Stocks rose on Wall Street Friday, lifted by rising optimism that the U.S. economy is pulling itself up by its bootstraps. The European debt crisis loomed like a shadow over those hopes, however.
There has been a bevy of economic reports recently pointing to an accelerating U.S. economy. New claims for jobless benefits have been trending down, manufacturing activity has been picking up and inflation is low, among other signs of a resurgent recovery.
Investors may be betting that the U.S. economy is gathering enough steam to withstand any fallout from the eurozone crisis. But the bets are cautious and tentative.
Just before midday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 47.94 to 11,818.67. The broader S&P 500 and Nasdaq markets were also higher.
European shares hit new five-week lows on Friday, on mounting worries that borrowing costs in several euro zone countries are at unsustainable levels, and policymakers are not acting to stem the region's debt crisis.
Yields on the bonds of two of the currency bloc's largest economies -- Italy and Spain -- were either at or within a whisker of 7 percent in the past week, creating huge concern about future funding and prompting a selloff in riskier assets. Yields had slipped a bit on Friday as investors watched events in Europe.
Widely considered the level at which funding costs become too high to be sustainable, extended periods of 7 percent yields have previously prompted bailouts for Ireland and Portugal. Italy and Spain are too big for this, particularly combined. The European Central Bank tried to contain yields by buying bonds.
"The focus has very much moved towards the core of Europe, away from the periphery. Italy's in question. France is in question," Daniel McCormack, strategist at Macquarie, said. "It really has pushed the sovereign crisis into a much more dangerous phase. You should have some kind of overweight in defensives, and avoid financials."
Growing concerns about Europe's debt crisis have set U.S. stocks up for their worst week in two months. The S&P 500 is down 3.8 percent this week. That would be its worst weekly run since late September.
Euro zone and International Monetary Fund officials have discussed the idea of the European Central Bank lending to the IMF so it has sufficient resources to bail out even the biggest euro zone sovereigns, Reuters reported Thursday.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A check on what traders will be watching today and how Europe's problems might impact U.S. markets, with Jim Iuorio, TJM Institutional Services; CNBC's Rick Santelli & Steve Liesman.


Yesterdays headlines
Deflation is coming. Spending cuts, austerity measures will be deflationary. Many people are lucky to have a job and that is temporary. Private borrowing has stopped. We are deleveraging. That is deflationary. Boomers will retire. That is deflationary. To stop deflation, government is borrowing / printing and spending money. That has limits. Budget deficit is funding almost 50 million jobs if we consider the velocity of money. There will come a time when we cannot borrow anymore and all that is left will be a mountain of debt and no jobs. It is a double dip recession, or worse a single dip depression:
www.kondratieffwavecycle.com/double-dip-recession/
YEAH Boomers will retire and one of 2 things will happen.They'll go through their life savings and wind up on the poor end of the scale,or they'll be working well into their 80's.Don't think it won't happen because it will.
thought they were "sharply lower"?Up-down thats what makesthe Brokers money. A rigged game - like a poker game where the house knows everybodys hand!
YAWN!
Agree 100% Ruleofnine~ have a nice weekend!
Look at the three of these guys in the photo. Larry, Curly and Moe, hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, right, wrong and indifferent. A pathetic display of "I have no clue anymore", poor bastards look like they would rather be delivering news papers than reporting on another day of useless Wall Street buffoonery.
The United States is in line to get our country foreclosed upon, just like what’s happening to the European countries.
I think most people have figured out that Wall Street is one of the most corrupt and ethically deprived institutions on our planet. I think most people also know the media is bought and sold just like most politicians. We also know that Wall Street is one of many tools of the elite but not the main tool. What is very clear is that our financial system has an architect and carefully designed plan that is playing itself out in Europe.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is very brazen in its fear mongering that we have lost a decade economically. Especially since the IMF has been one of the biggest contributors to perpetuating the instability of the European crisis. The dominoes are beginning to fall in what is an orchestrated attempt by the banksters to consolidate Europe and eventually the rest of the world’s economies under one umbrella that is to be controlled by those that have always controlled currency and money. The most egregious aspect of this contrived extortion is that they are blaming the people who are the backbone of any economy instead of their greedy corrupt political and business leaders.
George Papandreou was pressured to quit because he lapsed into a morally and ethical responsible position by trying to give the people of Greece a say in their economic future through a referendum. This vote would have given the Greek people the choice to stay in the Euro zone and allow their country to be foreclosed upon by the banksters or leave the Euro regain their sovereignty and coin their own currency once again. The IMF bullied the smallest country as a litmus test for what is going to be a much more challenging foreclosure process when it comes to the larger economies. Italy is now in the cross hairs. This dilemma you are watching unfold goes to the core of the rotten apple that is the world’s financial system.
Folks, you are witnessing the death throes of a corrupt financial system where the stock markets and the fractional reserve banking system are at its core. The volatility in the stock markets are a microcosm of the greed, theft and corruption that has perpetrated all aspects of our and other countries economic systems. In the United States, It doesn’t matter who’s in office. Our political system has turned into a two headed one party system with both parties serving their masters, Wall Street and the banksters/Federal Reserve. The stock market is just another ponzi scheme whose intent is to fleece the gullible at the bottom of the pyramid. The stock market is a rogue element of a financial system that is meant to funnel the wealth to the elite/banksters who soicopathically control our financial lives. It is reaching a point where there is nothing to take anymore from the 99% of the world. The banksters would separate you from your rainy day fund if they could gain access to your shoe box or secret compartment in your purse or wallet. The stock market isn’t the main problem; it’s the fractional reserve banking system that has set the foundation for outright theft. We are experiencing the biggest bank and investment robbery in history and the banks and financial institutions are doing the robbing. When you blame one political party or another they have you right where they want you, in fear, divided and distracted to the theft that is going on right in front of your eyes each and every second of the day.
When you have people on Wall Street day trading and speculating making half a million dollars a year in their twenties betting on people being foreclosed on, you need to ask yourself what is the true purpose of our banking system? At the moment it is largely a theft on the American public. MF Global and Corzine knows this and knows that nobody with his connections have served any time for stealing the investor’s money. The financial system’s main mission should be to allocate capital to areas of greatest growth in the real world economy. Yet they allow all kinds of broker speculation and financial gimmicks such as the derivative markets which are based on non-realistic side bets which are now in the quadrillions. The derivatives market was illegal for most of the 20th century.
The European banking crisis is a prime example of what is going to happen to all economies associated with stock market fraud and the Federal Reserve banking system. The financial strife in Greece is the model that will befall most countries. Greece is but a symptom of a cancer that has attached itself to the world’s economies. The Federal Reserve (which is neither federal nor a reserve) has been creating money (monopoly money) out of thin air and charging interest on it insuring a debtor economy for anyone who chooses or is forced to get involved with the Federal Reserve and their fractional reserve banking system. That is why this whole European or any countries current debt crisis will never be resolved and will be preyed upon by the stock market vultures. The Federal Reserve System is designed to cause economies to fail.
If someone loans you two dollars to run your economy and expects three back for the loan and interest how are you going to pay the third back? You can’t unless you borrow more dollars which puts you in perpetual debt and in a constant borrowing cycle to pay off the debt. This is designed not accidental.
Here’s the kicker, once the Federal Reserve/banksters have you struggling to pay off your interest, they send in their loan sharks the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF will loan you money to cover your ever burdening interest payments but they attach a provision that if you default, you will have to give them your assets in what they call privatization (foreclosure).
Since the interest is exponential, you will default and the banksters will come in and try to foreclose on your country, like Greece. They are being told to sell off their own country to pay back the people who caused the mess to begin with. This allows the elite to steal your intrinsic valuable assets because they gave you paper (loans/debt) and the interest on the debt that is systematically impossible to pay back. This also allows the parasitic stock speculators to profit from this designed theft. They not only know the outcome of an economy, they can gamble on the economic bubbles at the investor’s expense. This cancer goes all the way down the food chain.
In the United States case, it doesn’t have to be that way. In our constitution, in Article 1, Section 8, it stipulates that we can “coin money” as a nation and avoid the Federal Reserve’s interest (fee charged on loans) black hole.
So don’t be fooled that the Europeans have come to grips with their financial debt, it’s impossible, it’s a virus that has spread around the globe. Hopefully the Greek people will get their referendum so the Peter Principal will kick in for the Federal Reserve. The stock market vultures will continue to contrive “financial instruments” (credit default swaps/credit derivatives) to defraud the people of the world.
Banks, Central banks, World Bank, IMF = Federal Reserve = Debtor economies, Debtor Nations (economic slaves) and carrion for the stock market derivative heist.
a very well written explanation for the bloodsuckers and the way that they rule the financial world now
Funny the story has been updated, but the home page link still reads tumbled.