The key development stemming from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Summit? Arguably, it's the four's pledge to study ways to execute trade transactions in their local currencies, instead of the dollar.

The summit in Brazil's capital of Brazilia represented a gathering of nations likely to account for 60% of global GDP growth through 2014, Bloomberg News reported. It was the second annual gathering of the four BRIC nations.

The amount of money sitting in sovereign wealth funds grew in 2009. As financial markets around the world recovered from the severity of the financial crisis that struck in September 2008, the coffers of these unique financial entities swelled to $3.51 trillion, according to the latest research from the alternative investment analysts at Preqin.

Nonetheless, some funds did experience withdrawals by their respective governments. In some cases, governments used sovereign wealth fund assets to close budgetary gaps.

Devan Kaloo, of Aberdeen Asset Management foresees a 15% drop for stocks of developing countries. His fund is investing in the developing countries of Mexico, India and Turkey. He is neutral on Brazil and underweight on Russia.

He is holding fewer Chinese stocks because he feels that stock valuations in China are overdone. The $586 billion stimulus package is due to run out this year. The helped the Shanghai Composite Index to rise 80% last year. This year to date the index is down 6.4%.

"I expect Vimpel-Communications (VIP) -- Russia's major mobile phone operator -- to perform strongly over the next couple of months," says international expert Nicholas Vardy.

In his Global Bull Market Alert, the advisor explains, "VimpelCom's fundamentals are strong and improving." Here's his bullish outlook on the shares.

"The company increased its mobile subscribers by 1.7 million between the second and third quarters, bringing its total number of subscribers to 65.4 million. That's 13% more than last year.

The timing couldn't have been worse. Just as a U.S. envoy arrived in North Korea to meet with the reclusive regime's officials, protests and violence are reported to have erupted. The country is reacting to a new currency issue that is being used to seize most of the citizens' money and savings.

On November 30, 2009, the regime announced that it would issue new currency and cap the amount that could be exchanged at the equivalent of $40. This effectively rendered the money held privately worthless.

Daniel Frishberg -- a former Wall Street insider and the current host of BizRadio -- offers an intriguing glimpse behind the scenes of the gold market.

In his The Moneyman.com Gold & Oil Report, he questions the role of not just overall market fundamentals, but short positions held by institutions. He also looks to a new long positions in silver.

Frishberg explains, "There are plenty of reasons to be bullish on the future of gold prices, including a weak US dollar. Further, India's Central Bank recently announced their purchase of gold from the IMF. Russian and Chinese Central Bankers have also expressed an interest in purchasing the remaining IMF gold.

The rest of the world is going to help U.S. consumer product manufacturers next year. Look for international growth to push the likes of Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Avon (AVP) and Clorox (CLX) higher in 2010, according to Fitch Ratings. In an interview with Reuters, a director gave the Fitch's outlook for consumer goods.

The household and personal care segments increased revenue every year from 2003 to 2008. So, 2009 was but a bump in the road. Even in a recession, you need toilet paper and shampoo, so expect the spending to come back.

For McDonald's (MCD), 32,000 restaurants in 100 countries isn't enough. The quick service restaurant announced in a meeting with Wall Street analysts that it will open 1,000 new restaurants next year. Most will be in the United States, China, Australia, Russia, Germany and France. Don't expect to see any in Iceland, though, as the company is closing its three restaurants there and has no plans to return in the near future.

The company is also looking to rehabilitate the interiors and exteriors of another 2,300 locations in 2010 – approximately half of them in Europe. In all, this should cost around $2.4 billion. For 2009, McDonald's expects its capital expenditures to reach $2.1 billion on 900 new restaurant openings. The chain is increasing its rate of new restaurant openings by more than 10% from 2009 to 2010.

Slowly, developing countries are shifting their reserves away from the dollar into the euro and yen. Neil Mellor, strategist at Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE: BK), which has some $20 trillion dollars in assets under custody said: "I don't think there will be an imminent move, but it is quite clear there's a plan to shift reserves to a more balanced portfolio."

Barclays Capital Research reported that central banks placed 63% of new cash in non US currencies between April and July.

What happens when a bank has to accept the collateral posted for loans? Well, in Russia, it's like the punchline to a bad Yakov Smirnoff joke. "In Russia, when a bank takes collateral, it has to set up a pigpen!"

Well, this is exactly what happened to Alexander Lebedev's OAO National Reserve Bank. It wound up with 40,450 of them. As Russian banks are coping with the financial crisis, they are finding themselves with a variety of hard goods that they never expected to receive.