The Market On Monday

At 7:45 a.m. futures are moderately down.

Investors are anxious to hear what comes out of the Fed meeting this week. In particular the concern is about interest rates and if they will remain at practically zero.

World stocks are down, and the price of oil per barrel is down.

I was reading an article about how scientists are now able to make mice with spinal cord injuries walk again. They use a combination of specialized drugs and electrical stimulation below the point of injury. Here, the method of walking is called "stepping." It mimics ordinary walking but is not the full weight fluid movement that anyone free of injury enjoys. Still, for someone who is paralyzed it would be a godsend. source

In a similar way, the economy and the markets are not moving fluidly at this point.

Reuters: World stocks, oil fall as G20, Fed loom

While any signal that the Fed might start unwinding its loose monetary policy shows the central bank is acknowledging the recovery, it could be negative for risky assets as it could fan speculation of an interest rate hike.

The Fed has pledged to buy up to $1.45 trillion of mortgage-backed securities and debt issued by government sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by end-2009.

Concerns about weak fuel demand pushed U.S. crude oil down 2.4 percent to $70.25 a barrel after Asia's No.1 refiner Sinopec said that diesel China continued to lag economic recovery with fuel sales so far this year still below the rates seen a year ago.

Reuters: Stock futures cut losses on proposed Dell deal

Dow Jones industrial average futures were off 39 points...