strongFinancial News/strongbr /br /Jason Corcoran br /br /emLetter from Moscow - January 4, 2009/embr /br /Letters to Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, have been stacking up well ahead of the Orthodox Christmas Day on January 7.br /br /This year, the postal service in Moscow’s Kuzminki district reported an unusually high level of correspondence from adults who wish for a new job or help with meeting credit payments.br /br /However, grown-ups looking for personal bailouts may be better served popping a letter in the mail to Vnesheconombank, the state development bank, which has come to prominence during the financial crisis as the Kremlin’s main piggy bank.br /br /VEB, which traces its genesis back to the October 1917 revolution, was originally responsible for managing Soviet-era debt. It was transformed two years ago into a development agency to spearhead efforts to diversify Russia’s economy but has only recently come to ...

U.S. oil price rises above $36… UAE follows OPEC deals with Jan, Feb cuts… Expectations of slowing energy demand weigh

Oil rose above $36 a barrel on Friday after the United Arab Emirates joined leading exporter Saudi Arabia in deepening supply curbs in line with OPEC’s biggest ever output cut announced last week.

U.S. crude gained $1.01 to $36.36 a barrel by 1219 GMT, off a session high of $36.90.

London Brent rose 94 cents to $37.55.

“The only positive news (for the market)… came from the UAE,” Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix wrote in a report. “For now at least, Saudi Arabia and the UAE seem to be fully complying with the cuts.”

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), the main producer in the UAE, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, said it would cut supplies of February Murban and Upper Zakum allocations

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Thursday, Dec 25: Portfolio updates sentFriday, Dec 26: No portfolio updates sent (markets will be closed on Christmas)Saturday, Dec 27: Portfolio updates sent

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Currency markets stabilize (for now)…  Data packed holiday shortened week…  China cuts rates… Indian rupee falls… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day…The dollar settled in at the slightly higher levels it reached Friday morning and is trading in a narrow range heading into a holiday shortened week. Trade desks across the globe will be mostly staffed by the backups as the big bosses take Christmas week off. Volume will likely be lighter, which can sometimes lead to an increase in volatility.

The data calendar is empty today, but chock full tomorrow and Christmas eve. Markets will be closed on Christmas day, and most will be closed again on the day following Christmas (known as boxing day). GDP, Personal Consumption, U of Michigan consume

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PKey Newsbr•nbsp;China cut interest rates for the fifth time in three months after trade growth collapsed because of recessions in the U.S., Europe and Japan.br•nbsp;The German economy is to contract by 2.7 percent in 2009, the Kiel-based Institute for World Economy, or IfW, said on Monday, slashing its previous forecast as Germany's exporters feel the effects of a global slowdown. (Reuters)br•nbsp;Russian oligarchs are lining up for $78 billion of Kremlin loans to survive the credit squeeze, handing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the opportunity to increase government control of the nation’s biggest companies. (Bloomberg)/P PKey Reports (WSJ):brNo economic events are scheduled for today./P PQuotable br“Doubling up has ruined a lot of people.nbsp; In order to double up, you must go against the flow.nbsp; You are saying, ‘I know that the market is going to turn and prove me right.’nbsp; No one knows when or how!”/P Pnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Edward Toppel /P PFX Trading – Can we rest? Gold ...

In this post, we discuss Dollar Tree (DLTR), 99 Cents Only (NDN), and Wal-Mart (WMT).

With less than a week before Christmas Day, we thought it would be a good time to check in on the retailers to get an idea of how things are going.

Many parking lots were packed at large malls and smaller strip malls. Foot traffic trends appear to be getting stronger after trailing off the first two weeks of December. However, shoppers are searching for the best deals and only responding to the biggest markdowns.

The bigger the markdowns, the more shoppers are interested in buying. As we move closer to December 25, we expect to see this promotional activity increase. Typical promotions include buy one get one 50% off; take an additional 50% clearance items or already marked down items; and everything 50% to 70% off.In addition, here a few trends we will be

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