Happy Thanksgiving. The cost of an average Thanksgiving meal is up 13% between 2010 and 2011 according to the Arizona Farm Bureau. In addition, they have now begun tracking the cost of those same items that are certified organic, a very interesting development. It goes to show you that if enough Americans participate in a movement, there is change. Speaking of change…

The party is over at Zuccotti Park. Tuesday afternoon, a state Supreme Court judge upheld the city’s right to enforce rules that bar the Occupy Wall Street protesters from camping at Zuccotti Park. The ruling further states that there was no infringement of the First Amendment right to free speech and assembly. This is similar to action taken in Sacramento, California. There the ruling further states that the city’s respective Chiefs of Police and Parks have a reasonable amount of discretion as to when Cesar Chavez Plaza may be occupied. It appears that there may have been a coordinated effort to break up the movement in Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City and Oakland as well. Thursday was the 2 month anniversary, so we are now in the third month of this global movement.

Citigroup and Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $165.5 million to federal regulators to settle claims that they misled five failed credit unions about the risk of securities tied to mortgages. They did not admit wrong doing. So let’s think about this, the guys that took bonuses during this time, get to keep those bonuses. The members of those failed credit unions lost everything and the shareholders of Citi and Deutsche Bank will pay those fines to federal regulators out of current earnings. Sounds about right to me, how do you feel about that?

Technocrats that have now been placed in both Greece and Italy were supposed to calm the markets, but instead the contagion is spreading. The Italian Bonds are in an arm wrestling match with 7%. The markets pushed the yields above that critical marker and the ECB buys enough to push yields just below. Who will win? My bet is the market. The funny thing is that the EFSF that was created to do that, had a failed bond auction themselves.

Next week is Thanksgiving and one of my babies is getting married, so I am taking the week off and there will not be a weekly wrap up. I hope you can all understand and have a happy and safe holiday. A family medical emergency today prevented me from including charts and more technical data in this week’s wrap up. Again, I hope you understand.  We will be back to our normal Friday Market Updates on December 2nd.  Until then be safe and as always we are here if you need us.