It was not really worth getting up early (at 4.30 am on 28th January) and putting on CNN, just watch the State of the Union (SoU) address of Obama. But I was always fascinated by the State of the Union addresses. I distinctly remember the phrases such as from SoU of George Bush Jr, after in Jan 02 (after 9/11) declaring “State of the Union was never stronger”. A lot of expertise goes into drafting of SoU addresses with some of the best and talented speech writers working on the address. It is delivered with precision, emotion and gets lots of applauses. Usually, one hour+ long, SoU addresses are a treat to watch.
But Obama did not live up to my expectations. The SoU could have covered a bit more on financial regulations, governance and yes, terrorism. India did figure once in the address and Obama appeared to be scared of awakening of a giant whose name is India. Agreed that creating jobs is a priority but, it appeared that there is no clear plan to create more jobs.
One thing which struck me was the absence of Hillary in the audience.
Every President in his SoU address does have some good words for his better half, who will be in the audience and Obama did not disappoint on this score. We all know that keeping the better half in good humour is the best risk management practice for peace and harmony.
Meanwhile, the markets are keeping every-one guessing. We have started hearing the words “expensive” when experts talk about Indian stock market. US Dollar appears to be the darling of the currency market now. RBI has signaled that it is no longer happy with surplus liquidity. These three factors (i.e., USD strength, tight liquidity measures of RBI and valuations) will prove to be a bit of dampener for Indian stock markets, till we see the budget. If Pranab Babu is able to come-out with a better tasting recipe, we may see things brightening-up thereafter. Incidentally since September 2009, markets have been ranging between 16,000s and 17,000s. I feel that this is some sort of a equilibrium level. I will treat any break-below 16,000 as an opportunity to buy (mainly index stocks).
This is my first blog on this new site which Shreyas has created. We hope to include more features in the coming days. Do post your feed-back.