The Weekend Wrapup 10.29.11
After a not so brief hiatus, the weekend wrapup is back!
Here's some of the stuff you might have missed:
Americas:
• US markets were on a tear the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ broke through practically every resistance level to soar 3.6%, 3.8%, and 3.8% for the week. Monthly figures are even better, with the S&P breaking through its 200-day MA to end up 12% month to date. Though if you sold on Thursday you could’ve scored its 17 day 20.3% record.
• Was Meredith Whitney wrong? After much ado about munis defaulting right and left, recent figures show that state and local governments are doing a good job cutting down their debt and increasing revenues (an almost 11% rise YoY for state government revenues). A sign of things to come? Still on the fence on that.
• Thank God for the American consumer. While sentiment may not be that high, personal and business spending over the quarter grew the GDP by 2.5%. Home sales are also on the up, hinting on a recovery for the housing market. The question still remains though, should we be spending or saving?
Europe:
• Investors over in Europe should be pretty stoked too as the FTSE 100 hit its best month since 1990, chalking up an 11% gain while the DAX, the CAC, and the IBEX all hit new highs as well.
• The Eurocrats, with their super awesome new bailout agreement, kick the can down the road once again as the Italian parliament brawls over an increase of the retirement age - which comes to effect in 2026. Sigh.
• Czech and Polish numbers weren’t so good but the real headliners are France and Belgium, both of which are sitting in the crosshairs of the ratings agencies. A Belgian downgrade looks pretty imminent now and while France’s AAA rating has been under pressure for quite some time, with the launch of the new and improved EFSF, more scrutiny from the RA’s is bound to come.
Asia:
• Asian markets, much like the rest of the EM nations, extended their gains after the EU agreement with the Hang Seng up 11%, the Kospi up 5%, same for the ASX, while Shanghai and Japan racked up 7% and 4% respectively.
• India has been fighting inflation tooth and nail lately, raising rates for nth time this year, now at 8.5%. Problem is, things are really starting to look bad there, they even downgraded their GDP forecast. High rates + slowing economy = profit??? Unlikely.
• Sarkozy may be happy as a clam right now after he got a commitment from the Chinese, but reports from Beijing are singing a different tune: "We of course must wait until its structure is extremely clear," Zhu Guangyao told a press briefing. "And moreover, this investment must be decided on after serious, technical discussions." Well at least he has Carla Bruni to console him. Meanwhile, the HK government reported that the outlook for exports from the region look “bleak,” citing the current world economic crisis as the culprit. The RE market however, still looks inexplicably strong.
And that’s it for me today. Since Halloween's just around the corner I figured I’d post one of my favorite horror movie scenes and what I'm actually about to watch.
This was pretty freaky scene from one of my favorites, The Eye:
And I'm watching this right now:
Pretty sure you guys have your own favorites so post them up, I'm always on the lookout for a decent horror movie anyway so I'm curious what you guys think is scary.
Have a good one WSO. Happy Halloween.
The Euro Zone's can kicking may show it's face much sooner than they think. If any sort of run is taken on Spain, Italy, Portugal and the likes I find it hard to believe that the EFSF has enough financial fire power to stop it. Brazil, Japan, China(mainly China) and who ever else will have to make good on their offers Friday to aid the bailout. IMO any lag on their part would put the Euro currency under assault once gain. Lets not forget the trust of their bondholders is a wavering commodity that they are losing by the day. I think the Euro and Dollar Index shall become a fire works show..... but who really knows??
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