Stock Market: In The News Today

BusinessWeek: Stock Market Shrugs Off Jobs Report
U.S. stock indexes closed higher Friday as investors snapped up industrial and other selected issues after an earlier market decline that was fueled by news the U.S. economy lost 190,000 jobs and the jobless rate hit a 26-year high of 10.2% in October. The late rally drove the Dow industrials above 10,000 for a second day.
On Friday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 17.46 points, or 0.17%, at 10,023.42. The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was up 2.67 points, or 0.25%, at 1,069.30. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 7.12 points, or 0.34%, to 2,112.44.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 15 stocks were higher in price for every 14 that declined. Breadth on the Nasdaq was 14-12 negative. Trading was moderate.

CNBC: New Lows for Stocks Next Year: Equities Bear
Albert Edwards, an analyst at French bank Societe Generale who correctly predicted the Asian financial crisis, sees global equity markets at a new low and chances of another global recession in 2010.

Edwards, a prominent equities bear and a long-term critic of the policies of Western central banks, is skeptical of popular opinion that extreme policy responses will safeguard the West against a repeat of Japan's 'lost decade' of the 1990's.

"People should question the happy clappy nonsense from sellside analysts," London-based Edwards, a global strategist with SocGen's Corporate & Investment Banking group, told a media briefing.

"We are not saying that people should not participate in the rallies -- that will get you fired as a fund manager -- but they should not become too convinced of the recovery," he said.

Economist: Asia Risks Bubble of 'Mind-Boggling Size'
If Asia's loose monetary policy is left unaddressed it will ultimately blow a bubble of "mind-boggling size" that could become uncontrollable without fiscal tightening, Frederic Neumann, economist at HSBC, told CNBC Tuesday.

"Unless we get tightening in the next 12 months or so, it will become uncontrollably large," Neumann said.

Even though fears of an Asian asset bubble are widespread, Neumann thinks the process hasn't even started yet and will be years in the making. But once it starts it could be almost impossible to stop, he said.

The cost of property has seen steep rises throughout Asia in recent months, adding fuel to the argument that there is a potential bubble brewing in the region.
Legendary investor Jim Rogers has also publicly rebuked the idea that Asia is already in the grip of a widespread property bubble. But he did tell the Financial Times that he wouldn’t buy real estate in Hong Kong or Shanghai.

"The heart of the matter is the cost of capital is too low in Asia. We need to have monetary policy decoupling in addition to growth decoupling and that hasn't really happened yet," Neumann told CNBC.