The Market On Wednesday

Good morning. I am running late again today. We were out shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling. We have a lot of snow, a lot of snow. Wow. I also completed my walk this morning. It was like hiking because the roads were not plowed yet. At least we're into February, the Sun is coming back.

At 8:45 a.m. futures are flat, the dollar is mixed, and oil is slightly down.

Investors are less worried about Egypt. It has to do with oil flowing through the Suez Canal, not anything about revolution or humanity, come on now. As long as the oil flow is uninterrupted, everything is cool, revolt all you want.

Investors are awaiting Friday's big enchilada jobs report. Preliminary reports indicate that a few more jobs were added in January. It is not anything like the type of numbers that are needed to bring the unemployment rate down to a reasonable level.

CNN: Stocks poised for flat open

...Wall Street is more focused on the U.S. labor market right now.


The U.S. Labor Department is expected to report a 148,000 job increase in January, compared to 113,000 the prior month. Unemployment is expected to have notched up to 9.5% in January, compared to 9.4% the prior month.


Oil for March delivery was practically unchanged, slipping 9 cents to $90.68 a barrel.