The Weekend Wrapup 1.7.12

Americas:

• The January effect? Who knows? Nevertheless, US indices ended the first week of 2012 with the S&P gaining 1.6%, the DOW 1.2%, while the NASDAQ spiked a pretty good 2.5%. Bonds dropped.

• The same couldn’t be said for the others though; while Argentina’s Merval index rose 12.5% and Canada’s TSX jumped 1.95%, Brazil’s BOVESPA only managed a surprise 0.1% gain, and Mexico’s IPC lost 0.7% for the week.

• While the Fed’s keeping things steady, consumer confidence is on the up, ISM manufacturing figures are on a high, and jobless claims fell to its lowest since ’08. Refi applications and December retail figures are looking bad though; and the debt to GDP ratio?

Europe:

• Europe was kinda mixed with the FTSE gaining 1.5%, the CAC losing 0.7%, while the DAX cut its rally to 2.7%. Bond yields for the Club Med states meanwhile kept creeping higher while Gilts finally fell as the GBP continued to strengthen.

• The Euro had a pretty interesting week, with short interest in the currency at nose bleed levels, someone had the balls to try a short squeeze – and actually pulled it off. Well, for a while at least, it sank back to its $1.27 range shortly after the US jobs report. Who was that anyway?

• Germany seems to be headed for a sharp downturn as factory orders slipped the most in over two years. November figures show that orders dropped 4.8% from October while October figures were revised even higher, a trend that’s been going on for months. If core Europe is hurting…

Asia:

• Asian markets closed mostly in the red with the Nikkei down 0.9%, the Kospi down 1.6%, the Hang Seng down 1.4%, while Shanghai, Australia, and Singapore all slipped 0.3%, 0.7%, and 0.2% respectively.

• Housing prices in China continue to fall, pissing off the middle class and creating a lot tension for Beijing. Manufacturing and services PMI’s for the region however are looking good.

OK, that’s it for me monkeys. Haven't seen this posted yet so here’s my clip of the week:

Am I the only one who thinks Tom Hardy will just dominate being Bane? Saw Warrior a couple weeks ago and that just sealed it for me. Dude is boss.