Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank vowed to do whatever it takes to save the Eurozone and said “it would be enough.” Markets in Europe are up 2-3% while Spain is up 5%.
Here in the US, where traders have been worrying about Spain, stock indexes are up 1.5% – 2% on the day.
If that’s not enough, it is rumored that Ben Bernanke will announce another market-pleasing round of quantitative easing at the September meeting. That’s because the economic news has been not quite universally poor but close enough. Along that line, home sales in June were lower as were orders for durable goods ex transportation, a sector which tends to be very volatile.
New claims for unemployment were lower than expected but this time of year is hard to get right because the timing of auto shutdowns varies and throws off the sesasonal adjustments. The ne claims for the week before was adjusted higher than reported. I don’t think anyone can doubt that the world economy is slowing down and it is doing so in the US as well.