The U.S. stock and bond market may be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Day, but the rest of the world was alive and well. President Obama is being inaugurated. If you use the popular vote from the election, 51% of the nation is pleased and the rest are not. The WSJ has a Live Blog of the events. The NFL Championships have been played and The Baltimore Ravens will be playing the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Feb. 3 in Super Bowl 47. The World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday and many of the world’s corporate leaders, economic and government ministers and power brokers will be there. If you see anyone still wearing a yellow rubber/plastic exercise bracelet, they somehow have not seen the news about Lance Armstrong lately. The WSJ gave a surprising fact check on the move toward gun control.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is still under the buyout chase. We predicted that the top price might be around $15 max, and now Barron’s said over the weekend that the rumored price might be closer to $14 and that some think the company is being stolen.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) faces a wider probe into the problems around the 787 Dreamliner grounding and the probe has so far moved beyond the batteries.

Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) has recovered handily and investors will come into the markets on Tuesday seeing that it is reportedly exploring license deals for its Blackberry 10 as part of its strategic review. This stock was up close to 8% in mid-day trading on Monday in Toronto and that is after big gains on Friday. Shares are now going to be very close to 52-week highs.

As far as broader stock market performances around the globe, European shares were moving back towards two-year highs on hopes of budget and debt ceiling talks in America and based upon aggressive Bank of Japan measures to stimulate what has been a dead economy for two decades. At 10:30 a.m. EST the world exchanges were as follows:

• Nikkei 225 in Japan was at 10,747.74, down 165.56 or -1.52%
• The Shanghai Composite in China was at 2,328.22, up by 11.15 or by 0.48%
• The HANG SENG in Hong Kong was at 23,590.91, down by 10.87 or by -0.05%
• The FTSE 100 in London was at 6,179.86, up 47.50 or 0.77%
• The CAC 40 in Paris was at 3,761.44, up 19.86 or 0.53%
• The DAX in Frankfurt was at 7,744.63, up 42.40 or 0.55%
• Brazil’s Bovespa was at 61,952.76, up 3.38 or 0.01%

Bad news for the gold bugs and the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEMKT: GLD) … Citigroup analysts are cutting expectations for their gold forecasts by 4% in 2013 to $1,675/oz and by 0.2% to $1,653/oz in 2014.

If you want a preview for each of the major earnings on deck this coming week, that can be found here.

Enjoy your day off!

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