Week Apr 6 2012 – Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“The market is voting machine, whereon countless individuals register choices which are the product partly of reason and partly of emotion.” — Graham & Dodd
1. Euro zone unemployment reaches new high in February — according to Reuter, Unemployment in the 17 nation euro zone rose to 10.8 percent in February, highest in almost 15 years – as expected by economists’ polled by Reuters – and compared to 10.7 percent in January.
2. SEC poised to charge Goldman over another mortgage bond deal — the SEC is likely to soon bring charges against Goldman Sachs (GS) over a mortgage-bond deal called the Fremont Home Loan Trust.
3. Regulators Move Closer to Oversight of Nonbanks — according to NYTimes, The Financial Stability Oversight Council, the country’s top financial regulatory body, moved closer to increasing its oversight of nonbank financial institutions, like hedge funds, private equity firms and insurers. Possible candidates include BlackRock (BLK), GE Capital (GE) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A).
4. FOMC gets more hawkish over QE — Fed policy makers expressed less interest in another round of bond buys at their March 13 meeting, with only a couple of members suggesting more easing could become necessary if the economy lost momentum.
5. Spanish yields jump above 5.7%; Italian yields up — Spanish and Italian bond yields continued to rise on last week, as the broader European equity market declined. Yields on 10-year Spanish government bonds added 5 basis to 5.71%, the highest level since December last year. Yields on 10-year Italian government bonds jumped 11 basis points to 5.4%
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
