I know you feel good after celebrating the life, legacy and day off MLK gave us. Here's what you missed while you were re-reading the "I have a dream" speech into the wee hours of the morning and need to know to channel those good-vibes into powering through this 4-day week:
SICK: Jobs' leave at Apple comes as they report earnings after the close. He put out an ominous memo with no timetable for coming back like had been done before. It's 20% of the NASDAQ 100, the index futures are lower this am and the stock was off 6% in Frankfurt yesterday.
STRESS: Olli Rehn wants to slap some tougher stress tests on European banks to be unveiled within months—oh, like harsher ones than last year, which gave a stamp of approval to Irish banks.
BAILOUT: The Euro Zone bailout fund, EFSF, holds its inaugural bond auction of 5-year notes next week, worth 3-5b euros. A drop in its desired $35b piggybank.
POST BAILOUT: Citi reports Q4 numbers at 8a, expected to post its 4th straight profit. Tresury sold its remaining common share stake last month.
INFLATION: UK December CPI rose 1.0%—the biggest ever m/m rise at 3.7%, versus a consensus 3.3%—pressure is on, BoE.
HOT: Stronger than expected ZEW, Germany's economic sentiment index.
HIGH OCTANE: The IEA has pushed up global oil expectations —89 million barrels per day for 2011.
US-SINO: Chinese President Hu Jintao is stateside, just as the PBoC fixed the yuan's mid-point at another record high against the dollar today. Schumer and Co. are not happy campers.
NO DICE: Goldman excludes US investors from a piece of the Facebook offering. They blame us, well, "intense media coverage." Of course, that's easier than pointing blame at the SEC, which is still examining secondary market trading of Facebook shares — so says this humble member of the 4th estate.
WIRED: Just when you thought your Venti latte was too small, Starbucks introduces its Trenta cup size today. Trenta means 30 in Italiano, so the new size will give you 31oz (almost a whole quart) of your favorite poison.
