The markets are up over 3% today on renewed optimism that Europe can get their act together and stabilize the troubled financial system. As I've said, I'm taking this with a grain of salt, because we've "seen this movie before", but I am nonetheless hopeful (glass half full) that the EU leaders can come together and compromise. While we will eventually see Europe stabilize, I still see member countries of the EU (European Union) falling into a recession the first of next year, and I would still avoid investing money in that geographic area at this time.
The market leaders today are of course the financials, up on average over 5%. The biggest gainers are Citigroup, Etrade and Bank of America. The early retail shopping numbers released over the weekend show a growth in retail traffic and spending on Black Friday (or as I like to call it Mad Friday). It appears that retail sales are up year over year but we have yet to see if retailers actually made more money or just offered steep discounts to drive overall traffic and get consumers in the doors. We will probably start hearing tomorrow how Cyber Monday (today) sales were.
Other than that I will be monitoring any news out of Europe to see if the news over the weekend is based on fact or rumor.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
