The Market On Tuesday

Good morning. It is a very magical late November day here in Upstate NY. The sky is gray, the landscape is naked with leaf-free trees, and the long johns are starting to chafe. I am all about fleece lined pants vis a vis LL Bean, or as one friend calls them, my fancy jeans.

How about those Wikileak cables. They seem humorous in a dark political ugly kind of way. Its like a bunch of middle schoolers sending nasty notes to each other over who is the prettiest girl. The meme is accepted fully, politicians are morons the world over. How about the King of Saudi Arabia wanting the US to blow up Iran. So much for the Muslim brotherhood...

At 8:20 a.m. futures are modestly down, the dollar is mixed, and oil is down.

The investment journalists are making investors sound like a worried Grandma and Grandpa, frittering over a huge pile of what ifs.

What if Europe falls apart into separate countries not linked to the euro and the euro collapses. Fritter, fritter. What if North and South Korea go to war.

Allegedly the frittering stays in the background today as investors will look at data on how the economy is performing. In my mild opinion, it is the numbers on consumer confidence that will be of high importance. We, you ingrate, are the engine that drives the economy.

Buy, buy.

CNN: Stocks set to pull back at the start

...reports due on the housing market, manufacturing activity and consumer confidence.


...Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who is scheduled to speak (today)...


Oil for January delivery fell 56 cents to $85.17 a barrel.