The Market On Tuesday

Good morning. It is 68 degrees and overcast here in Upstate NY. It was a great extended weekend with lots of fun interaction with family and friends. The food was good, the weather was delicious as well, and we got a lot accomplished. The day after Labor Day is pivotal in that now we are officially into the Fall mode with school back, the political race on the high burner, Wall Street back to full bore functioning, and as we mentally shift towards thinking a little bit about the Fall and "beyond." The outdoor projects have to get in shape. Is it just me or is this period full of human buzz with maybe a pinch or two or three of anxiety? Nah, it's just my imagination...

At 8:10 a.m. futures are ever so slightly lower, the price of oil is up per barrel, and the dollar is up against major world currencies. I will offer a guess that the market opens in a mixed position with some equities down, some flat, and some up a little bit. Actually it's almost always like that except the proportions change from day to day.

Investors will be looking at data from the US on manufacturing and construction, while keeping an eye on the eurozone, and keeping an eye on contracting manufacturing in China. I would suspect people do not want a full global contraction to occur just yet and there seems to be some activity going on to help modify this possibility. Let's recall that some are predicting another contraction/recession in the coming year or so. On the other hand somebody is always willing to predict problems. The invest world runs in cycles so eventually we will indeed have another official recession. It is inevitable.

CNN: Stocks: Choppy trading ahead

A smattering of reports, including manufacturing numbers, construction spending and auto sales, are due out later in the morning.

Moody's revised its outlook on the EU to "negative" from "stable."

Asian markets ended lower on weak manufacturing data.