Fed governors are out on the stump making speeches and arguing publicly regarding current and future monetary policy. Fisher says no more QE as does Lockhart (for now). Meanwhile, Bullard and Evans want QE now. Bullard’s comments were interesting since it seemed he wanted QE now based on what he perceives as weakening inflation.

Most market moving news Friday was negative frankly. China continues to put out disappointing economic data. State-owned enterprises (always a scary description) reported a decline in profits and banks misstated default exposure by over 20%. In the U.S. New Home Sales disappointed (313K vs 325 expected & prior revised lower to 318K) which isn’t what bulls (ITB & XHB) hoped for obviously.

Rumors of a coup in China have been dismissed out of hand (see Stratfor.com ); other rumors had Israel in mobilization while the WH quickly released a note stating Iran is far away from nukes, and those pesky we want a hand-out North Koreans launched another missile.

Oil (USO) rallied sharply on the Israeli rumor, stocks turned around and rallied modestly to close a losing week; bond prices continued their oversold rebound (IEF & TLT); gold rallied (GLD) as the dollar (UUP) resumed its decline in the trading range; and, commodities (JJC & DJP) rebounded slightly with the weaker dollar.

Leading stocks featured financials (XLF, KBE and KRE) once again and industrials (XLI) saw some buying as Caterpillar (CAT) rallied after recent severe losses. Tech (XLK & QQQ) was flat for the most part held back by losses in Micron (MU) and consumer discretionary (XLY) gained even with heavy selling in Nike (NKE).

Volume on this mini melt-up was holiday light once again. Breadth per the WSJ was positive. The last 15 minutes of trading featured traders squaring-up and ETF issuers matching-up.

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SPY — The SPDR S&P 500 ETF is a fund that, before expenses, generally corresponds to the price and yield performance of the S&P 500 Index. Our approach is designed to provide portfolios with low portfolio turnover, accurate tracking, and lower costs.

IWM — The iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the small capitalization sector of the U.S. equity market as represented by the Russell 2000 Index. The index represents the approximately 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index.

QQQ — PowerShares Capital Management LLC is passionate about our goal of delivering the highest quality investment management available through one of the more benefit-rich investment vehicles ever created, the exchange-traded fund. PowerShares QQQ, formerly known as QQQ or the NASDAQ- 100 Index Tracking Stock, is an exchange-traded fund based on the Nasdaq-100 Index. The Fund will, under most circumstances, consists of all of stocks in the Index. The Index includes 100 of the largest domestic and international nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market based on market capitalization. The portfolio is rebalanced quarterly and reconstituted annually.

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