MARKETS

In Australia, monthly employment data is released. In the US, consumer prices, housing start, weekly jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed business index are all released.

By Greg PeelAs we all so frustrating know, 2011 was the year of the financial headline. Market fundamentals took very much a back seat as we bungled through months of Europe fixed, Europe not fixed, Europe fixed, oh God will Europe ever be fixed.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 96 points or 0.8% while the S&P conquered 1300 for the first time since August, rising 1.

Is Rio Tinto really that bullish about the outlook for 2012?

The surge in Chinese iron ore imports last November and December also helped Fortescue Metals shipped a record 14.77 million tonnes of ore in the December quarter, beating its own guidance.

Wholesale aggregators have been lambasted for failing to deliver on their promise of building and supporting independent broking businesses.

The New Year period often means a plethora of performance reviews, which, depending on how they are administered, can mean a heavy time burden for HR directors and their teams.

The evidence of the slow landing in China's economy was strewn across the annual economic data released yesterday.

By David Fessler, Investment U Senior AnalystMonday, January 16, 2011Oil prices have traded off a few dollars from their recent highs.

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA, FOREX.comThe dollar was generally bid for most of the London session; however it has managed to claw back some gains mid-afternoon, as the euro stumbled as it made attempts to crack 1.

U.S. stocks gained Tuesday after strong economic data in the U.S., China and Germany fueled optimism over the pace of global economic growth, setting up stock indexes for their highest close in nearly half a year.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 60 points or 0.5% while the S&P added 0.4% to 1293 and the Nasdaq gained 0.

Excuse me for being slightly cynical, but didn't you just love yesterday's Leighton Holdings spin campaign?

By Greg PeelIndustry consultant TradeTech closed out its spot uranium price indicator for 2011 at US$52.

Friday the 13th saw the eurozone crisis dragged back to confront investors larger and small around the world.

Europe's 2011 woes returned from their Christmas holidays earlier than expected thanks by the Standard & Poor's ratings downgrades and investors here and offshore will have to be very careful.

Well, after a month off, nothing much has changed.

Some of our most vital export markets are facing a worsening in growth prospects for 2012.

It's not 'new' news, given the damage done to share portfolios over the past six months or so, but we had further confirmation yesterday that the poor performance of equities is going to be bad for the country's listed investment companies and broking firms.

By Rudi Filapek-VandyckFNArena has added another video to its Investors Education section on the website.

European stock markets rose Monday, as the French government successfully sold Treasury bills and investors shrugged off last week's news that Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro-zone nations, including France, Italy and Spain.

By Greg PeelI would have loved to have been writing something new and interesting in my first Overnight Report for 2012, but I'm not.

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportThe first trading days into 2012 look positive but unconvincing and some big call merchants still have a lot of us spooked.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaYour team at FNArena has returned from a well-deserved annual break, ready to take on whatever lies ahead for the next twelve months.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaFor reasons I will explain in the weeks ahead, my attention during the annual year-end break has turned towards the principle of mean reversion.

The US mortgage market index rose by 4.5pct last week with the purchase index spiking 8.1pct higher.

U.S. stocks remain higher but are off session highs Tuesday afternoon after strong gains overseas and an upbeat start to the U.S. earnings reporting season pushed blue-chip stocks to levels not seen since late July.

US chain store sales rose by 3.3pct in the week to January 7 compared with a year ago according to the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales index.

US consumer credit rose by US$20.37 billion in November - the biggest increase since 2001. The US employment trends index rose from 103.7 to 104.3 in December.