Weekly Newsletter January 6th - January 12th

Current Events: Investors displayed relief and overall satisfaction last Wednesday that lawmakers finally agreed upon a deal that successfully avoided the fiscal cliff. While the structured deal may not be exactly what investors were seeking, the U.S. markets have received a significant lift as fear of pending economic disaster is alleviated for the time being.

What to Look for This Week

The U.S. markets kick off the first earnings season of the New Year as aluminum giant Alcoa announces earnings on Tuesday. Agricultural leader Monsanto and banking favorite Wells Fargo are also schedule to announce earnings in what is set to be a very quiet week of earnings.

 News Affecting the Markets

While the U.S. successfully gained 155,000 jobs in December, jobless claims also rose 10,000 to 372,000. Such mixed data highlights that progress is being made, but the road to recovery has been, and continues to be, a slow one.

 Smart Investing

Selling Common Stock Shares :  Brokerage houses come in many shapes and sizes. Unless future investments are planned, a full service broker is not recommended. A full service broker is very expensive and commissions for one executed trade to sell common stock can range anywhere from a percentage of the total sell or hundreds of dollars. Typically, the best option for someone that wants to sell common stock is an online brokerage account. Anyone with access to a computer can open a brokerage account. Once the account is opened online, the stock certificate is then mailed overnight to the online brokerage house. Once the stock certificate reaches the brokerage house, the stock certificate is then checked against the transfer agent’s records that issued the certificate to confirm ownership and then the stock is placed into the shareholders online trading account. Once in the account, the shareholder is free to sell the stock at anytime during market hours. Selling common stock shares is not difficult and with easy access to online brokerage firms, it is also inexpensive.

 

Earnings for the Week

Monday: Commercial Metals Co (CMC)

Tuesday:  Alcoa Inc (AA) {After the Close}, Monsanto Co (MON)

Wednesday: Constellation Brands Inc (STZ)

Thursday:  SUPERVALU Inc (SVU)

Friday:  Wells Fargo & Co (WFC)

* Earnings dates and times are subject to change

Economic Data this Week

Monday
No major announcements scheduled.

Tuesday

Consumer Credit @ 3:00 PM for November (Est. = $8.0B to $10.6B, Prior = $14.2B)

 Wednesday

MBA Mortgage Index @ 7:00 AM for 01/05 (Est. = n/a, Prior = n/a)
Crude Inventories @ 10:30 PM for 01/05 (Est. = n/a, Prior = -11.1M)

 Thursday

Initial Claims @ 8:30 AM for 01/05 (Est. = 365K to 366K, Prior = 372K)
Continuing Claims @ 8:30 AM for 12/29 (Est. = 3200K, Prior = 3245K)
Wholesale Inventories @  10:00 AM for November (Est. = 0.1% to 0.2%, Prior = 0.6%)
Natural Gas Inventories @ 10:30 AM for 01/05 (Est. = n/a, Prior = -135)

 Friday

Treasury Budget @ 2:00 PM for December (Est. = n/a, Prior = -$86.0B)