Jan 13, 2005

In a Nutshell

Beginning with the obvious Apple (AAPL) reported positive earnings after the close. The stock is up 8.5 pts and targeting its all-time high at 75.19. The shake out in the stock on Tuesday afternoon has probably left a lot of people smacking their foreheads.

The bank of England decided to keep interest rates unchanged. They see the economy there as mixed with strong manufacturing and some inflationary pressure in wages while housing prices and retail spending a showing weakness.

The ECB also kept rates unchanged. More and more I get the feeling they are going to provide liquidity by fiddling with their currency rather than just lowering rates.

Google (GOOG) is launching a new low cost version of its out of the box intranet search solution. That stock could be back above 200 and off to the races shortly given where it is sitting.

The Korean steel maker Posco posted strong earnings and provided a data point that Chineese demand is not weakening. The company expects steel prices to continue rising in '05

Japanese balance of trade data caused some concern as imports grew faster than exports. Personally, as long as export growth is positive it seems alright to me that their imports are growing. Seems like people will need to adjust to current account shifts as the U.S. is really running out of rope as the consumer (importer) of last resort.

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