Currencies bounce back…  Commodities and Commodity Currencies get hit hard!  China’s recovery a myth? Devaluation in the dollar’s future? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

U.S. stocks suffered their first weekly loss since May last week, further exacerbating trader concern that the bullish surge that sent share prices up as much as 40% from their March lows may have been overdone.

When the Labor Department recently reported that U.S. payrolls fell by 345,000 jobs in May – the lowest total in eight months – commentators were suddenly spotting “green shoots” of economic recovery virtually everywhere they looked.

Since the Obama administration took office almost 100 days ago, it has repeatedly said the key to an economic recovery is to unfreeze the credit markets and increase bank lending. 

Gold steadied on Monday after falling 3 percent last week, supported by scepticism about an economic recovery, but the dollar remained a downside risk.

So what will $800 billion buy these days?  At the macro level, the Obama administration’s rescue plan will buy some new roads and bridges, 3.5 million new jobs and, hopefully, an economic recovery in the process.

T. Boone Pickens thought oil was going to hit $150 last year and go up from there. I don’t mean to pick on him. He’s worth about $3 billion. He’s earned his stripes. I have nothing but respect for the man.

Pickens wasn’t the only person who got 2008 wrong. There were plenty of others.

When it comes down to it, anybody can make predictions. It’s not very hard. But it is hard to make ones that do what they purport to do: predict.

My advice is to take them with a grain of salt. If predicting the markets were so easy to do, most of Wall Street’s brightest fund managers wouldn’t have lost 40 percent or more last year.

I’ve made my share…

Steve McDonald looks ahead to the investment climate in the new year. He sees a bounce in the Dow reaching as high as 11,000. But an economic recovery will depend on whether the Obama administration can restore confidence in the public. For 2009’s top money-makers, Steve picks six high-dividend stocks and two corporate bond plays.

Rick Pendergraft says we won’t see an economic recovery before one of the housing, auto or labour markets stabilize. Friday’s nasty unemployment data and earnings reports from GM (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F ) suggest that our hopes are resting on real estate.