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Global Market Wrap-Up

Mark Hanna is a private investor and financial commentator, best known as “TraderMark” on Seeking Alpha. He holds an economics degree from the University of Michigan and operates his own website called Fund My Mutual Fund. Considering him a kindred philosophical spirit, Euro Pacific Capital has commissioned Mark to provide daily updates on global markets.
U.S. stocks were traded slightly higher in a quiet session Thursday as investors awaited the monthly employment data to be released Friday.  The S&P 500 gained 0.1% and NASDAQ 0.4%.
  • Weekly unemployment claims fell 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 367,000, the Labor Department said. The...
Stocks rallied Wednesday as key manufacturing and purchasing data across the globe came in near or a bit above expectations.  In the U.S the S&P 500 gained 0.9% while the NASDAQ added 1.1%.
  • The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said that its...
U.S. stocks finished nearly unchanged again after an early morning rally was doused by some weaker than expected economic news.  The S&P 500 fell less than a point while the NASDAQ gained less than 2 points.
  • Consumer confidence fell to 61.1 in January, down from 64.8 in December....
U.S. stocks closed down Monday, but off their worst levels of the session.  Worries about progress in the Greek debt deal, and disappointment China did not relax reserve requirements were the largest contributors, along with the fact the market is quite overbought after a weeks long rally.  The S...
U.S. stocks finished mixed Friday as the first pass of fourth quarter GDP came in below expectation.  The S&P 500 dropped 0.2% while the NASDAQ gained 0.4%.
  • Economic growth for October through December came in at an annual rate of 2.8%, lower than the 3% that economists were looking...
An unexpected drop in December new home sales weighed on U.S. markets Thursday, with the S&P 500 down 0.6% and NASDAQ 0.4%.  Other economic data was mixed:
  • New home sales fell 2.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000. The pace is less than half the 700,000 that...
U.S. stocks were mixed Wednesday until the Federal Reserve Open Committee announcement mid day.  In this communication the Federal Reserve pushed out the date of the earliest fed funds hike from "mid 2013" to "late 2014".  Of course the speculator class, drunk on easy money, celebrated and pushed...
U.S. stocks rallied after a morning selloff to finish mixed; the S&P 500 fell 0.1% while the NASDAQ gained 0.1%.   After the close Apple reported blockbuster numbers.
  • Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share. That was up 118% from $6...