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SPAIN: The 2011 Deficit Is A Lot Higher Than We Thought
MADRID (AP) — Spain's deficit for 2011 could be even higher than the larger-than-forecast 8 percent of GDP it announced last week, the finance minister of the new conservative government said Monday....
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The World's Best Places To Live And Work
One of your New Year's resolutions is probably to better balance your professional life with your personal life. If not, it should be. So how do you accomplish this? Perhaps the easiest thing to do is...
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Greece Is Kicking Off The New Year With A Labor Strike
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece is already seeing its first strike of the year, with pharmacists and doctors walking off the job to protest health sector reforms that include cuts in drug prices....
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David Kotok: 2012 Is Shaping Up To Be A Good Year For Stocks
Looking eastward from my 12th floor Sarasota condominium, one sees the cityscape and then a long view of South Florida’s flat landscape. Greeting sunrise has become a habit. The winter solstice...
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THINK TANK: 2012 Is The Beginning Of The End For The Euro
The euro just celebrated its 10th birthday. But that birthday celebration came with little fanfare as the currency bloc continues to struggle to work out its debt debacle. The Centre for Economics and...
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Yes, It's A New Year — And The United States Is Still Broke
The entity responsible for publishing the financial statements of the U.S. government, the General Accounting Office, has released its fiscal 2011 annual report. When companies and governments have...
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Nomura's 7 Key Calls For 2012
From a recent Nomura research notes comes 7 key trading calls for 2012: “Key Call 1: Buy Gilts with Sterling exposure Key Call 2: Buy US investment grade corporate bonds Key Call 3: Buy 10Y US...
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Iran's Riyal Plunges To Record Low After US Sanctions
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's currency hit a new record low to the U.S. dollar on Monday, two days after President Barack Obama signed into law a bill targeting Iran's central bank as part of the West's...
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MERKEL: 'Next Year Will No Doubt Be More Difficult Than 2011'
Not much of a "happy new year" in Europe ... From the Financial Times: Europe’s leaders warn of tough 2012 ... Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, said the gravest crisis Europe has faced since the...
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6 Long-Term Bullish Trends That Will Reward Patient Investors For Years To Come
Overall, Wall Street strategists are generally bullish on stocks for 2012. However, all of the published forecasts are riddled with caveats. Citigroup's Tobias Levkovich expects stocks to close 2012...
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PRESENTING: The Invisible Force That's Saving The US Economy
In talking about markets or economics, we tend to use fairly small numbers. For example, in a given quarter, economists might estimate GDP to come in at 2.5% (a small number), and then everyone freaks...
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BOOM: Markets Are Off To A Dynamite Start In 2012
US markets start the year tomorrow, but Europe wasn't bothered by the fact that New Year's Day fell on a Sunday, thus depriving the people of a proper day off. So the trading began today. The big...
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GUESS WHAT: Investors Are Still In Panic Mode
The last few weeks of 2011 saw things quiet down a bit in global markets, and you might think that investors are done panicking about all the stuff that worried them throughout the year. You'd be...
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The German Job Market Continues To Be Freakishly Strong
What crisis? German unemployment just fell another 22K vs. expectations of 10K. The unemployment rate of 6.8% is apparently the lowest in 20 years! So much for the peripheral countries taking down the...
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2012 Is Starting Out Hot: Markets In Rally Mode For Second Straight Day
Markets boomed in the first day of trading yesterday in Europe, and they're up again today. Italy's FTSE MIB index is up nearly 1%. Germany's DAX is also up over 1%. A strong jobs number out of...
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The Truth About The 'January Effect'
Some investors ascribe mystical powers to January, saying that as goes January, so goes the year, or, as go the first five days of January, so goes the year, etc. Is there any basis for reading much...
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MORE GOOD NEWS: Signs Of Stabilization Across The BRIC PMIs
Here is some good global macro news to start the year as global PMIs are reported. The BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) posted stronger than expected data with Brazil’s PMI coming in at...
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Macau Casino Revenue Surged By Nearly Half Last Year
HONG KONG (AP) — Macau casino gambling revenue surged by nearly half last year as the world's biggest gambling market continued to boom, powered by wealthy, high-rolling Chinese gamblers. Gross...
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Iran Says There Is No Relation Between US Sanctions And The Collapsing Riyal
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says the new record low of the national currency to the U.S. dollar is not linked to the latest sanctions from the United States targeting the country's central bank. Foreign...
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ISM Non-Manufacturing Just Misses Expectations At 52.6
UPDATE: It's a small miss. ISM Services for December came in at 52.6 vs. expectations of 53.0. On the other hand, it's up a bit from last month's 52.0. The Dow is off 110. ---------- Last big economic...
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