LOSING LONDON

On the Data Front: December consumer spending surprised to the high side at 0.6% (consensus was 0.3%) and oil is down from its lofty heights on talk of increased supply coming out of Riyadh. Gold is also down based on the illusion that Germany will bail out the whole Club Med area. However, the big news is the 0.5% FALL in UK real GDP in Q4. The genius macro forecasters had the right digit but the wrong sign! Ouch!