Monday, Monday feels so good. But sometimes it's just a blur.
Well, we'll soon find out.
Monday might be a holiday in the U.S., but it won't be for China and a host of economic data expected next week. On Monday evening Chinese industrial production, GDP numbers and retail sales along with earnings reports kick off another week in what has been a rocky start to the new year few will care to remember.
Whether the selloff storm of the last few weeks continues will most likely have much to do those numbers. For now, however, some are suggesting there a hint of capitulation in the air with all the recent carnage.
Despite what anyone says, the selloff has been impressive, Just look at Friday's list of New York Stock Exchange 52 week lows, 944, only the fourth time since 2009 that number exceeded 900. It also saw for the seventh straight day more that 500 NYSE stocks hit yearly lows, something not seen since late 2008.
So what if anything is there to like about all this. For one you might say it represents a kind of detox, a reverse flushing of all the Fed's over-intervention. There an old medical saying: The solution to pollution is dilution. There is little you can tell about the extent of the damage until you've flushed all the detritus out.
Stock buybacks, M&A activity and related shenanigans have little to do with fair market value and real earnings. As one market commentator put it over the weekend: "I actually am encouraged to see the market drop so we can just get to fair value and take it from there, then it is really determined by the path of the economy, and profits and revenues."
This seemed to be a reference to all the air the Fed has pumped into these markets with their gunslinger approach to money printing couched in careful Fed speak. This week U.S. core inflation numbers hit the markets and, as already noted, 'tis the earnings season with some big boys also on tap to report.
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