Analysis for Short Term Option Trading!
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World News
Stocks and the euro fell on Wednesday after policymakers in the United States dimmed hopes of fresh asset-buying, underlining its divergence from a Europe facing recession and firmly back in crisis-fighting mode after a weak Spanish bond sale.
Spain, firmly at the sharp end of the euro zone crisis, raised less debt than hoped at rising yields, focusing market attention on a European Central Bank certain to hold the region's borrowing costs at record lows later in the day.
Sagging orders kept euro zone businesses in the doldrums in March, probably pushing the region into a mild recession, Market data suggested on Wednesday, while euro zone retail sales data also weakened.
US Markets
After so many false dawns, long-term investors face the growing problem of how to recognize a genuine, sustainable recovery in global markets - whenever it eventually shows up.
In the wake of one of the steepest first-quarter rallies in world equities in more than a decade, it's been tempting to hail the return of more "normal" times, where the cyclical ebb and flow of the economy dictates predictable investment patterns.
But skepticism remains sky high, and it still doesn't feel right to many investors.
This stock market rally, like so many others over the past three years, is a by-product of central bank money splurges - most recently this year from the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan, following two separate bond-buying programs by the Federal Reserve and Bank of England since 2008.
The unemployment rate has fallen dramatically over the last six months, but just how low can it go?
The answer is being debated among two camps of prominent economic thinkers. One school of thought says that unemployment will return to around 5% as the economy eventually recovers. But an opposing view states that permanent changes in the labor market mean higher unemployment is here to stay.
Among those who believe the first, more optimistic scenario is Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. He thinks that unemployment will fall as part of the regular business cycle, and stimulative
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