Coming Up On Wall Street

Good morning. It is 39 degrees and cloudy here in Upstate NY. The snow piles are looking dirty as cars wash up melted brown water. The layers of the snow are pealing back but the snow coverage is very dense. It has been a very strong winter. The local paper summed it up well with "we are losing our sense of humor."

The DOW is at 12,168 and that is the salient point. Last week investors freaked out about oil in Libya, inflationary oil prices, oil, and oil. Mixed in with oil was data that continues to show that our fledgling economy is learning how to crawl.

It was strange because on the days when all the pre-market ducks seemed fine, the market would tank, and when the pre-market data seemed iffy, the market would lift. There's no sense to it I tell ya. Its all about emotion and momentum.

Right now a reasonable guess would be that the upcoming week will be a repeat of the last in terms of fluctuations and emotional unpredictability.

Reuters: Stocks hit oil slick but economy to trump

Sentiment is driving large daily swings as traders vacillate between the fear oil prices will hit consumers and derail the recovery and the euphoria that the U.S. labor market is turning a corner.


"On balance we do not think that this oil price supply shock is going to be strong enough to offset the economic momentum..."