First up, we have the Bank of America (BAC) report that shows better than expected earnings plus the incredulous statement that the Countrywide Financial acquisition will be accretive to earnings this year and that integration costs will be less than expected.

Then we discover that the Yahoo and Carl Icahn dispute has ended and that Icahn will be joining the Yahoo board. The pre-market on YHOO is up +$0.42.

Overnight, the Asia-Pacific markets rallied hard. Tokyo was closed, but Australia (+3.3% to 5075.4), Shanghai (+3.0% to 2861.4), Hong Kong (+3.0% to 22532.9) and India (+1.6% to 13850) were very strong.

In Europe this morning at 7:46am, the UK FTSE is up +1.0% to 5429, the French CAC +0.9% to 4338, and the German DAX +1.2% to 6461.

Crude Oil futures are up +1.41/bbl to 130.88.

Gold, palladium, platinum and silver spot prices are all up, presently at: 964.34 (+5.40/oz), 418.5, 1865, and 18.30, respectively.

The $USD and Euro are trading at: 0.7236 and 1.5821.

DJIA futures are at 11551, up +50. They got strong at 4:30am and then really zoomed at 7:00am ET following the BAC report.

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Comments:

Starting “hot” today is important to the Bulls, but it’s the last hour of the trading session that traders know is most important.

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Links & Charts

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International Economics Review

US Economic Calendar.

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International Equity Markets Review

Europe

Here is the latest session data for the bourses of Europe.

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Here is the latest session data for the London stock exchange FTSE.

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Here is the latest session data for the German DAX.

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Here is the latest session data for the French CAC 40.

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Here is the latest session data for the Milan Italy stock exchange MIBTEL.

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Here is the latest session data for the Swiss market index.

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Asia-Pacific

Here is the latest session data for the Asia-Pacific stock exchanges.

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Here is the latest chart for the Japanese Nikkei 225 index.

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Here is the latest chart for the Singapore index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Shanghai Composite index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Hong Kong Hang Seng index .

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Here is the latest chart for the India BSE 30 index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Australian All Ordinaries index .

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US Equity Markets Review

DJIA (interactive) chart

NASDAQ Composite (interactive) chart

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Oil Review

Here is the e-miNY Aug-08 Crude Oil chart.

Interactive Chart of Daily Crude Oil:

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Gold & Precious Metals Review

Spot gold chart for the week

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Spot silver chart for the week

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Forex Review

Here is the chart of the week's trading in the $USD.

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