The Market On Monday

  Good morning. It is a warm 46 degrees and slightly clearing from thick gray overcast clouds here in Upstate NY. I hope you had a really good weekend with lots of rest and ease. If you have not seen or read this article from NPR - Cornstalks Everywhere But Nothing Else, Not Even A Bee - which I posted yesterday, please give it a look over. It tells how modern agribusiness corn farming removes pretty much all life from the soil except the corn stock. This is not a good thing.

  At 8:00 a.m. futures are modestly higher, the price of oil is up per barrel, and the dollar is down against major world currencies. The market is poised to open higher.

  As we are learning, the fiscal cliff is not really the tragic end of the world as we know it. It is more of a concocted line in the sand which is probably better tackled by the future seated Congress in January, not the present Congress. The future Congress will have 8 more Democrats and a few less Tea Party GOTP types hell bent on a regressive agenda. Regardless, this is a good fiscal cliff day, at least so far this morning, consequently the market may open with an upward boost.

CNN: Stocks: Still stuck in fiscal cliff rut

... the focus remains squarely on the fiscal cliff negotiations in Washington.

...(reports on) construction spending and manufacturing, as well as on November auto sales.

Fresh positive data on China's manufacturing sector gave Asian markets an early boost.