A rather unpleasant end to last week, wasnt it? The Footsie had an unexpected fall as the last day wore on. Caused, as usual, by a collapsing Dow across the pond.
This leads me to think that therell be a rally this week, which should see us back on track for a cool Yule. Thats often the way of it, especially when theres a nasty correction on Friday.

A jollier turn can sometimes return at the weekend, as tired traders relax a bit and start to take a more optimistic look at life. But all this is general stuff and a big rise might not happen this week. After all, both the USA and the UK are pretty badly off in the thorny question of national debt.

House prices may be recovering a bit, the loss of jobs may be slowing up, but confidence hasnt returned. It always takes a long time after recession. Still, therell be a bit of high street spending going on, as people try to beat the return of 17.5% VAT and Christmas takes its usual toll on our purses. That could see a rise in store share prices, like Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) and M and S. There could be an opportunity for me there.

The trouble is I have not any spare cash at the moment. Its all in shares, which tells you that I have confidence that the Footsie (news) will gradually rise and that we are not in for a second recession. Now if I had some spare mazuma, it would go into shop shares. Maybe Id put some more dosh into Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY.L - news) . After all, they may be taken over by that Eastern (EML - news) outfit that keeps sniffing around.

But I might exclude clothing firms, like Next, say from my shopping list. Clothes arent often bought as Christmas pressies and yet theyre still a luxury item (mostly). Luxuries are often big sufferers, even when recessions are in their death throes.

But all this is academic. I havent got spare cash. I could get some by selling shares, but I rather think that stocks will rise across the board this week. Lets hope Im right. God bless.