POSITIVE EARNINGS SURPRISES lifted the equity markets last week. By the numbers, for the week ended Friday, October 9, 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9865, up 377 points, or 4%. The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed at 1071, up 46 points, or 4.5%, and the NASDAQ Composite closed at 2139, up 91 points, or 4.5%.
U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen global diplomacy, according to the announcement from the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Alcoa kicked off earnings season by reporting a surprise third quarter profit of $77 million, on revenue of $4.6 billion. Gold, which has run to about $1050 an ounce, will be at $2000 an ounce within a decade, according to commodities bull Jim Rogers. Grupo Santander raised $8 billion by selling a 16% stake in Banco Santander Brasil.
Analysts expected retailers to report September sales declines of 2%, instead of the 0.1% increase actually reported. 24 France Telecom staffers have put their own lights out in the last eighteen months. The head of the company’s French operations, Louis-Pierre Wenes, has resigned.
Looking at the overall economy, the U.S. trade deficit fell in August to $30.7 billion from July’s $32 billion. The Institute of Supply Management reported that its index of nonmanufacturing activity rose to 50.9 in September. Readings above 50 are considered a sign of economic expansion. September was the first reading above 50 in more than a year.
According to a recent study from PriceWaterhouse Coopers, within 15 years public pension and healthcare systems will have less than half the money they need to pay mandated benefits. Makes me look with a bit more discernment at muni-bonds.
We are born alone, not known to ourselves or others, and often spend many years looking for our identity. There is only One who can reveal to us our true identity, and that is our Creator. If we reject this identity, we invest enormous sums of time, energy, and money attempting to identify, or find, ourselves. Unfortunately, too many of us, to paraphrase Mickey Gilley, look for our identity in all the wrong places.
Quotes of the week:
“If I think of human beings I’ve known and of my own life, such as it is, I can’t recall any case of pain which didn’t, on the whole, enrich life.”
Malcom Muggeridge
“My mother had morning sickness after I was born.”
Rodney Dangerfield
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