The World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland that combines 13,000 world business leaders took a poll about the country with the most competitive economy. The USA lost its top spot to Switzerland, which got the top spot because of its “relatively stable” economy during these hard times. While I do not think this should be market moving news, it is very interesting indeed. For some time, America has continued to lose its preeminence among the world in both business and politics. This is yet another sign that the USA has its work cut out to build itself back up to something prestigious.
Okay enough with the rant. The big market moving news, however, is the G-20. The meeting of the twenty top world economies said that they will be keeping stimulus measures in place to continue boosting the global economy. Concerns over certain countries rescinding stimuli or pushing for countries to stop pushing certain packages was a worry. The markets in Asia and Europe have reacted very well to the news, and it appears that the American markets will, as well.
With pretty much no economic data on the day, the G-20 movement and market momentum will push the market, most likely upwards. At 3:00 PM, the market will get some news on consumer credit, but that will probably only play out effectively in the last hour of the day and tomorrow’s market.
One bit of weak news I did see this morning was from Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD). The country’s leading pork producer was hit hard by weak hog prices, still slightly spurned by swine flu fears and a drop in demand for pork. The company reported a quarterly loss at -0.56 EPS, whereas the company was expected to earn -0.55 EPS. The company has dropped a slight 1% in the pre-market.
The world economy’s renewed optimism about recovery is definitely driving future prices higher. As of 8:00 AM, the Dow’s open price is up almost 90 points, while the Nasdaq is close to 16 points. Those numbers appear to be falling slightly with the Dow now looking at an 83 point higher open and the Nasdaq with 14, but these fiugures are still very high. The numbers may actually be too high and unhealthy, and we may see some slight profit taking to start the day off if things really do open this high.
Finally, my favorite market besides the stock market is…
