Wednesday Morning Commentary

- As I write this the Dow is down 30 points after futures pointed to a higher open
-Most overseas markets down. Notably Europe off around ~1% and China, who is now being accused of using a big chunk of their stimulus for stock market speculation. China was off around ~5%
-As France, Spain, Greece, and Ireland face budget problems along with the ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe the dollar remains strong, simply because it appears situations are worse in other parts of the world.
- Check out this article for further reading on the eastern European situation: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/06da52fe-fd3c-11dd-a103-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
- Today it is said that Obama is set to unveil a 50bln housing/mortgage rescue plan
- Some random data numbers: GDP report out of Japan (-12.7% at an annual rate). Russian industrial production sank 20% YoY in January and foreign direct investment in Russia plunged 33% in January. Taiwan’s 4Q GDP shrank 8.4% YoY in 4Q. Mexico’s industrial production fell by 6.7% YoY in December
- After all is said and done, GM is asking for 16.6 billion in aid and Chrysler is asking for 5 billion.
-Random fact: Big volume yesterday: +18% on Nasdaq and +29% on NYSE. -4.6% yesterday in the SP500 is "only" the 16th largest decline of the last year.
- Global investors increased purchases of US bonds and US equities by a pretty large percentage in the past month.
- Housing still in a funk and it looks as if no bottom is in sight.

Dan
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