World stock markets daily report (August 14, 2009)

So when did the US market ever start caring about Europe where allegedly the recession is over. Odd that it sure doesn’t feel like a Renaissance on Main Street. US Retail sales (yes the US consumer is still approx 70% of the economy) were a total disaster, jobless claims jumped and foreclosures are a record high, but yet the market ended up because of “better than expected” earnings from Wal-Mart and legendary investor John Paulsen taking a stake in Bank of America and Regions Financial. Downright perverse. The decoupling of the market from the real economy seems to be at all time highs. The S&P500 closed up 0.7% to post a new cyclical high, led by the building materials and financial sectors. Commodities, especially the base metals, also traded positively, with the price action there continuing to diverge from that suggested by the likes of the Baltic Dry Freight Index (now down for 10 sessions in a row).