Earnings reports begin this week…  Dollar, yen, francs get bought…  Medvedev shows off new coin!  A busy week! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Stock market-wise, I wish we were back in July 2008. At that time, a 1% swing in the market was an anomaly. Today, it’s the norm. And even though we’ve seen volatility calm down somewhat in recent weeks, don’t be fooled. As we enter another earnings season, we’ll see volatility pick up again. So what are you going to do?

Euro at one-month low…  Trichet talks rate cuts…  Riksbank & Bank of Canada this week…  The Mogambo on a Monday! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

When it comes to the U.S. stock market right now, the story continues to be about earnings. And this week will be no exception.

While many analysts expect U.S. corporate earnings and overall economic data to remain weak by historical standards, there may well be enough of an improvement over the prior months and quarters to spark some optimism that there are better times ahead.

Corporate earnings will take center stage again this week as certain financials hope to follow last week’s upbeat announcement by banking giant Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) with some decent earnings reports of their own.

Tuesday afternoon’s closing bell on Wall Street didn’t just signal the end of the trading day. It also rang in the start of first-quarter earnings season.

The economic calendar wastes no time getting off to a busy start in the first full week of 2009.  The Construction Spending report for November this morning leads off the week, and carrying over from last year, it should show a continued slowdown. Until the housing market stabilizes, and the credit markets unfreeze, money simply won’t be spent on new construction. Since neither of those options looks likely to occur anytime soon, 2009 could be another long year for the construction industry.

“Investors are taking losses of up to 90% in the $1.2 trillion market for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) tied to corporate credit,” reports Bloomberg. Much of the losses have been triggered by the failure of Lehman Brothers and Icelandic bank.