The Santa Claus Rally Isn’t What You Think: Hirsch

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It may not be the most disappointing thing you’ve ever heard in regards to Santa Claus, but Jeff Hirsch of Stock Trader’s Almanac has some disappointing news for those still waiting for the rally to save the markets of the same name.
“Everyone likes to say all sorts of year-end rally is the rally in Santa Claus,” says Hirsch. “The Santa Claus rally is the last five days of the year, plus the first two days of the next.”

Now that I feel like a dull draw for cookies and milk by the tree rally money in my living room for the last two weeks Hirsch is free to explain what should I do with this new information.
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Macy’s & Kohl’s Are Top Performers in Retail: Analyst

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Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend sales were a record. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) for a total of 226 million shoppers spent $ 52.4 million, up from $ 45 million last year, a jump of 16%. What’s more, sales were gains in all categories, if not all retailers.

One of the highlights of the weekend results were Macy (M) where 40% more people waited outside the flagship store in Herald Square in Manhattan society. According to CEO Terry Lundgren of Macy, customer enthusiasm was all part of what we are calling the strongest year the company in a decade.
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Apple’s Huge New Data Center In North Carolina Created Only 50 Jobs

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Yes, it’s huge. But only 50 people work there.

The optimists argue that the U.S. solution to the stars unemployment and income inequality are more companies like Apple – the company resurgent technology that has revolutionized the digital industry and become one of the most important companies in the world.

Apple has created not only amazing, loved the products. It has created enormous profits, the vast wealth of shareholders, and more than 60,000 jobs.

If only America has produced more companies like Apple (and Google and Amazon and Facebook, and others), the story continues, the country’s problems will be solved. America can upgrade its vast, idle construction-and-production of the workforce, and our unemployment and inequality problems will be solved.
And it is true that more companies like Apple would certainly help the United States.
But we need more companies like Apple to engrave in our problems of unemployment and inequality.
Why?
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Euro Euphoria : Stocks Surge on Latest Bailout Plans, Proposals and Rumors

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Stocks rose on the first Monday renewed hope for another solution to the crisis of sovereign debt in Europe.
Following the huge benefits to Europe’s most important stock exchanges, the Dow was recently up-more than 300 points while the S & P 500 rose by 3.2%. The euro rallied sharply against the dollar, putting upward pressure on raw materials such as gold and oil and other so-called risk assets, while Treasury prices fell.
In addition to a good start to the U.S. holiday shopping season, several factors have contributed to the initial euphoria, including:

Voices, which has since denied a bailout from the IMF for Italy.
New guidelines to be discussed at a meeting of finance ministers later this week, allowing the Fund to ensure financial stability by up to 30% of the struggling nations of debt offerings.
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How the Dow Jones industrial average and other stock indexes fared on Wednesday

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How the major stock indexes fared on Wednesday

Fear that Europe’s debt crisis is infecting Germany, the strongest economy in the region, sent stocks reeling Wednesday.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 236 points, leaving it down 4.6 percent over the past three days. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell for the sixth day in a row, its worst losing streak since August.

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Fitch cuts Portugal rating on high debts, worse outlook

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MarketGadget
LISBON (Reuters) – Fitch downgraded Portugal’s credit rating to junk status on Thursday, citing large fiscal imbalances, high debts and the risks to its EU-mandated austerity program from a worsening economic outlook.
The ratings agency cut Portugal to BB+ from BBB-, which is still one notch higher than Moody’s rating of Ba2. S&P still rates Portugal investment grade.

Fitch said a deepening recession makes it “much more challenging” for the government to cut the budget deficit but it still expects fiscal goals to be met both this year and next.
“However, the risk of slippage – either from worse macroeconomic outturns or insufficient expenditure controls – is large,” Fitch said.
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Ultimate Market Recap: Groupon Crashes Below IPO Price, Deere and TiVo Earnings

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MarketGadget
Wednesday Morning’s Top Stories
As Greece faces dire times, the Bank of Greece said today that the country is in “the most critical period” in its post-war history and it may be driven out of the euro zone. It added that Greece needs to focus all of its energies on meeting its October agreement targets and if it doesn’t, the nation could see “an uncontrolled downward trajectory that would undermine many of the achievements that have been attained in recent decades, drive the country out of the euro area and set Greece’s economy, standard of living, society and international standing back many decades.”
Don’t Miss: Netflix Trades Give Whitney Tilson Whiplash.

HSBC’s preliminary China manufacturing survey dropped to a 32-month low in November, signaling a contraction. The Purchasing Managers Index hit 48 on a 100-point scale, declining from October’s expansionary 51. Forecasts had estimated a 50.1 result, just high enough from the 50 level to make it an expansion versus a contraction, according to CNBC.
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Labor unrest taking shine off Colombia’s oil boom

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MarketGadget
PUERTO GAITAN, Colombia (Reuters) – Protesting oil workers have yet to buy into Colombia’s grand vision for its oil industry, staging strikes that have shut the country’s largest oil field and threatening further unrest.
The government says oil can help lift Colombia out of poverty but workers complain of depressed wages and of police and army complicity in thwarting attempts to organize unions.

“They think we’re just a bunch of Indians,” said Carlos Rodriguez, an activist in Union Sindical Obrera (NYSEArca:USO), which has led protests at Campo Rubiales, a partnership between Canada’s Pacific Rubiales (Toronto:PRE.TO)(PRU.CN) and Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol (ECO.CN)(NYSE:EC).

“We proudly have indigenous ancestry but we’re not a bunch of bare-asses with sandals and arrows like when the Spanish arrived. We’re civilized.”
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Year-end tax saving strategies

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Year-end tax saving strategies

With the end of 2011 fast approaching, now officially time to consider the possibility of some movement that will reduce tax bill this year. However, you do not want to take any action that could increase the 2012 tax bill by as much as you could save this year.

In this regard, the key question is whether you will make more money or more next year. The answer will determine your marginal bracket 2012 federal income tax, you need to know to make the best design work for the rest of this year.
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Futures drop on Italy, the eurozone to worry

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MarketGadget – Decline in futures Italy, the eurozone to worry

Stock indices fell Monday as the political crisis in Italy has sparked the crisis, regardless of the debt in the euro area could consume the region’s third largest economy.
Italian reference bond yields reached their highest level since 1997, reaching levels seen as unsustainable, before a crisis on public finances vote in parliament Tuesday.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has one day left to win the undecided members of parliament and stop a group of rebels threaten to topple his government in a game on its failure to adopt reforms to defuse a debt crisis.
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