With Thanksgiving behind us, we move into the period of mass consumption of useless baubles and silly/unwanted gifts. CNBC interviewed various retailer reps (Toys-R-Us, Brookstone, etc.) in malls, with lots of people shown out and about shopping. (I’ll be site-seeing in Chicago, steering clear away from the retail areas).
Despite the potential upside surprise from the retail sector, markets are under pressure yet again (see below). Tensions in Korea continues to rise, while concern over Europe’s debt continues to deepen. Portugal and Spain spreads widenend.
Bloomberg reported that “More than $1.8 trillion has been wiped off the value of global equities in the past three weeks as traders speculated Ireland’s debt crisis will spread to other European Union countries.”
Stock markets close at 1pm, this is usually a low volume day, with rookies manning the terminals . . .
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