Five more reasons to be bullish

Regular readers will know I'm bullish. In March, I gave you six reasons to be bullish, including global growth, led by emerging markets, being stronger than most think. And sentiment being dour - the wall of worry stocks love to climb. Here are five more new ones you won't have heard elsewhere.
First: People are too busy fearing a Greek debt implosion they can't see the GDP-weighted global yield curve - the spread between long-term and short-term government interest rates - is steeper than any time since the 1960s. Why care? Because banks borrow short-term and lend long-term.
The bigger the spread between the two, the fatter future bank operating profit margins are. That spread tells you how eager banks will be to lend down the road - a steep curve means very eager, which is why historically, a steep global yield curve has been reliably bullish.

Second: Note too the curve is steep but rates overall are still benign. Firms can borrow cheaply.
Third (and similar): In the US, junk bond offerings hit a record €31.1 billion in March and €53 billion for the first quarter - up from €9.1 billion in the first quarter of 2009. Globally, first quarter junk bond offerings hit €65.1 billion, up from €10 in the first quarter of 2009. Low-quality midsize firms couldn't borrow a year ago-now they can.
Smaller firms are next. Credit is flowing again. Bears used to complain low-quality firms couldn't borrow, and that was bad. Now, they cry that all that borrowing is too risky. Folks only see the bad news, and good news is seen as either wrong, a lie, or will soon evolve into something bad. I call this the pessimism of disbelief, and when it's extreme and everywhere as it is now, it's very bullish.
Four: In America, investors closely watch the purchasing manager index (PMI) as a leading economic indicator. But it's mostly ignored overseas. Why? Economic fundamentals are the same everywhere and PMI is wildly expansive in emerging markets. Together, emerging markets make up more of global GDP than the US, and are about the same size as the EU. Bullish.
Five: And speaking of emerging markets, people wrongly fear a global debt contagion from tiny Greece - 0.5% of global GDP. No one notices overall, many more emerging markets are getting debt upgrades, like South Korea, Indonesia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Turkey is about twice Greece's size and South Korea nearly three times.
But bad as Greece is, they can still borrow. They've had a series of fine debt auctions after bungling a few. Pessimists forget: In 1993 Greece paid 12% of GDP in interest payments annually, no one would lend them long-term money - at all, so none existed - and all worked out fine. And now? Just 6%. Fear of a false factor is always bullish.
Note, these reasons are all fundamental, yet little noted - very bullish. And these are just five - I can and will give you more in coming months. Ignore the gloom - it's a beautiful world. Get over your gloom with shares like these:

Magyar Telekom (MTA) is Hungary's best-run firm, providing landline and mobile-telephone service in Hungary, Macedonia and Montenegro. It's about to start a stock buyback program, which should push the stock up. It sells at ten times 2010 earnings and what should be more than an 8% dividend yield.
America's H&R Block is just ending a bad tax season hurt by DIYers. Buy for 2011. It's the clear leader in tax prep, a business sure to grow as governments make taxes ever more complicated. With 24 million customers worldwide, it's way ahead of competitors. Its stock is at ten times my estimate of this year's earnings and has a 3.25% dividend yield.
Germany's Aixtron (AIXG) is a leader in vacuum deposition equipment sold to chipmakers, mostly Asian ones. It was expected to get creamed in the recession but managed itself so well I expect it is soon to be seen as a true glamour stock, more than making up for its P/E of 28 on 2010 earnings. This stock carries more risk than most of the ones I recommend, but I think it will work out.