This last week was very much up and down for all markets.  For the week the FTSE December futures managed to gain 41 points, The S&P500 lost 8.1 points and the DJIA  lost 23.7 points.  Monday provided the biggest swing with the DJIA regaining the 10,000 level again, finishing below 10,000 on Wednesday, above on Thursday and below again on Friday.

Most of the swings up and down can be related to the earnings being released. On Thursday initial unemployed came in higher than expected, but this was overlooked by the market.  On Friday the FED took over another 7 banks, raising the total bank failures for 2009 to 106.  More to come.

New home starts came in better than expected. Should we be suprised with the government handing out tax breaks for first home owners. That brings us to the amount of fraud involved in these first home owner tax breaks.  Many thousands have been found to be under 18, the youngest was just 4 years old.  The IRS is making a special check on those that have claimed the break.  There are going to be a lot of unhappy claimants.

Next year there are Congresional elections in the US. (November 2010) Things are starting to become unstuck for the Democrats.  Record unemployment, house prices still falling to mention just two.  Obama said today that his administration will not rest until everybody looking for work can find a job. This is what you might call a hollow promise, it will take years years before unemployment gets anywhere near pre crash levels, even then at 5% unemployment there are people looking for jobs. We can expect to see more “stimulus” in the next year.

The UK seemed surprised this week to discover GDP contracted when the market was expecting an expansion, making it the longest recession on record.

Meanwhile oil continues on the up and up and the US dollar on the down and down.  Gold is well established over the $1,000 per ounce.  So far October has not been a down month, and with only a week to go, it looks like this October will go against the odds.