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We conduct predictability tests for selected Asian stock markets using monthly data from the period March 2001–April 2012. Asian market bears and returns are predicted using the U.S. stock market bears and returns. A two-state Markov-switching model is employed to distinguish between the bull and bear regimes in the U.S. and Asian stock markets. The in-sample predictability analysis suggests that the U.S. market returns and bears are important predictors of Asian market returns and some Asian bears. The out-of-sample predictability exercise is not able to reinforce the in-sample results, which is in large part due to the small forecasting sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For 77 technology-investing countries we test whether their stock market returns are predictable. We find that exchange rate returns and U.S. stock excess returns predict stock market returns for most countries in our sample, while crude oil and inflation predict returns of less than 40% of countries. While in out-of-sample tests the evidence of predictability declines, U.S. returns still beat the constant returns model for three-quarters of countries in our sample. A portfolio of all 77 countries offers a mean-variance investor annualized profits of between 5.7% and 8.0%, and profits are maximized when return forecasts are based on U.S. returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]