FTSE100 @ 5819.44, +213.85 (+3.81%): That was the week that was

FTSE100 @ 5819.44, +213.85 (+3.81% on the week).

Another week and another EU summit ends without agreement. This time on the touchy subject of EU budgets and contributions for the next seven years.

Thankfully the week started out on the front foot with a little optimism from across the pond, that the US political machine might yet find a compromise over its impending fiscal cliff. 
What followed was a sprinkle of recognition that employment data and US housing data were actually better than one might have imagined given talk of double dips etc.
The baton was then handed back to Europe as the US celebrated thanksgiving which, thankfully wasn't dropped ahead of the huge retail optimism ahead of America's Black Friday sales which, unofficially at least, seems to signal the run-up to Christmas for America's retail giants.

All told the FTSE 100 managed a 213 point/3.81% rise in the week with over half of that coming during Monday's 132 point rise which started a 5 day sequence of higher closes that was almost enough to drag it back to the 5884.9 at which the FTSE100 closed on the 5 November.

A more confident week then which has also done its best to confound and outfox me when I fully expected to be dipping into the market only to watch BP slipping out of my grasp as I looked to bottom fish the market on some of my holdings.
But I am still left with IG, Vodafone, Tesco, Apple and BAE currently floundering. 
You will no doubt notice that four (five including BP), are dividend biased choices, and one, Apple which has a capital gain objective given its recent fall from $700, new product launches, and Christmas within sight. Christmas is likely to yield another record quarter for Apple, although it remains to be seen what level of record quarter will be enough to satisfy analysts.

But given a slightly less murky understanding of its path to recovery, BP would have been my first choice though as, despite there still being a legal case to answer for, the company looks more than capable of capital recovery and dividend growth as the liabilities against its cashflow diminish.

I expect that as details of the EU summit continue to emerge, and be speculated upon, that markets will struggle to maintain last weeks surprising exuberance though.

Flip a coin, heads the FTSE goes up, tails it goes down!