Will the U.S. economy continue to improve? The new reports of the Leading Economic Index have been released, suggesting an increase in momentum. At the same time, U.S. stocks are not performing as well. Russ Koesterich of BlackRock believes it’s a case of rising expectations. He explains how you can shield your portfolio from the affects of the current valuations. The biggest danger to the global markets now is the rising threat of deflation. While consumers tend to worry about inflation, deflation is a present concern of central banks, not just in the United States but around the world. Lance Roberts shows why the conventional policy tools used to correct the situation shouldn’t be used this time.

Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI): Fourth Consecutive Monthly Increase– The Conference Board LEI for the U.S. increased for the fourth consecutive month in December.  “December’s gain in the LEI was driven by a majority of its components, suggesting the short-term outlook is getting brighter and the economy continues to build momentum,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, Economist at The Conference Board.  Read more…

How U.S. Stocks Lost Their Lead– U.S. shares are now performing worse than the rest of the world. The problem is simply that both expectations and valuations are particularly high for U.S. stocks. U.S. economic fundamentals appear solid, but U.S. equities are trading at a significant premium over other developed and emerging markets.  All of this underscores one of the basics of investing: Be diversified, and that means casting your net outside the U.S. as well. Read more…

Deflation Is A Problem For The Fed– The biggest worry of the Federal Reserve, and frankly every Central Banker on the planet, is deflation. The reason is that deflation, as an economic pressure, is dangerous and once entrenched becomes difficult to break.  Lance Roberts explains. Read more…

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John R. Day, Bill Ennis, Stephanie Davidson and Matt Heller

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