The Weekend Wrapup 9.25.11

Apologies for the delay monkeys, but anyway, here we go...

Americas:

• US markets just had its worse week since 08 with the DOW down 6.4%, the S&P down 6.5%, while the NASDAQ dropped 5.3%. Treasurys, which rallied for most of the week, also fell.

• Precious metals fell like armless skydivers as gold dropped 4%, silver a whopping 8%, and copper 6%. Paulson must be really hurting now.

• Housing seems to be on the up as multifamily permits rise and existing home sales grew higher than expected.

Europe:

• Europe also had a pretty bad week with the FTSE losing around 4%, the CAC 4.4%, while the DAX lost over 4% as well.

• The G20 has pledged to contain the current crisis. Yawn. After their photo-ops, Italy was downgraded, EU manufacturing numbers sink to their lowest since ‘09, and Greece, is pretty much still Greece.

• PMI, output, and services numbers for the entire EU all point to further contraction.

Asia:

• Asian markets were the worst hit however; the TAIEX hitting its 2 year low, the KOSPI fell over 6% in one day (to hit its lowest close in 15 months), and Hong Kong saw its weekly biggest drop since ’08.

• China flip flops on helping out the EU. Hilarious. Meanwhile, despite soaring official growth figures, independent survey results show that China has lost a lot of steam and might actually hit the dirt a lot harder than the soft landing scenario we’ve all read about. Also making headlines are all the hidden debt accrued by the local governments in the bid to build and build and build. What do you think monkeys? Are all these just Anti-China propaganda? I doubt that.

• The Japanese recovery is also showing signs of losing momentum as exports start to slip. Production plans for the upcoming months however are promising but an unconstrained Yen as well as a decrease in demand could hurt their prospects severely. Unemployment in the region, while low by other standards, continues to rise mainly due to the continuing bankruptcies of Japanese SMEs. Not a good sign for the troubled nation

So that's it for today, here are my clips of the week:

Found this Aussie documentary on macromon about China's ghost cities, it's interesting to say the least.

And in light of Peter Dinklage winning a really, really well-deserved Emmy, here's some of his best scenes from Game of Thrones. Come on, who doesn't love Tyrion Lannister? That half-man is a dozen kinds of cool.

Have a good one WSO.