Economy
-Homebuilder’s confidence is rising according to a survey by the National Association of Home Builders. Confidence reached a 6 year high in November. 11/20
-Japan’s central bank did not make any moves after its most recent meeting. 11/20
-Existing home sales rose 2.1% in October beating expectations for their second highest level of the year and putting them on track for their strongest year since 2007. 11/20
-France’s credit rating was downgraded from triple A by Moody’s. 11/20
-New home construction rose 3.6% in October over September. The rate in October was the highest in over 4 years. 11/21
-China’s manufacturing increased for the first time in 13 months. 11/23
Corporate
-Of the country’s 40 largest publicly trade corporation half have announced plans to cut back on capital spending this year or next. 11/19
-The CEO of Intel, Paul Otellini, announced he will retire three years early surprising many. 11/20
-Hostess and its striking bakers agreed to mediation in an attempt to avoid the shutdown of the company. 11/20
-Xstrata’s shareholders approved the merger between the firm with mining giant Glencore international creating the 4th largest company in the natural resource industry. It is the largest merger of the year and will cost Glencore $32 billion to purchase the remaining shares for the merger. 11/21
-Hostess will continue to liquidation after a last ditch effort to save it failed. 11/21
-HP said it was misled into over paying for its purchase of software maker Autonomy. It helped contribute to the firm taking a $8.8 billion write down in the most recent quarter. HP said that there were accounting misrepresentations that led Autonomy’s revenue to appear higher than it was. HP announced a $6.9 billion loss in the fiscal fourth quarter ending in October as revenue fell 7%. 11/21
Regulatory
-Kweku Adobli, the UBS trader who was arrested for concealing trades that resulted in $2.3 billion loss for the bank, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 7 years in jail. 11/21
-Federal prosecutors charged a portfolio manager at a affiliate of SAC Capital Advisors with what they consider one of the most lucrative insider trading schemes ever. Prosecutors also appeared to have the hedge fund giant Steve Cohen in their sights. 11/21
Market
-Markets continued to rebound on Monday on hopes that lawmakers will be able to come to an agreement before the fiscal cliff. U.S. stocks had their best day in two months as the S&P 500 gained 1.99% and the Dow rose 1.65%. Internationally, Japan rose 1.4% and Europe rose 2.2%. 11/20
-Greek bond yields fell to their lowest level since a debt restructuring deal earlier this year as investors bet that the country would buy back bonds. 11/23
-U.S. markets ended up in a shortened post Thanksgiving Day session. The Dow rose 1.4% for the day and gained 3.3% for the week. The S&P 500 was up 1.3% and ended the week up 3.6%. Europe rose for the week as well gaining 4.0% and Japan gained 3.8%. 11/24