The Market On Friday

  Good morning and welcome to the weekend. It is 24 degrees and cloudy here in Upstate NY. Well, another week has flown by. It seems like the focus of our attention in the news world continues to be the fiscal cliff. We've got all kinds of speculation on which GOP face will present itself at the bargaining table. Allegedly the president is in a win win situation from the point of view of the American public's view of it all. Stay tuned, we've got about 5 weeks more at least to go.

  At 8:20 a.m. futures are modestly up, the dollar is mostly down against major world currencies, and the price of oil is ever so slightly higher. The market is poised to open slightly higher.

  We already know about the fiscal cliff but what seems more relevant than ever is how the politics of our nation effects Wall Street's decision on something as important to our economy as the valuation of stocks. Isn't this what we are getting? The fiscal cliff discussion process continues and we are seeing Wall Street react with optimism or pessimism to the events we hear on the news about it.

 CNN: Stocks may get fiscal cliff boost

...reports are due on personal income and spending for October...

...the pace of economic growth in India slowed during the latest quarter. The country's GDP, the broadest measure of a nation's economic health, grew at a rate of 5.3%.