The Market On Thursday

Good morning and welcome to March. It is 32 degrees and lightly snowing here in Upstate NY. We finally got some snow up here. It's heavy snow because the temperatures have been above freezing. The snowball making, snowman making index is on high. In some places it's verging on being that wet sloppy snow on the curb mix. Everyone seems to be a little bit bummed because for a while we thought we could avoid the snow altogether. People became afraid to talk about the snow out of fear of jinxing the whole complex, somebody must of said something. Who was it, who jinxed us...

At 8:16 a.m. futures are modestly higher, the dollar is mostly down against major world currencies, and the price of oil per barrel is slightly up in price. Right now the market is poised to open higher but if the first time unemployment numbers come through and look poor, things could change. In fact they are expecting the numbers to be good.

Investors are pleased with the present economic indicators, I mean how else can you explain the lofty index numbers.

One of today's wild cards will be Bernanke's words as he speaks in Washington about the state of the economy. Yesterday he indicated that all is not quite so rosy and the market fell. When Bernanke speaks, his words have immense power over Wall Street. Someday we need to thoroughly examine the institution of the Fed. Good band name - Institution Of The Fed.

In addition I am beginning to see more articles suggesting another recession in the next 6 months. The trickle is not stopping. So enjoy the lofty index numbers while they are presently occurring. That fluffiness is temporary.

CNN: Investors optimistic ahead of economic data

...Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's second day on Capitol Hill...


...the Fed will continue to offer monetary support to the market...


...China's economy is improving.


...gas prices climbed for the 23rd straight day...


The ISM manufacturing index...