From Tom Petruno's Money & Company blog in the Los Angeles Times:

The wonks at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development see the global recession at an end.

The American public still believes the U.S. is in recession. Even so, people are less worried about the economy than they were in the spring, a new CNN poll shows.

Financial crisis or the Great Recession, if you still remember them, seems so far away… we are now in the best six-month stock market rally since 1933. The bulls have been running riot in the stock market, seemingly unassailable and making money effortlessly, while the bears are licking their wounds.

Today President Obama is expected to reappoint Fed Chairman Bernanke to another term. This news did not come as surprise to the markets especially after Bernanke’s upbeat speech late last week regarding the economic recovery in the U.S. Traders also figured that he would stay on board especially since there is still a long road to recovery before the Fed begins to raise interest rates.

Hong Kong on Friday raised its annual economic forecast after unexpectedly strong second-quarter growth ended a year of contraction.