The banking landscape in the U.S. has changed drastically over the past few months. At the beginning of the current year, three major banking acquisitions were completed. With the acquisition of Merrill Lynch (MER), Bank of America (BAC) has now become the largest bank in the country by assets, ahead of JP Morgan Chase (JPM), which had recently purchased Washington Mutual's banking operations, and Citigroup (C). At the same time, Wells Fargo (WFC) and PNC Financial Services (PNC) completed the acquisitions of Wachovia and National City to become the 4th and 5th largest bank in the country.Earlier, in September last year, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the other two major investment banks Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) converted to bank holding companies.Twenty-five banks had collapsed last year under the burden of loan losses, and ...

In this article, we cite Merrill Lynch (MER), Bank of America (BAC), JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC), PNC Financial Services (PNC), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS).The banking landscape in the U.S. has changed drastically over the past fewmonths. At the beginning of the current year, three major banking acquisitions were completed. With the acquisition of Merrill Lynch (MER), Bank of America (BAC) has now become the largest bank in the country by assets, ahead of JP Morgan Chase (JPM), which had recently purchased Washington Mutual's banking operations, and Citigroup (C). At the same time, Wells Fargo (WFC) and PNC Financial Services (PNC) completed the acquisitions of Wachovia and National City respectively, and became the 4th and 5th largest banks in the country.Earlier, ...

If there’s a proverb that captures the outlook for the U.S. economy in the New Year, it’s the one that says: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Regardless of any formal announcement of whether or not the United States drops into an actual recession, the ongoing credit crisis guarantees a contraction of the American economy by virtually every measure we know. That period of darkness will be marked by a dramatic slowdown in economic activity, as well as by rising unemployment, additional declines in U.S. stock prices, and constant volatility. It could last as long as 12-18 months.

But when the dawn does come, it will be one to remember. If U.S. President-elect Barack Obama gets it right - and I have every reason to believe that he will - then investors will be presented with the greatest investment opportunity of our generation. At that point, shares of American companies will be

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Despite forecasts for milder growth and its own real estate woes, analyst expects emerging powerhouse to outperform most other economies.

 

Mark Adams is director of research at AlphaShares in Walnut Creek, Calif. The money management firm specializes in developing investment strategies centering on Chinese markets for U.S.-based investors. Besides creating its own indexes, the firm also serves as advisor of two China-focused exchange-traded funds sponsored by Claymore Securities.

 

IndexUniverse: What's in store for China in the new year?

Mark Adams (Adams): China is in the best position of just about any country around the globe to come out of this global recession. At the end of November, its stock market was down more than 50%. It has rebounded a bit since then. But GDP growth in China will probably be the highest in the world among the major economies in 2009.

There are a lot of estimates floating around, but

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Even if the U.S. and other developed markets skid in a new year, analyst expects the emerging economic heavyweight to outperform.

 

Mark Adams is director of research at AlphaShares in Walnut Creek, Calif. The money management firm specializes in developing investment strategies centering on Chinese markets for U.S.-based investors. Besides creating its own indexes, the firm also serves as subadvisor for two China-focused exchange-traded funds sponsored by Claymore Securities.

 

IndexUniverse: What's in store for China in the new year?

Mark Adams (Adams): China is in the best position of just about any country around the globe to come out of this global recession. At the end of November, its stock market was down more than 50%. It has rebounded a bit since then. But GDP growth in China will probably be the highest in the world among the major economies in 2009.

There are a lot of estimates floating around,

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While the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut its benchmark Federal Funds target rate to a record-low 0.5% at its policymaking Federal Open Market Committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday), the European Central Bank (ECB) is signaling a reluctance to drop its key rate below 2.0%.

Since the Euro-region slipped into a recession in October, the ECB has cut its main interest rate by 175 basis points to 2.5%. However, the bank’s policymakers, led by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, are now sounding calls for more fiscal discipline.

Investors are betting that the ECB will be forced to shave another 50 basis points off its benchmark rate in January, but ECB council member Axel Weber warned last week that the bank “would like to avoid” taking it below that level.

“We should be cautious when our rates approach territory we haven’t explored before,” Weber told Bloomberg News. “Our lowest level

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By Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /Russia's foreign-exchange reserves have been now been declining very rapidly since mid August, and as the money goes so does the faith that the large stock of reserves the country built up during the boom times would be sufficient to see them through any downturn in energy prices. As the money leaves, so it seems does the decade of economic growth and stability which they symbolised. Indeed so rapid has been the decline that Russia's international reserves, which are the third-biggest after those of China and Japan, have now fallen $161 billion, or 27% percent, since 8 August last, and decreased by $17.9 billion to $437 billion in the week to 5 December. Investors have now pulled $211 billion out of the country since August, according to estimates by BNP Paribas.br /br /br /pa href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SUbQptNe4tI/AAAAAAAALyE/K0xlBOy3AlA/s1600-h/russia+GDP.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280137028067844818" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: ...

While the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut its benchmark Federal Funds target rate to a record-low 0.5% at its policymaking Federal Open Market Committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday), the European Central Bank (ECB) is signaling a reluctance to drop its key rate below 2.0%. Since the Euro-region slipped into a recession in October, the ECB has cut its main interest rate by 175 basis points to 2.5%. However, the bank’s policymakers, led by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, are now sounding calls for more fiscal discipline. Investors are betting that the ECB will be forced to shave another 50 basis points off its benchmark rate in January, but ECB council member Axel Weber warned last week that the bank “would like to avoid” taking it below that level. “We should be cautious when our rates approach territory we haven’t explored before,” Weber ...

CEMEX S.A. de C.V. (

I suspected Matt's flash of optimism might be brief.

Matt - you've consistently cheered us down to a lower and lower stock market, cratering real estate prices with an almost giddy thirst for gloom and panic. So why stop now?

I guess at least $25 a barrel oil means lower expenses for workers.  In all seriousness, though, as soon as I posted that blog about oil being so much more likely to go to $100 than $25, I did have doubts.  Clearly the contango in the market feels pretty confident, and my money is still generally on that. But I long learned that with energy prices and gold prices in particular, all bets are off on how low (or high) they can go.

But man, it's true, you look at this economy, and there really isn't much that is pretty about

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