December 23, 2012
Weekly Market Outlook
By Keith Schneider
December 21, 2012 has come and gone. We humans are still here. As in the world of speculation, readying for the black swan event is necessary, but considering that the sun is due to burn out in 57 billion years, a longer dated option is needed. However, in the photo above, this gentleman donned his survival suit in preparation for the end of the world but has decided to keep it on just in case we go over the fiscal cliff and into a financial apocalypse.
Interesting action in the markets as interest rates jumped in the face on QE4, gold tanked, and stocks posted some moderate gains for the week. Keep in mind there was a mini panic in the markets in Thursday's evening session after Boehner's Plan B failed to launch. At one point, the S&P500 futures market was down over 3% before recovering by Friday's close, ending down about 1.5%. The IWM (Russell 2000) barely budged and ended the week up over 2%. Could it be that the fiscal cliff might be more attractive than Plan B or A or anything that Capitol Hill can engineer? Did I forget to mention that the dollar rallied as well this Friday? While the market was busy shaking off the lower opening, the US dollar came to life and showed a faint pulse. So stepping back from the fray, the net result by week's end was sharply lower gold, higher stocks, higher dollar, and higher rates. One week of market action does not confirm a sea change, but we are getting a whiff that the Teutonic plates might be shifting. Check out this week's video as we drill down into this shifting macro picture.
Every week you'll gain actionable insight with:
