom alarms Beijing

"But while investors expect the market -- up more than 80 percent this year -- to keep rising, Chinese leaders are alarmed. They worry that too much of the $1 trillion lending binge by state banks that paid for China's nascent revival was diverted into stocks and real estate, raising the danger of a boom and bust cycle and higher inflation less than two years after an earlier stock market bubble burst.

Beijing is trying to tighten credit controls without derailing the economic revival or causing a market crash -- a risky path at a time when Chinese leaders say a recovery is not firmly established.

"It's a very serious threat. The Chinese government is walking a tightrope," said Mark Williams, Asia economist for Capital Economics in London. "There is the question of what happens if they rein in lending, because there is really no strong evidence that private sector demand is picking up."

"Above 3,000 points, the benchmark index is just in the process of blowing a bigger and bigger bubble," said Wen Lijun, an analyst for Nanjing Securities. "It is just excessive liquidity and no other reason."

Source: AP

Standard and Poor's Overvalued

After a 40+% gain from the March lows on sub par volume, the S&P 500 seems overvalued relative to the current conditions in the economy. With companies beating on the EPS front due to cost cutting and reduction in head cut, revenue has been for the most part has not matched top end expectations. Hence, although the worst may have come and gone, we are still not out of the woods in terms of excess in the financial markets. With this added global stimulus program, we maybe in for another bubble to burst with the Chinese Shanghai markets up over 90%.

Clearly there is a lag from what actually happens with the economy and the stock market, however if we continue to buy at this point we may find ourselves paying over what the historical value is in the market.