Money Watch Weekly Wrap
Opinion shifted from the "recovery is slowing down" and "Greece is broke," to "we'll make it up in the second-half" and "we'll deal with Greece later". Stocks closed out their best week almost two years (7/17/09), ahead of the long holiday weekend. Ben Bernanke and the Fed allowed QE2 to sail into port with little fanfare, though after interviewing a bunch of people, it was hard to find anyone who really could figure out how the bond buying plan helped. (Did QE2 Work?)
Separately, NY prosecutors released Dominique Strauss-Kahn from house arrest, as the alleged rape case against him was called into question.
- DJIA: 12,582, up 5.4% on week, up 8.7% YTD
- S&P 500: 1339, up 5.6% on week, up 6.5% YTD
- NASDAQ: 2816, up 6.1% on week, up 6.1% YTD
- August Crude Oil: $94.94, up 4.1% on week (First gain in five weeks)
- August Gold: $1482.60, down 1.2% on the week
Total bank failures for 2011 = 48 (0 new bank failures over weekend)
FACTOIDS OF THE WEEK: Quarterly performance edition:
- DJIA: +0.7%
- S&P 500: -0.4%
- NASDAQ: -0.2%
- China: -4.3%
- Germany: +3.6%
- Municipal Bonds: +4.36% (total return)
- US government 7-10-year Bonds: +3.88%
- Crude oil: -10.6% (largest quarterly loss since the Q4 2008)
- Gold: +4.4%
Mon 7/4: Markets closed in honor of Independence Day
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest: Can Joey Chestnut make it five in a row?
Tues 7/5:
10:00 Factory Orders
Weds 7/6:
8:15 ADP Employment Report
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing
President Obama conducts economic town hall on Twitter
Thurs 7/7:
8:30 Weekly Claims
Fri 7/8:
8:30 Employment Report
10:00 Wholesale Trade
3:00 Consumer Credit
