The S&P futures took off again at around 9:30pm when Asian markets rallied after the head of the PBOC said China will participate in resolving the EU debt crisis. While this is good to hear, the comments are no different than what we heard from Premier Wen yesterday morning eastern time who said “China is ready to get more deeply involved in participating in solving the European debt issue.” Rehashing the same positive story with a slightly different spin and believing its new positive news is common when the path of least resistance is higher in markets. Measuring the state of bullishness now, II said Bulls rose to 54.8 from 52.1 to the highest since April while Bears fell to 25.8 from 28.7 to the lowest since August. In Europe, the Euro Zone economy expectedly contracted in Q4 by .3% q/o/q vs the estimate of -.4% as Germany’s economy fell from Q3 but France actually grew surprisingly. On Greece, Finance Ministers will have a conference call later to discuss the remaining issues yet to be resolved. As mentioned late yesterday, Samaras, the possible new PM in April, said he’s committed to the budget program and the PSI plan. In the US, the MBA said purchase apps fell 8.4% to their lowest level of the early year while refi’s rose .8%.
