Monday PM

It's official: The U.S. entered a recession in December 2007. Text of NBER statement - MarketWatch.

The dreaded December effect - investingblog.org. Starting December 1 the tax loss selling will begin and it could put heavy selling pressure on even the best of names. . . . Tax loss selling could be worse than usual this year, too, because we are in a bear market with pronounced fears of a weak 4th quarter for most businesses.

U.S. Stock Market bottomed last month, Birinyi says - Bloomberg.com. "The market will not again visit 750 on the S&P." But while Birinyi says shares have hit bottom, he doesn't think they are going to rally just yet.

Decision Moose - "LATEST SIGNAL (11/28/2008): SWITCH to Long Treasury Bonds (BTTRX or TLT) through 12/07/2008." (Personally I believe Treasuries are extremely overbought and I wouldn't chase them, but it can't be denied that the trend is up, and you have to admire someone who fearlessly goes where the action is in this kind of market environment! Decision Moose has an excellent track record.)

The Henry Paulson eclipse could be the global turning point: Anatole Kaletsky - Economic view - Times Online. "The rally in global stock markets and the rebound in currencies perceived as relatively risky, such as sterling, began on the afternoon of Friday, November 21, within minutes of a carefully placed leak that Barack Obama was about to announce his new Treasury team. . . . At last, it seemed, the US economy would be put under “adult supervision” by competent economists with a deep understanding of financial markets and long experience of crisis management, instead of being run by the sort of bankers and businessmen who had caused much of the trouble in the first place and had little understanding of macroeconomics."

Holiday Shopping Off to Strong Start - WSJ.com. 'Door-Buster' Deals Send Sales Up Significantly Over Last Year, but Crowds Thin on Saturday. Shoppers spent an estimated 7% more than on the same weekend last year.

The Dividend Daily - Johnson & Johnson’s Pays a Nearly 100% Premium for Breast Implant Maker Mentor (JNJ, MNT). "We are surprised that JNJ paid as high as a premium it did for Mentor Corp. In an environment where we are seeing few acquisitions, the nearly 100% premium seems too aggressive. Also, the economy is not exactly buzzing at the moment, so breast implants are likely not at the top of a consumers’ priority list."

China's currency falls by record against U.S. dollar - MarketWatch. A gauge of China's manufacturing activity in November showed the sharpest contraction in the history of the survey, which began in 2004. The Purchasing Manager's Index fell to 40.9 in November, from 45.2 in the preceding month, its fourth straight monthly decline. It is clear that China's export activity has fallen off sharply.

BBC News - The UK is "closer than ever before" to joining the euro, according to the European Commission's president.

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks - Lifehacker. 1. Make Google recognize faces. 2. ID people, objects, and foreign language words and phrases with Google Image Search. 6. Use Google as a free proxy. 3. Find music and comic books. 4. Find related terms and documents. 5. Remove affiliate links from product searches. 7. Compare items with "better than" and find similar items with "reminds me of". 8. Convert currency, metrics, bytes, and more. 9. Track flight status. 10. Get the local time anywhere.

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