Market highs: Investors should beware widespread complacency

ALMOST four weeks into 2018 and one could say that stock market trading is going pretty much according to plan, following as it has the script of the past few years, the basis of which is a rosy economic outlook: The United States is recovering from its disastrous 2008 sub-prime crisis, a synchronised global upturn appears to be underway and inflation remains subdued, which means interest rates are unlikely to be raised too quickly.

Furthermore, corporate earnings are forecast t…