The Group of 20 (finance ministers and central bank governors) signaled that while they would eventually be withdrawing their loose monetary stance, it would not be imminent.
That is pushing the dollar to its lowest levels in a year. Commodities are up (gold at $1,109 a new high, copper near a new high), the Russian stock market is up over 4 percent.
Not this year...and not next year either? James Bullard, the head of the St. Louis Fed, gave an interesting interview to the FT over the weekend, saying that historically the Fed had waited until two-and-a-half to three years after a recession ended before raising rates. That, he said, "would put you in the first half of 2012."
Elsewhere:
1) RadioShack rises 10 percent following an announcement that the retailer will begin to carry Apple's iPhone in its stores. The iPhone will be available in a limited number of stores this month, but will be rolled out nationwide next year.
On the heels of that announcement and optimism over other recent wireless initiatives, Credit Suisse also upgrades the stock to "outperform" on expectations of stronger earnings growth.
2) Kraftformally announced a $16.3 billion hostile bid for Cadbury . While the cash and stock terms of the deal were unchanged, the deal is actually less than the consumer food maker's original offer as a result of Kraft's lower current share price and the weaker dollar. Cadbury rejects this formal offer, saying that the current offer is worse for the prior one.
One trend this morning: companies are seeing more tepid growth in the U.S., as sales at home continue to lag overseas growth.
3) McDonald's is up 1 percent after reporting a 3.3 percent rise in October global same-store sales. While U.S. same-store sales fell 0.1 percent it was still better than the expected decline of 0.3 percent, Europe (up 6.4 percent) and Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (up 4.7 percent) were strong.
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