每日市場點評 --- January 31, 2008

All three major indices closed up nearly 2% for the day, ending the worst January in decades. It is not just the US market that suffered their worst start in many years. Stocks in Europe had their worst-ever January with a total decline of 12 percent. In Asia, the Nikkei lost 11 percent for the month, the worst monthly performance since April 2000, and the Hang Seng Index declined 16 percent, a record monthly loss last seen in October 1997. It is indeed a tough month for investors all around the world. On the economic front, we received a weak reading of personal spending plus a big jump in initial jobless claims. As for the former, December’s 0.2% gain was after November’s 1% gain and this is probably due to the fact many retailers slashed their holiday prices earlier this year compared to last year in anticipation of a tough holiday sales environment. For the latter, the spokesperson in the Labour Department immediately commented that last week’s data may be distorted by the holiday on Monday. In other words, we may have to wait one more week to see if any material deterioration in job market condition has occurred. Since today is the last day of the month and this January is by no means a normal month, window-dressing almost certainly occurred in today’s trading, so I won’t read too much in today’s activities. After the bell, Google’s earning results were not too exciting. Before the opening bell tomorrow, we are going to get the closely watched non-farm payroll report for January and if we get a number that is more than 50K different from the consensus either way, then we are probably set for an interesting start in February.