The Market On Wednesday

  Good morning. It is 43 degrees and damp here in Upstate NY. It's nice to go outside without having to wear ten extra layers of clothing. The forecast predicts that the temperature will go into the 50s later today and that would represent a 55 degree swing in temperatures in the last week. I think the latter is probably more like what we will experience in the winter from here on out, wide temperature swings and unseasonably warm periods as well.

  At 7:50 a.m. futures are flat and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open slightly higher.

  Besides the rain of fourth quarter corporate reports, investors will be looking through all sorts of data on the economy. The primary piece in my opinion is the government's release of its first estimate of the fourth quarter GDP. That usually a big deal as we know. Otherwise notice that the DOW is perched right on the edge of 14,000 and that is a remarkable number. I guess our socialist/communist president has failed in his effort to bring down capitalism, it literally makes me laugh out loud when I hear this sort of nonsense form FOX and Limbaugh.

CNN: Stocks: Data flood, Fed to set tone

The government will release its first estimate of fourth-quarter GDP.

...the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee will release a statement upon the conclusion of its latest meeting...