Reuters: Five Global Investment Themes for This Week

Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week:

1. Peripheral euro zone issuers remain vulnerable to a further sell-off as Ireland keeps financial markets guessing over whether and when it will seal an aid deal with the European Union and IMF. While some sort of assistance is widely expected, the crisis is unlikely to be over. Fellow weakling Portugal is already bearing the brunt of fallout from Ireland's problems and its borrowing costs have jumped in recent weeks with some bond market vigilantes seeing it as the euro zone's next weakest link.

Among pointers to the next phase of the crisis, Ireland holds a by-election, which some of Dublin's critics partly blame for its game of brinkmanship with the European Union, on Thursday, November 25, and the Portuguese government is scheduled to pass the 2011 budget the following day.

2. The latest euro zone sovereign debt crisis, triggered by Ireland's shaky banking sector, is threatening to halt the normalization in euro zone money markets where banks have been weaning themselves off the European Central Bank's support measures. (more)