The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is 28 degrees and snowing here in Upstate NY. We woke up to a lot of snow on the ground, in short we got clobbered. Last night I was out cross country skiing on the streets and it was great fun. I had a blast. When you get snow you either have to endure it or have fun with it. I will probably do both this winter but right now it's fun. on the other hand, we just shoveled the damn driveway, that's the enduring part. One of these years a snow blower is coming except I keep thinking any minute now I will be living on some tropical island in the Caribbean. Wishful thinking, maybe, maybe not.

  At 8 a.m. futures are flat and the price of oil is flat. The market is poised to open flat.

  Fundamentally who the hell knows what is going on in the market right now. The fiscal cliff is approaching and it appears to be nothing more than a Trojan Horse, at least that is what I read. It's a phony, a boogie man of smoke and mirrors designed to scare the children. Otherwise, lots of reports will be parsed today on labor, housing, employment, and my favorite all time metric - consumer confidence. We may not be confident but we are consumer confident.

CNN: Stocks becalmed on fiscal cliff standoff

Several economic reports on labor and housing markets, consumer confidence and manufacturing are due throughout the morning.