The US economy consolidates its economic recovery while Europe slips into recession. China eases as its economy cools and the rest of the BRICs begin to loosen policy to bolster slowing growth. Amid this landscape, equity markets and other risky assets have rallied. The surge has been concentrated in the BRICs and in the cyclical

  The ECB’s QE(stealth) has worked a treat since the printing presses were deployed 22 Dec 2011. The 3 year repo saw a 489 billion Euro allotment, equal to over 620 billion USD.

  Equity markets have rallied since mid Dec 2011 as the ECB began its QE(stealth) and the US economy continued to recover. It appears that equity markets want to take a breather. This could last between a matter of days to a couple of weeks. The trend is up.

Brace

  So S&P has downgraded a gaggle of European countries’ sovereign debt ratings. What a surprise. Ratings agencies are not always the last to know, but they are always and everywhere a tad slow.