For the first time in months no US banks went broke last week.
The key regulator, the FDIC, didn’t post any reports of it seizing banks after the end of trading hours Thursday (before Thanksgiving) or in the half day trading for markets on Friday.
But no one noticed, investors had other events on their minds; Dubai and the performance of the key American retailing sector in the "Black Friday" sell-athon.
Markets in the US slumped on the Dubai news, but ignored the steadying trend in Europe from earlier in the day.
Our market ignored the US and took its lead from Europe with the futures signalling a rise of around 30 points at the opening today.
Having been closed on Thursday, US markets had to catch up to the big falls around the world in Europe and then Asia.
So US and emerging-market stockmarkets fell, with commodities weakening and currencies and bond markets rising.
The Dow fell 154.48 points or 1.48% on Friday after starting Friday’s session at a 13-month high.
It was down 0.1% for the week for the first fall in three.
The S&P 500 fell 1.72% on Friday and was up slightly for the week, while Nasdaq dropped 1.73% for the day and 0.4% over the week.
Still, the major indexes have gained well over 4% this month, despite increasing nervousness among more investors.
And, in a worrying sign for sentiment, the first report on how Black Friday’s sales went has come up with a disappointing estimate.
Sales rose a bare half a per cent, according to the estimate usually issued first by US group, ShopperTrak, which measures customer traffic in stores. But reports say online business has been strong, and will rise again tonight when people traditionally do most of their ordering online. (It’s called Cyber Monday in the US).
Store sales rose in western states, but fell in the populous northeast where there was bad weather.
The firm said retail sales rose to $US10.66 billion on Black Friday.
ShopperTrak said sales rose 3% on Black Friday 2008 compared to 2007’s Black Friday.
Last year’s entire holiday season ended up being the worst in nearly 40 years.
ShopperTrak reckons sales will rise 1.6% for the holidays (from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve).
Online sales were stronger, with sales up for many cyber retailers.
The firm stuck by its forecast for total holiday sales to rise 1.6% this year compared to 2008.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 3.1%, the biggest drop since August.
And the MSCI World Index lost 0.9% on Friday to take its two day fall to 2.2%.
South Korea’s Kospi index slid 4.7% and Taiwan’s index lost 3.2%.
Ten year US Treasury bonds yielded 3.207% at the close Friday, down noticeably, while the two year Treasury note ended on a yield of just 0.687%.
In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 2.2% over the two days, but that included Friday’s rebound of 1.2%.
London’s FTSE 100 index ended up 1%; Frankfurt’s DAX rose 1.27% and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 1.15%.
European investors relaxed noticeably on Friday after the heavy selling the day before.
But thanks to Thursday’s selling, most European markets ended the week lower.
London fell 0.1%, the CAC 0.2%, but the Dax ended up 0.4%. Markets fell in 13 of the 18 major economies in Europe last week.
And in Australia our market fell heavily on Friday in the wake of the sell off on Thursday.
At the close, the ASX200 index was down 136.5 points, or 2.9%, to 4572.1, while the All Ordinaries dropped 130.4 points, or 2.8%, to 4597.2.
The fall cut $38 billion from the market’s value and left the ASX 200 down 2.4% for the week.
Meanwhile gold recovered a bit from a one-week low on Friday, helped by the change in sentiment in Europe.
Spot gold cut losses to around 1.5% and traded at $US1,174.65 an ounce after hitting a low of $US1,136.80 a troy ounce, the lowest since November 20.
It was still down from $US1,192.60 quoted late on Thursday, when the precious metal hit $US1,194.90 — a record high.
Comex gold futures finished down 1.1% at $US1,175 in New York on Friday when trading was limited to half a day.
Oil fell 2.5% to $US76.05 a barrel in New York. Copper lost 2.2% to $US3.1255 a pound.
Commodities recovered in later trading after the US dollar rose in early trading. By the end of the half day, the currency was up 0.2% compared with a rise of 0.8% in early trading.
Other precious metals also bounced from lows. Silver ended at $US18.28 an ounce after hitting a two-week low of $US17.66 an ounce.
Platinum and palladium touched one-week lows of $US1,418.50 and $US351 an ounce respectively.
Platinum finished at $US1,445 an ounce from $US1,452 on Thursday and palladium at $US365.50 an ounce from $US368.
The fears of possible defaults in Dubai hit oil on Thursday and Friday and left it a bit weaker than many other commodities.
Nymex crude for January delivery fell to a low of $US72.39 a barrel, before rising to end at $US76.05.
US markets were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
London Brent crude rose 17 cents to $US77.16 from Thursday.
Comex March copper futures dropped 7.15 US cents, or 2.2%, to $3.1255 a pound on Friday, the biggest fall since the end of October.
The worries about Dubai were a concern, but so was another rise in stocks in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange which
