This past week the Russell 2000 (INDEXRUSSELL:RUT) reached a new record high and the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) made new multi-year highs as housing and employment data was better. US financial earnings were led by investment banks Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) beating EPS estimates by a wide margin on the back of reduced headcount and compensation. Next Monday US markets will be closed for Martin Luther King Day. However global markets will be open. For the rest of the week earnings data will have a bigger effect on the market's direction than economic data. There will be ...