Santa is such a last minute guy. Markets are up 4% this week here, Europe and Asia with another half day to go before Christmas. A typical Santa Claus rally keeps going the following week and into the new year.
Volume will be light and that can amplify moves. The most likely course is for stock markets to keep drifting higher.
Economic news has continued to be better than expected, the lone exception being that the estimate for 3rd quarter GDP was revised to 1.8% from 2%.
I don’t think banks in Europe will be doing much lending to either Europe or Asia and austerity measure in most of Europe will likely keep their growth low or even negative in 2012. The US is the place to be and emerging markets may be turning up as well after a bad 2011.
Gold is flat. Oil and bonds are up.