FirstAlert(tm) Daily 1/4: Careening Into Decade Of Uncertainty

- Commentary -

January 4, 2010 (FinancialWire) (By Genevieve Hawkins) –2009 may be over, but much of the uncertainty over a potential recovery will plague investors for the next few years, even absent another AIG (NYSE: AIG) style bailout.

It was a winning year for stocks in 2009 but now investors aren’t rebounding from cataclysmic lows. It’s unlikely that Wall Street can create a bull run in 2010 without sustained government intervention.

The first trading week of 2010 will start the way 2009 ended, with investors focused on unemployment. Friday’s employment numbers will set the pace for the new year, and give market watchers a better idea of what a true economic recovery is going to look like. A double dip recession is a probable scenario as house foreclosures continue unabated. Deflation may prove to be a greater concern than inflation, as was the case during the Great Depression.

Wall Street will have trouble producing another year of stock market gains. It’s more likely that investors will vacillate between greed and fear, leading to mixed results.

[Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=genevieve+hawkins to see more commentaries by Genevieve Hawkins.]

The FirstAlert(tm) Economics Calendar lists ISM Manufacturing Index for December (10 a.m.), Construction Spending for November (10 a.m.), Treasury auctions 3&6-month bills (1 p.m.).

FirstAlert(tm) Website of the Day: http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm

Quote of the Day: “I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.” Everett Dirksen

Today is: Braille Day.

Happy Birthday: Isaac Newton, Louis Braille, Jakob Grimm, Everett Dirksen, Sterling Holloway, Jane Wyman, Don Shula, Dyan Cannon, Patty Loveless, Dave Foley.

Today in History: Samuel Colt sold his first revolver pistol to the United States government in 1847. The first successful appendectomy was performed in 1885 by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside. Utah was admitted as the 45th U.S. state in 1896. After 69 years the last issue of Collier’s Weekly magazine was published in 1957. Luna 1 became the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon in 1959. United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed his “Great Society” during his State of the Union address in 1965. Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC in 2004.

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