The Financials Review For the week of December 12, 2011 By Frank LaMantia Apparently, there is a lack of enthusiasm for stocks today due to investor worries about the new pact in Europe. The new fiscal policy calls for a bailout fund in 2012 that will cost $267 billion for countries in crisis, and this money would be given to the IMF emergency fund. This plan does not help cut existing debt issues. (1) Can anyone show me a difference between now and a few weeks ago? Come on already - there was no concrete evidence suggesting that anything the euro leaders were doing would stick! It is pretty hard to fix decades of bad decisions in a few months. China is having their annual meeting to discuss inflation and to try and support growth. The weakened recovery here in the U.S. and the current crisis in Europe seems to be adding a little pressure for China to rebalance their economy on internal demand rather than exports. (2) Intel announced that there has been a hard drive shortage and that 4th quarter revenues may be below expectations because of it. Also in finance news today, people close to Corzine at MF Global mentioned that Corzine thought he could create a mini Goldman Sachs when he took over MF Global. The West Coast protesters seem to be trying to shut down ports in California so that Wall Street firms look elsewhere to grow. Do they realize that this potentially hurts the economy that they are trying to protect? 1. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/markets-fall-mood-darkens-over-114848235.html 2. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-opens-annual-economy-planning-043330287.html ***chart courtesy Gecko Softwareâs Track nâ Trade Pro Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Disclaimer: Past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Fundamental factors, seasonal and weather trends, daily news, and other current events may have already been factored into the markets. The use of stop loss or contingent orders may not protect profits and may not limit losses to the amount intended. Certain market conditions make it difficult or impossible to execute such orders.