http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog Insightful Thoughts on Financial Services Sectors Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:32:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en US Equity markets managed to eke out gains for the week ending February 17th, 2012.  Throughout the week, Greece moved closer to qualifying for bailout funds and positive US economic data reports gave investors confidence and pushed the indices higher.  The S&P 500 Index closed at 1361.23 on Friday, up ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2012/02/18/greek-bailout-not-this-week%e2%80%a6/ The markets finished lower for the week, even though three of the five trading days closed positive.  The prospect of a Greek default through the week troubled markets.  The S&P 500 Index lost 2.26 points this week, to finish on Friday at 1,342.64 and the Dow finished at 12,801.23, down ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2012/02/11/%e2%80%9cgreek-tragedy%e2%80%9d-resurfaces-focus-shifts-back-to-europe/ Tuesday marked the end of the first month of 2012.  Although the markets closed down across the board on Monday and Tuesday, the S&P 500 Index posted a 4.3% gain for the month and the Dow gained 3.4%, marking the best January for both indices since January 1997.  It was ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2012/02/04/strong-start-to-2012-extends-into-february/ The global markets were largely to the upside this past week. The S&P 500 inched upward by 0.1%, the NASDAQ jumped 1.1%, the FTSE rose 0.1%, the DAX increased 1.7% and the Hang Seng soared 2.0%.  The Dow and the CAC 40 finished lower by 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively.  GDP ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2012/01/29/the-fed-us-politics-and-earnings-grabbed-headlines-ahead-of-europe/ The global markets rallied this week, cheered on by relatively healthy earnings by US companies, better than expected US economic data and Eurozone stability.  The Dow jumped 2.4%, the S&P 500 rose 2.0%, and the FTSE increased 1.6%, while the DAX and the Hang Seng soared 4.3% and 4.7%, respectively.  ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2012/01/21/solid-data-from-us-relative-stability-abroad-market-positive/   For the week, the Dow Jones rose 0.5%, the S&P 500 gained 0.9%, and the NASDAQ jumped 1.4% which underperformed the S&P Bank and NASDAQ Bank indices which soared 3.4% and 2.2%, respectively. To recap the week, the broader markets posted solid gains despite a slash of cold water ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2012/01/14/is-the-us-decoupling-from-european-woes/ The financials outpaced the broader markets for the week with the S&P Bank index up 4.7% and the NASDAQ Bank rising 3.8%.  The Dow rose 1.2%, the S&P 500 increased 1.6% and the NASDAQ jumped 2.7% during the first week of 2012.  This week we also witnessed the first, Iowa, ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2012/01/07/a-solid-start-to-the-new-year/ The week between Christmas and New Year is traditionally a light volume week and this week was no exception.  Stocks finished the holiday-shortened week with slight losses on modest trading volume and no major news releases to shake things up.  The Eurozone crisis remained subdued and the US economic releases ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2011/12/31/ho-ho-hum/ Not exactly the “Santa Claus Rally” investors had been hoping for, but encouraging economic reports and no more bad news from Europe allowed US equity markets to recover losses from last week and move ahead slightly for the week ending December 23, 2011.  The S&P 500 Index gained 45.67 points ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2011/12/25/%e2%80%9csanta-claus-is-comin%e2%80%99-to-town%e2%80%9d/ US Equity markets struggled this week, finishing lower across the board.  The S&P 500 Index lost 35.53 points for the week (2.8%) and the DJIA fell 317.87 points (2.6%).  Disappointment lingered after the EU Summit last week.  US investors began to ponder the implementation of the joint agreement and focused ... http://www.wealthyandwise.com/blog/2011/12/18/it%e2%80%99s-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like%e2%80%a6-no-santa-claus-rally/