Daily Data Flow: U.S. Stocks Rise; Baby Boomers Boost Savings

U.S. Stocks Rise as Finance Chiefs Meet on Greece Aid (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks rose, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s biggest weekly retreat since June, as investors awaited budget talks in Washington and European finance chiefs met to discuss Greek aid. “We’re watching the news headlines which will all be about the fiscal cliff for the next six weeks,” said Thomas Nyheim, a Wilmington, Del.-based fund manager for Christiana Trust, which oversees about $15 billion. “Greece will probably get their bailout deal.”

Baby Boomers Blunt Fed Easing While Saving for Retirement (Bloomberg)
“Spending decisions of the older age cohorts are less likely to be easily stimulated by monetary policy,” William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in a recent speech, helping to explain why the economic recovery has been weaker than expected. People usually save more as they near retirement. Now, the effect is magnified because Americans’ wealth has been depleted by the financial crisis, which decimated home values and retirement accounts invested in stocks, according to Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group Ltd., a Summerville, S.C.-based consumer-behavior research company.

China’s Financial Reformers Adapt Party Rhetoric in Low-key Pitch (Reuters)
Reform-minded members of China’s Communist Party hierarchy this week argued for far-reaching changes to the country’s financial system to help fix broader social problems, such as a divisive gap between rich and poor, and ruin of the environment. Buried in their carefully worded statements, reformers made veiled calls for further liberalization of interest rates, which could increase private businesses access to capital, as well as increase interest income for China’s vast population of savings account holders.