It was a tough week across the globe; the S&P 500 dropped 4.7%, the FTSE fell 3.7%, the DAX declined 5.3%, and the Hang Seng Index decreased 4.3%.  The continued fear of the global slowdown, Eurozone fractures, and the Holiday in the US coupled with relatively light trading pressured all markets.

The global markets feared the lack of results from the US Super committee, and the European sovereign debt crises.  While it may have been broadly expected that this Super Committee would fail in its mission, the reality of the shortfall hit the markets hard on this Monday morning.  Existing home sales improved in October, up by 1.4% to 4.97 million, according to the National Association of Realtors, but this was overshadowed but the negative global news items. The Dow …

Technocrats got a weak response from the global markets as Italian prime minister, Monti and Greek prime minister, Papademos look to remain in the Eurozone and keep austerity discussions moving forward.  The present austerity measures and further discussions on the topic are not being welcomed by New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras in Greece.  The US Supercommittee is gaining more press coverage with the dominant play being that no deal is reached. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.61% to 12,078.98, the S&P 500 declined 0.96% to 1,251.78, and the NASDAQ Composite Index was down 0.80% to 2,657.22.

Pre-market futures and early morning trading on Tuesday were under pressure from European headlines and then began to rally as US economic data was released and news that Prime Minister Monti may announce his new government …

The focus remained Europe on Monday, with Italy taking center stage and the new unity government in Greece expected shortly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.71% to 12,068.39, the NASDAQ Composite Index added 0.34% to 2,695.25, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.63% to 1,261.12.  The September consumer credit report reversed the decline for August with outstanding consumer credit increasing by $7.4B in September after declining by $9.7B in August. Healthcare ended the day as the best performing sector, and crude and precious metals were also strong.  ADPI was up about 80% on a deal by JLL Partners valued at $398M and HMSY jumped nearly 17% on news that it is acquiring HealthDataInsights in …

The drama in Greece continued to take center stage, while the Italian bond prices stayed elevated in ring two and the US economy, in ring three, seems to be poised for slow growth although QE3 continues to be battered about by the crowd.  The Fed’s economic forecast this week called for high unemployment through 2014 and for the rate to not fall below 8.5% in 2012. The forecast also mentioned full employment when the unemployment rate is between 5.2%-6.0%. We do recall a time when full employment was closer to 3% unemployment.  Comments by Bernanke included the need to put people back to work, as the longer they are unemployed, the tougher it is to get back into the workforce. For the week, the Dow declined 2.0% and the S&P500 fell 2.5%, while the DAX was off 6.0%, the FTSE 100 dropped …