Courtesy of Daniel Sckolnik, ETF Periscope
“If it’s a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone, somewhere is making a penny.” – Steven Wright
As theWorld Economic Forum (WEF) wraps up its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Sunday, a large chunk of its agenda will be reexamined around the table of the first European Union summit of 2012, which convenes on Monday.
And, judging by Wall Street’s response last week to large chunks of chatter that emerged from the closely watched “meeting of the minds” of world leaders and key financial and business experts, the euro-zone seems to remain the central concern of investors for what is likely to be the indeterminable future.
There is no question that Wall Street is primarily in an uptrend. Dating back from late November of 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has skyrocketed a whopping 11.5% as of market close last Friday. The steep gains hardly came in a straight and steady progression, however, as a new round of euro-jitters shook up the market mid-December.
Still, the uncertainty seems to have given way to a certain degree of New Year optimism as solid U.S. corporate 4Q earnings have, on the whole, been slightly better than expected, and economic indicators out of Washington seem to indicate an economy that is moving very slowly and in tiny increments, yet somehow is managing to achieve a degree of steady growth.
January’s market gains have been consistent, at least for the first three weeks, as all three of the major indexes have moved steadily into the Bull’s camp. However, that trend tapered off somewhat last week as a consistent trickle of negative sentiment emerged out of Davos.
The result was that the Dow suffered its first losing week since mid-December, and was the first time this year that doubt appeared to reassert itself, though every time a wave of selling seemed to threaten to dominate, a succession of buyers responded and more or less righted the ship.
Landing at 12,660, DJIA was off 0.5% for the week. The benchmark S&P 500 Index (SPX) was up, but just barely, ending at 1,366, up 0.5%. Lastly, the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) turned in the best performance of the trio, coming in at a 1.1% profit.
What emerges from the EU summit should reveal the depths that the…
