The Hang Seng jumped 1.75% today besting Asia with gains in property developers, Insurers and
railways. China Life jumped 3.6% and China Pacific Life rose 3.5% in the Index. BoA selected Cheung
Kong, Henderson Land and New World development as their top real estate picks in China helping the
stocks to increase 4.2% and over 2% each respectively. China Railway Construction rose over 4%.

The FTSEurofirst is down .1% as investors wait patiently for Ben Bernanke’s move. Volumes are currently
at just 23% of their 90 day average. Alcatel-Lucent dropped over 12% after saying it will miss its 2012
profit guidance after a 40M Euro loss in the second quarter. Nokia had another day in the dumps losing
4.8% after being downgraded by Jefferies.

Ford, down again in pre-market, announced it will cut 15% of its workforce in Australia and reduce
production by 29%.

Commodities begin today with an upbeat outlook as gold, crude and natural gas all have gains while
silver is the one out down just over .6%.

Contributer Chris Rygh is currently pursuing his MBA in Wisconsin and has a passion for the Market.
Comments can be directed to ryghcw19@uww.edu

As for the economy, store sales were announced this morning at 0% change rate and the CPI and Redbook are due out at 8:30AM and 8:55AM respectively. Also released today will be Industrial Production at 9:15AM and Housing Market at 10:00AM EST. The biggest announcement to watch out for today though is Ben Bernanke’s speech at 10:00AM EST. Bernanke is going to speak on the Senate’s semi-annual monetary policy. The S&P 500 is down once again at 0.23% while 10-year treasuries and oil are up 0.68% and 0.27%. The dollar also joins the upward trend at 0.03%. In the news today was the big Goldman Sachs announcement and while the company stated its net income fell 11% and only received $1.78 per share it beat the estimates of $1.17 by a long shot. Make sure to check out our webinar this Sunday, 22nd and follow us on Twitter, @keeneonmarket!

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund cut its global economic growth forecast by 0.1%, taking the total down to 3.5%.

In corporate news, Citigroup (C) edged up after reporting better than expected earnings. Retail sales fell for the third straight month in June, the Commerce Department reported, bucking economists’ projections for a slight increase and marking the first three-month streak of declines since 2008.

European markets were mixed, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.2% and Spain’s IBEX-35 index down 2% as investors continued to worry about the euro zone’s ability to rescue troubled sovereign nations if the need arises.