Finney of Evermay is perplexed

The loquacious Kizziah Finney, equity strategist at Evermay Securities, for once has no point of view. "I tell my clients, and I'm proud to use the plural, that there are times when no one knows what's going on, or even can pretend to know. That's me now," Finney commented over an unlikely salad and iced tea at Mangia on 23rd. "You know, I need a break, so I internalize that and say the market needs a break, as my wife would say it's all about me, and at the moment I would prefer to accept that. It's not like I'm walking down to Paragon and buying a new ski vest or something, and do you see a pint in my hand, no mate, I'm simply tired of being optimistic and afraid to rest."

Finney continues to see the stock market rising this year, a modest rise as opposed to his more bullish posture in December. His main worry is political, both in the U.S. and in China,as he says, "Now we have a President who aims to help the middle class and in four or five days manages to whack their 401k's and pension funds by 5% or more with his anti-bank mission. What goes here. He is a total wild card and even me on an eighth Guinness thinks twice before making that bet. Then we have China where there is no real rule of law, only mandate or arbitrary party power, and their intervention in credit markets has become totally unpredictable, I mean it's come down to choosing firms and types of lending to shut down while ignoring others. Who can predict this Communist government's motives and anticipate their calumny when the game is afoot. Help me Sherlock."

Absent political concerns Finney sees, to quote him, "dare I say it, vibrant growth. Commodity demand is picking back up but prices are masked by the turbulance in fx markets, emerging markets will still be serving their expanding middle markets plus the U.S. import needs, and multinational companies of all stripes are for the most part lean and looking for opportunities". Finney still has no great conviction one way or the other given the circumstances, but says "if we could eliminate terrorists and politicians there would be no end to the limits of the world's prosperity".

Finney expects to have a committed view to a market call within the next two weeks and he has guaranteed an exclusive for Eyes Not Sold.