After a collapse in early 2009, markets rebounded strongly leading into 2010 posting impressive year over year gains. Major indices moved out of “bear market” territory as investors hope that major economies have weathered the storm.

The credit crisis that began when the sub-prime mortgage market collapsed in August of 2007 grew into a massive systematic deleveraging of assets and effectively pushed the world into an international recession. After worldwide leaders rolled out unprecedented stimulus packages to combat the credit freeze while depressing interest rates to almost zero, markets sustained substantial rallies into the end of 2009. However economists and market analysts are cautious about current market valuations and their sustainability. In order for the stock market to perform, the real economy will have to continue to grow without the aid of massive government spending. With most stimulus packages being forecasted to finish sometime in the second half of 2010, analysts will be closely watching indicators to see how much world economies have truly recovered.