Our comprehensive monthly chart porn packet comes courtesy of our favorite chartist: The Punchline's Abe Gulkowitz who has just released the January edition: "Jump Ball 2012 Will it all Fall Into Place in 2012?" - the narrative is brief (by definition) by as always cuts right to the chase. "It’s a new year and US economic activity is looking better. But magic is still needed to resolve the numerous challenges ahead. The best scenario is that the cyclical upturn gains momentum here in the U.S. and the rest of the world falls into place. Many are right to expect fourth?quarter GDP growth in the U.S. to have been a 3.5% growth pace, but still expect the spillover from Europe and policy uncertainty to cause GDP growth to decelerate over 2012. We have attempted to flush out some issues that are inadequately covered in the press… First, despite impressive improvement in the U.S. business scene, the recovery remains awkwardly distorted. The continuing deep slump in the housing market is partly to blame. The construction sector added only 47,000 jobs in 2011. More than 2 million construction jobs have evaporated since 2007, and the sector’s job count is back to its level in 1996, when the population and the economy were smaller. Second, the role of government spending has become so extended that it might take years to correct. Third, market liquidity measures have been drying up as big banks and financial institutions play defense. This is both a function of new regulatory underpinnings and the morass in Europe. While the focus of politicians and market players has been to remedy the short term necessities in the fiscal and debt crisis, the long?term challenge for Europe is to find ways of reducing its divisive divergence in economic performance and boosting overall rates of growth. If these issues are not addressed and resolved, the continent will remain locked in an asymmetric pattern of trade and stagnant living standards for both rich and poor countries. Such broader issues will require imagination and structural changes to the current framework, and faster growth worldwide than is currently on the drawing board…" Must read for even the most time-pressed and ADHD afflicted flow desk traders.
Full chartpack: