The Market On Thursday

  Good morning. It is negative 3 degrees and partly clearing here in Upstate NY. January is the heart of winter in the Northeast and so far the month is living up to its reputation. One tiny thing we can take away from these bitter cold days is that now the Sun is slowly rising in the sky as the days get longer and longer little by little. In my experience by the time we get to February the increasing light is noticeable. Let's keep the kids from Sandy Hook elementary school in our thoughts today as they return to a neighboring school. Let's hope every single one of those kids has great resilience and bounces right back into being the happy cool little kids they are.

  At 7:45 a.m. futures are slightly lower and the price of oil is down per barrel. The market is poised to sputter open.

  Allegedly investors now recognize that the fiscal cliff deal has some very short term components and that within two months the President and the derelict Tea Party Congress will start wrangling once again. This GOP Congress is unconscionable. The country will remain in a state of misery and negativity while they remain in power. Hopefully in 2014 more Tea Party types can lose their undeserved seats in Congress and put that miserable wing of the GOP out of business for good.

CNN: Stocks awake to fiscal cliff hangover

... the government's closely watched monthly jobs report, due Friday morning.