As we prepare for the upcoming trading week, here are some stories to follow:
- Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told lawmakers that they should back the unpopular international financial rescue or risk the country falling into, "uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion". In response to the news from Greece the US markets fell:
- All but one of the 30 DOW components were down on Friday 10, 2012.
- All 10 sectors of the S&P were down on Friday February 10, 2012 leading to the biggest percentage loss for the S&P so far in 2012.
- The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) jumped 11.6% which was the biggest rise in three months.
- Thomson Reuters / University of Michigan shows that overall index of consumer sentiment fell to 72.5 in early February from 75 in January. This is partially due to households struggling due to heavy debt load and declining housing prices.
- The Trade Deficit widened to a six month high of $48.8 billion and the US trade deficit last year was a record $295.5 billion.
It will be interesting to track the financial markets coming off of their losses on Friday. The indicators listed above are not the only ones that will affect the market this week but they do look bleak.
