Just not a good time to be an investor

This summer is probably a season when the best place to stash your cash is under your pillow or in a high interest bank account with HSBC or Citibank. Why take an investment risk if you don't have to?

There are simply too many accidents waiting to happen. Take the UK; house prices are falling, consumer demand is dropping like a stone and yet the stock market remains buoyant; something is wrong here!

Or the US where jobs data is disappointing and lower sales of cars surely shows that consumers are running low on spending power; however, the tail-end of a housing boom is supporting confidence and a higher stock market; but how long can that last?

GCC stock markets have also advanced to such heights that even optimists are looking askance. The UAE bourse trades on a historic price-to-earnings ratio of 34. That means a business is worth 34 years of profits! In the past such huge inflations of stock values have always ended in disaster, is it worth tempting fate?

Real estate values in GCC countries are also up sharply, and although not as overvalued as shares, nonetheless you have to wonder how much upside potential is left, and what the downside risk might be.

Of course, you could jump on the commodities bandwagon and buy some oil shares. But would you not be a little late for this particular investment party? Surely the slowdown in the oil consumer economies does not bode well in the short term at least?

What are the alternatives: bonds? Well, bond prices could firm if interest rate tightening is over, but by how much and there is the possibility of inflation to consider which would hit bond prices.

Or what about gold? So far this year gold bugs have been modest losers, though bleaker times might be good for gold, unless it remains a proxy for the euro whose fall against the dollar has been bad for gold.

So sorry to be so gloomy! But if you are lucky enough to be sitting on cash then hold on to it, then when more interesting investment opportunities emerge you will be able to take advantage rather than sit there crying.