Positive:
1) Germany’s business confidence climbed to a 10 month high of 107.4 in February
2) St. Louis Fed President said The Federal Reserve’s “very aggressive” easy money policy is going to stay that way for a “long time.”
3) Via bespoke, the 2 day selloff has 8 of the 10 S&P sectors back to neutral from overbought conditions. This is healthy for the markets.
4) Shares of HP up 14% as their quarter was a surprising top and bottom line beat.
5) Warren Buffett still has “it”. Berkshire Hathaway’s A shares closed above $150,000 for the first time ever.
6) The market showed signs that this rally was getting tired, but ended the week on a strong note.
Negatives:
1) Prices at the pump have risen for 36 straight days
2) Legendary trader Marty Zweig, who predicted the 87 crash has passed away
3) U.S. home-builder confidence declined for the first time in 11 months.
4) Housing starts in January fell to 890k versus expectations of 920k, a drop of 8.5%
5) French service sector activity shrank in February at its fastest rate in nearly four years,
6) Euro Stoxx 50 volatility index is up 40% in the past month
7) Bullish sentiment declined again this week, marking the fourth weekly decline in a row. Based on the weekly survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII
8) Jobless claims increased by 20,000 to 362,000 in the week ended Feb. 16
9) It took only 2 days to erase all monthly gains in the Nasdaq and the Dow
10) The S&P 500 ended lower for the first time in 7 weeks.
11) Comodities got hammered with copper, oil and metals all getting whacked.
12) The European Commission has put out a forecast that the Euro Zone growth would shrink by 0.3% in 2013.
13) The producer-price index rose 0.2% after a 0.3% drop in December. Wholesale prices in the U.S were higher in January for the first time in four months.