Tuesday Outlook: Sectors and International

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Meanwhile, back in the ICU financials and their various components need defibrillation. Can earnings from GS, BSC and MS provide a positive shock this week?

Then there some of the usual suspects:

And, in overseas action:

This is not a nice way to begin the last big week of the year for bulls before the holidays, but that’s the market we have. There’s plenty of news yet to come this week that can alter sentiment ending with the always weird quadruple witching on Friday.

If you’re worried about your municipal bond holdings given the potential downgrades of the bond insurers, you should be. Just remember, if bonds guaranteed by MBIA or FGIC get downgraded from Aaa bond funds may be forced to sell them if their mandate is to own only bonds with those ratings. This could be a buying opportunity then. As a Municipal Bond principal I was always taught to look at the underlying credit rating rather than that generated by having the insurance. As a Muni-trading friend recently told me, “The State of Wisconsin will be around longer than MBIA!” That sounds right to me.

Disclaimer: Among other issues the ETF Digest maintains positions in: MYY, RWM, IYR, IEF, GLD, FDN, DBC, EFZ, EWT and IEV.

More Yuletide stuff below: