Regional stock market analysis

1. MarketBeat Blog: "It wasn’t easy to go wrong with global investments this year — unless you sank all your money into the Middle East. . . . Just four of the 81 countries surveyed lost more than 20% this year in their major equity index — Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia."

2. Global Economic Forum: "Even after a deep correction, there is still no sign of recovery in Middle Eastern markets. The abundance of petrodollar liquidity led to the emergence of a new equity culture in the Middle East, where stock markets had remained by and large irrelevant for decades. Unfortunately, lacking historical benchmarks and a proper regulatory structure, the liquidity-driven boom in asset markets resulted in a speculative frenzy that eventually collapsed under its own weight."