STOCKS RALLY, DOLLAR RECOVERS
Stocks extended their rally last week even as oil price rose 2.26% to $63.43. The Dow gained 138 to close at 12445. The dollar rose 1% closing at $1.3083/€ and ¥118.06/$. Oil, EUR, JPY and GBP dominated trading on HedgeStreet. Paulson and Bernanke went to China to beg for a yuan appreciation. Paulson thinks his Goldman credentials give him the right to preach, but how embarassing for Bernanke. Russia kicked Shell Oil out of a Far East energy project. Stock markets in Asia and Australia reached new highs. Euronext shareholders vote on a merger with NYSE on Wednesday.
ECONOMIC RELEASES THIS WEEK:
Tuesday: Housing starts 1.55m, permits 1.535m, up from October, but trend still falling. PPI +0.7%, core +0.2%, a slight bounce considering October’s plunge.
Thursday: Final Q3 GDP at 2.2%, deflator 1.8%. Initial claims expected back at 315K.
Friday: Durable orders 1.1%; the trend is close to -1% year on year as the economy slows. Personal income 0.4%, spending 0.4%, core PCE expected at 0.1%. A 6% year on year trend in wage and salary growth helps spending which accounts for 70% of GDP.
GOLDMAN’S $16BN … KERRY’S EMPTY BERET … FRENCH VALOR … OBAMA WHO?
Goldman Sachs’ bonus pool this year is $16.1 bn, or >600K per employee. Next welfare reform, instead of handouts, the feds should offer job placement at Goldman … John Kerry went to Syria to try diplomacy on his own. Assad reminded him that he was the enemy. Kerry wanted to go to Iran, too, but Ahmadinejad already had KKK’s David Duke for the anti-Holocaust shindig. Maybe next time … France is pulling its 200 troops from Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Local Taliban militias were getting stronger, and there was a real possibility of combat. Scram … The media seem to be ethralled with Barrack Obama. He speaks smoothly and has two years of experience in the Senate. That is, he knows as little as Bush, but can speak better. Great.
Your comment on Obama is uncalled for. To compare him to Bush is ridiculous. Bush had massive experience of being incompetent in everything he did in his life including running the state of Texas into a deficit, and failing at every “job” his fathers position got him into. Cheney and Rumsfield have decades of experience and lied about virtually everthing to promote a disastrous and costly foreign policy designed to benefit big industry which they were a part of. Obama may not have vast experience, but he has integrity, a keen mind, and is willing to use reason and intelligence for the good of Americans, rather than political corruption, raiding of the treasury and shameless promotion of policies by calling them the opposite of they are-clean skies means more mercury in the air, etc. No amount of experience in the Bush administration could ever attain even remote proximity to integrity.
Mary: Clearly you like Obama and dislike Bush. Passionately like one and passionately dislike the other. In politics, people disagree with each other all the time. And I am not as passionate about politics as you are.
I agree with you that integrity is key. But we don’t know much about Barrack. I watched him speak once for 5 minutes and he was good, no question. In my blog, I poked fun at the media. When they find a favorite, they go all gaga, they don’t seem to be able to put the charm aside and go find things out. They treat Obama like they do an entertainer. They have not told us AT ALL who Barrack is, what his ideas are on war, economy, environment, etc.