Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
The New Year must feel good for investors as markets celebrated with impressive gains.
The party started this morning with a slew of positive economic reports from China and Europe. Improved China PMI Reports boosted investment in regional ETFs such as NYSEARCA:FXI and NYSEARCA:EWH, while Europe is currently sprinting into the new year (NYSEARCA:FXE) with its positive PMI Reports and improved German unemployment. Unfortunately, Europe still has to “fix” (pay off) its debt, but we can worry about that later, especially because China’s President has reassured his country and the world that China will continue its robust growth (and maybe bail Europe out??).
The Financial Sector also saw impressive gains today, as financial ETFs including NYSEARCA:XLF and NYSEARCA:IYF added nearly 2%. Major US Stock indices also cheered on the New year, as the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY), Dow Jones (NYSEARCA:DIA), and NASDAQ (NASDAQ:QQQ) all registered 1.5% gains.
The party became more euphoric later this afternoon when Dr. Bernanke and his Fedsters announced that they plan to keep interest rates ultra low (as if they were not ultra low already) and Google dawned their party hats by leading the Tech Sector (NASDAQ:QQQ)(NYSEARCA:XLK) to the green.
Lastly, oil has gone nearly parabolic (NYSEARCA:USO) as Iran and its Navy continue to warn the United States and Europe to end any proposed sanctions against the Arab Nation. Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz if such sanctions take place, and as I have said before, I have a hard time believing that the US Navy’s 5th Fleet will tolerate any Strait shut down, which is responsible for passage of nearly 40% of the world’s oil (NYSEARCA:USO).
Bottom Line: All in all major markets partied hard today in celebration of the New Year. However, as always, New Year’s resolutions are sometimes hard to keep, and many Western countries still have looming problems to grapple with in 2012.
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