ANCHOR QUESTION OFF-CAMERA (ENGLISH) SAYING:

Why are you enamored with emerging market areas?

RUSS KOESTERICH, GLOBAL CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, BLACKROCK (ENGLISH) SAYING:

Well, I'd probably qualify the use of the word enamored a little bit. Stocks now generally look much better than bonds, they're reasonably valued, they're certainly not dirt cheap. But I do think on a relative basis, we do see better opportunities outside of the U.S. including emerging markets. And the reason for that is, we still have obviously a lot of challenges in the world, it's still a slow growth recovery, we still have some fiscal issues that are unresolved in the U.S. The advantage outside of the U.S., specifically in emerging markets is those risks are better discounted. In other words, the stocks are cheaper, they trade at more of a discount relative to the U.S. and there's more bad news baked in the price. So from our perspective, these seem like some of the best opportunities. Consider markets like China and Brazil that really are trading at very reasonable valuations and over the next few years have much better growth prospects than anything you're likely to see in developed countries.

ANCHOR QUESTION OFF-CAMERA (ENGLISH) SAYING:

Short-term we have seen a very strong run in the emerging markets especially in Q4, are they getting ahead of themselves? Might we see a little pullback before they continue to charge higher?

RUSS KOESTERICH, GLOBAL CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, BLACKROCK (ENGLISH) SAYING:

Sorry I was losing you a little bit, but I think what you asked was about whether or not emerging markets are getting ahead of themselves. Arguably all equity markets probably got a bit ahead of themselves to start the year just given the fact, the relief rally we had after the resolution of the fiscal cliff was a bit strong given the fact that there are a lot of lingering issues left. There's the debt ceiling, the sequester and that may produce some market volatility in the months ahead