Week Nov 23 2012 – Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it” — Pablo Picasso
1. US tax breaks worth $150bn face axe — per ft, the Obama Administration has reportedly proposed axing $150B of tax breaks over ten years as part of negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff. These include $28B for fossil fuel companies, $77B connected to inventory valuation, and $13B in low capital-gains rates for P-E funds, VC firms, and real-estate transactions.
2. Moody Downgrades France Credit Rating — Moody downgraded France from Aaa to Aa1 with a negative outlook.
3. Key ETF Performance — via Bespoke, below is an updated look at recent performance numbers for key ETFs across all asset classes. Quarter-to-date numbers, stocks in the US remain down. The S&P 500 tracking SPY ETF is down 3.36% in the fourth quarter, while DIA and QQQ are down even more.
4. Eurozone finmins delay Greek aid once more — Eurozone finance ministers have again postponed approving the next tranche of Greece’s bailout after failing to reach an agreement on how to make the country’s debt more sustainable.
5. Superstorm Sandy Seen Boosting U.S. With as Much as $240 Billion Rebuilding — per Bloomberg, Reconstruction and related purchases and hiring may range from $140 billion to $240 billion and increase U.S. economic growth by 0.5 percentage point next year, assuming $50 billion in losses, according to Economic Outlook Group LLC, a Princeton, New Jersey-based forecasting firm.
6. The S&P500 and Fed Intervention — below is a chart depicting the S&P500 performance as a result of the Quanlitative Easing (QE).
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
